VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

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

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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. Ghent 25, San Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, San Sebastian 52: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, San Sebastian 44: Ghent leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, San Sebastian 72: San Sebastian leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, San Sebastian 80: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, San Sebastian 40: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, San Sebastian 32: Ghent leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, San Sebastian 45: Ghent leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Ghent
54match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GhentSan Sebastian

Where the figures come from

Ghent has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentSan Sebastian
Official languageFrench, German, DutchSpanish
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
Elevation12 m6 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentSan Sebastian
City population272,657189,866
People per km²1,7283,118
Museums within 10 km3014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km53
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone2 months

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.