VacationSelector
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
GlasgowKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Glasgow by Stinglehammer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Glasgow 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 Glasgow for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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. Glasgow 14, San Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Glasgow 52, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Glasgow 62, San Sebastian 52: Glasgow leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Glasgow 66, San Sebastian 44: Glasgow leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Glasgow 75, San Sebastian 72: Glasgow leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Glasgow 76, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Glasgow 58, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Glasgow 66, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Glasgow 64, San Sebastian 40: Glasgow leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Glasgow 46, San Sebastian 32: Glasgow leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Glasgow 72, San Sebastian 45: Glasgow leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Glasgow 28, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 22 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Glasgow
57match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Glasgow in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 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
GlasgowSan Sebastian

Where the figures come from

Glasgow 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.

Glasgow's sunshine is measured 90 km from the centre, at Eskdalemuir.

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. Glasgow: 1991-2020 normals, Glasgow Airport (11.5 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGlasgowSan Sebastian
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation21 m6 m
Main airportGlasgow Airport (GLA)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGlasgowSan Sebastian
City population626,410189,866
People per km²1903,118
Museums within 10 km2914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
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 Glasgow 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.