VacationSelector
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cannes or San Sebastian?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Cannes for

  • shopping
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Cannes’s own page.

Choose San Sebastian for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Cannes 80, San Sebastian 68: Cannes leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Cannes 55, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Cannes 38, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Cannes 42, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cannes and San Sebastian are level on 72.
Day trips. Cannes 86, San Sebastian 80: Cannes leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Cannes 56, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cannes 68, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Cannes 60, San Sebastian 40: Cannes leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cannes 22, San Sebastian 32: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cannes 38, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cannes 42, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cannes and San Sebastian.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Cannes
55match

Wins on shopping and beaches with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CannesSan Sebastian

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCannesSan Sebastian
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m6 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCannesSan Sebastian
City population74,350189,866
People per km²3,7933,118
Museums within 10 km1614
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cannes or San Sebastian somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.