VacationSelector

Madrid or San Sebastian?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Madrid
✓ Best match
66
match

Wins on good for families and nightlife with your weighting.

San Sebastian
51
match

Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.

What matters to you?

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

The verdict

Choose Madrid if you want museums, a wide choice of places to eat and long nights out, plus more to keep children occupied, and you can handle summer heat near 33°C.

Choose San Sebastian if the sea decides it: 10 beaches nearby and water reaching 22°C at the end of summer. It is a small city, quieter after dark and lighter on indoor attractions.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

MadridSan Sebastian
Beaches & swimming. San Sebastian leads by 55 points.55
MadridSan Sebastian
Score055
Swim season months02
Beaches 10 km410
Coast distance305 km0 km
Water distance—0 km
Places to eat. Madrid leads by 28 points.28
MadridSan Sebastian
Score8355
Restaurants within 2 km of centre3,508472
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km2826
Museums & heritage. Madrid leads by 36 points.36
MadridSan Sebastian
Score7539
Museums within 10 km9717
Museums within 2 km of centre597
Share of museums within 2 km %6141
Unesco sites within 50 km43
Nightlife. Madrid leads by 41 points.41
MadridSan Sebastian
Score8140
Drinking venues within 4 km2,414388
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre1,498338
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %6287
Nightclubs within 4 km34112
Nature & day trips. Madrid leads by 7 points.7
MadridSan Sebastian
Score6356
Protected land share 50 km %1911
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %10052
Park area within 2 km187 hectares70 hectares
Good for families. Madrid leads by 47 points.47
MadridSan Sebastian
Score7730
Tourist attractions within 2 km615
Park area within 2 km187 hectares70 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km31
Sights concentration. Madrid leads by 21 points.21
MadridSan Sebastian
Score7554
Notable places within 2 km28889
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Madrid and San Sebastian are level on 71.
MadridSan Sebastian
Score7171
Price level global60.860.8
Daily budget€122€122
Year-round weather. Madrid leads by 14 points.14
MadridSan Sebastian
Score7258
Monthly daytime high10 °C to 32.7 °C11.2 °C to 22.9 °C
Monthly rainfall9 mm to 64 mm92 mm to 203 mm
Dry months70
0255075100

Where they differ

Madrid has many times as many bars and clubs, most of them near the centre, and many times as many museums. For families it is the easier city: many more attractions near the centre, about three times as much park space, and 3 theme parks against 1.

San Sebastian answers with the coast: 10 beaches nearby against Madrid's 4, and two months of sea at 21°C or more, which Madrid has none of. Swimming and walking by the water are a daily option rather than a day trip.

Where they are alike

The closest match is what lies outside the centre. Both sit near protected countryside, 19% of the land around Madrid and 11% around San Sebastian, so each gives a reason to leave town for a day.

They are also alike in being compact: in both, most of what you would want to see sits within walking distance of the centre. Winters read similarly, with January highs of 10°C in Madrid and 11°C in San Sebastian.

Which traveller are you?

Travelling with children: Madrid. It has many more attractions close to the centre, about three times as much park space and 3 theme parks against 1, where San Sebastian is thin on all three.

Set on swimming: San Sebastian. It has 10 beaches nearby and sea reaching 22°C at the end of summer, while Madrid is inland with no swimming season at all.

Museums and late nights: Madrid, with many times as many museums and many times as many places to drink, most of them near the centre. San Sebastian offers less indoors on a wet day.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value comparison between these two carries no information. It is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €122 daily budget is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city. Treat the question of which costs more as unanswered.

Madrid's advantages for families and sightseeing sit in a city where summer highs reach 33°C, so the middle of the day is limited exactly when most people visit. San Sebastian's beach edge is narrow in time: the sea passes 21°C for only two months, and those months still bring rain.

When should you go?

The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure 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
Madrid
10
12
16
19
23
29
33
32
27
20
14
10
San Sebastian
11
12
14
15
18
20
22
23
21
19
14
12
Sea temperature, °C
Madrid
No coastline within reach
San Sebastian
13
12
13
14
16
19
21
22
21
18
16
14
Rainfall, mm
Madrid
32
34
35
46
49
20
9
10
24
64
53
42
San Sebastian
151
125
119
126
122
96
92
109
117
155
203
153
Daylight, hours per day
Madrid
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
San Sebastian
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Madrid
5
5
7
8
9
11
12
11
9
6
5
4
San Sebastian
3
4
5
5
7
6
7
6
6
5
3
3

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Madrid suits May and September, with highs of 23°C and 27°C and 20-49mm of rain. July and August are hot at 32-33°C but the driest stretch of the year at 9-10mm, while October is the wettest month at 64mm.

San Sebastian is at its best in July and August, with highs of 22-23°C and the sea at 21-22°C. Rain continues even then, at 92-109mm, and November is heavy at 203mm, so a coat travels with you most of the year.

Getting there

Flying fromMadridSan Sebastian
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 55 m
€95-123
MAD · 14 km
1 h 30 m
€129-164
BIQ · 40 km
PalmaPMI
1 h 20 m
€56-238
MAD · 14 km
1 h 25 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
TenerifeTFS, TFN
2 h 50 m
€109-153
MAD · 14 km
3 h 10 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
AmsterdamAMS
2 h 25 m
€175-213
MAD · 14 km
2 h 0 m
€196-210
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 10 m
€52-105
MAD · 14 km
1 h 45 m
€126-289
1 stop
BIQ · 40 km
MunichMUC
2 h 25 m
€193-236
1 stop
MAD · 14 km
2 h 10 m
€203-242
1 stop
BIO · 75 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
2 h 20 m
€121-231
1 stop
MAD · 14 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
BarcelonaBCN
1 h 15 m
€116-130
1 stop
MAD · 14 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
EAS · 16 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
7 h 25 m
€496-659
1 stop
MAD · 14 km
7 h 20 m
no fares
BIO · 75 km
MarrakechRAK
1 h 55 m
no fares
MAD · 14 km
2 h 15 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

MeasureMadridSan Sebastian
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation663 m6 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre236 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridSan Sebastian
City population3,506,730189,866
People per km²5,8013,118
Museums within 10 km8814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km43
Distinct cuisines in the centre10645
Swim season, months above 21 °C–2 months

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.