VacationSelector

Doha or San Sebastian?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
Doha

Photo: Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San Sebastian

Photo: Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped

Your match

Doha
38
match

Wins on shopping and prices with your weighting.

San Sebastian
✓ Best match
60
match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

DohaSan Sebastian
Beaches & swimming. San Sebastian leads by 23 points.23
Food & drink. San Sebastian leads by 33 points.33
Culture & sights. Doha leads by 3 points.3
Nightlife. San Sebastian leads by 24 points.24
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian leads by 65 points.65
Day trips. San Sebastian leads by 75 points.75
Good for families. San Sebastian leads by 6 points.6
Getting around. San Sebastian leads by 35 points.35
Shopping & style. Doha leads by 20 points.20
Affordability. Doha leads by 6 points.6
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian leads by 15 points.15
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian leads by 12 points.12
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Doha and San Sebastian.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyDohaSan Sebastian
Daytime high43 °C22 °C
Night-time low33 °C16 °C
Rainfall in the month0 mm92 mm
SunshineNo figure7 hours a day
Sea temperature33 °C21 °C
Daylight14 hours a day15 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Doha
23
24
29
33
40
43
43
42
39
36
30
25
San Sebastian
11
12
14
15
18
20
22
23
21
19
14
12
Sea temperature, °C
Doha
20
19
21
24
28
30
33
34
33
31
27
23
San Sebastian
13
12
13
14
16
19
21
22
21
18
16
14
Rainfall, mm
Doha
11
11
19
4
2
0
0
0
0
1
7
19
San Sebastian
151
125
119
126
122
96
92
109
117
155
203
153
Daylight, hours per day
Doha
11
11
12
13
13
14
14
13
12
12
11
11
San Sebastian
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Doha
No sunshine record
San Sebastian
3
4
5
5
7
6
7
6
6
5
3
3

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. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromDohaSan Sebastian
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
6 h 30 m
no fares
DOH · 8 km
1 h 30 m
€129-164
BIQ · 40 km
AmsterdamAMS
6 h 30 m
no fares
DOH · 8 km
2 h 0 m
€196-210
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
MunichMUC
5 h 45 m
no fares
DOH · 8 km
2 h 10 m
€203-242
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
6 h 5 m
no fares
DOH · 8 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
6 h 50 m
no fares
DOH · 8 km
1 h 45 m
€126-289
1 stop
BIQ · 40 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
3 h 55 m
€321-368
DOH · 8 km
3 h 45 m
€192-214
BIO · 75 km
MadridMAD
6 h 55 m
no fares
DOH · 8 km
1 h 5 m
€76-169
EAS · 16 km
BarcelonaBCN
6 h 25 m
no fares
DOH · 8 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
EAS · 16 km
MarrakechRAK
7 h 30 m
no fares
DOH · 8 km
2 h 15 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
13 h 20 m
no fares
DOH · 8 km
7 h 20 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureDohaSan Sebastian
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyQatari Rial (QAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number999112
Elevation0 m6 m
Main airportHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre195 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDohaSan Sebastian
City population1,186,023189,866
People per km²8,9853,118
Museums within 10 km614
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Doha 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.