VacationSelector

Macau 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.

The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
Macau

Photo: tian Jin, Pexels License

La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San Sebastian

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

Your match

Macau
46
match

Wins on shopping and prices with your weighting.

San Sebastian
✓ Best match
60
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches 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.

MacauSan Sebastian
Beaches & swimming. San Sebastian leads by 44 points.44
Food & drink. San Sebastian leads by 11 points.11
Culture & sights. Macau leads by 10 points.10
Nightlife. San Sebastian leads by 4 points.4
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian leads by 67 points.67
Day trips. San Sebastian leads by 28 points.28
Good for families. San Sebastian leads by 18 points.18
Getting around. San Sebastian leads by 20 points.20
Shopping & style. Macau leads by 18 points.18
Affordability. Macau leads by 12 points.12
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian leads by 9 points.9
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian leads by 10 points.10
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau 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
JulyMacauSan Sebastian
Daytime high32 °C22 °C
Night-time low26 °C16 °C
Rainfall in the month281 mm92 mm
Sunshine7 hours a day7 hours a day
Sea temperature29 °C21 °C
Daylight13 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
Macau
19
19
22
25
29
31
32
32
31
29
25
20
San Sebastian
11
12
14
15
18
20
22
23
21
19
14
12
Sea temperature, °C
Macau
19
19
20
23
26
28
29
29
28
27
24
21
San Sebastian
13
12
13
14
16
19
21
22
21
18
16
14
Rainfall, mm
Macau
34
42
78
160
285
369
281
338
233
71
38
32
San Sebastian
151
125
119
126
122
96
92
109
117
155
203
153
Daylight, hours per day
Macau
11
11
12
13
13
14
13
13
12
12
11
11
San Sebastian
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Macau
4
3
3
3
4
5
7
6
6
6
5
5
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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromMacauSan Sebastian
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
11 h 55 m
€586-713
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
1 h 30 m
€129-164
BIQ · 40 km
AmsterdamAMS
11 h 35 m
€637
HKG · 41 km
2 h 0 m
€196-210
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
MunichMUC
11 h 15 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
2 h 10 m
€203-242
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
11 h 25 m
€630-670
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
MadridMAD
13 h 0 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
1 h 5 m
€76-169
EAS · 16 km
BarcelonaBCN
12 h 30 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
EAS · 16 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
12 h 0 m
€570-666
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
1 h 45 m
€126-289
1 stop
BIQ · 40 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
10 h 5 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
3 h 45 m
€192-214
BIO · 75 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
11 h 40 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
1 h 50 m
€79-101
BIO · 75 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
15 h 55 m
no fares
HKG · 41 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 2026-09 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

MeasureMacauSan Sebastian
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard ChineseSpanish
CurrencyPataca (MOP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number999112
Elevation22 m6 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauSan Sebastian
City population682,100189,866
People per km²5,9163,118
Museums within 10 km2814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau 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.