VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

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

Melbourne 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 Melbourne for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • 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. Melbourne 50, San Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, San Sebastian 52: Melbourne leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, San Sebastian 44: Melbourne leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, San Sebastian 72: San Sebastian leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, San Sebastian 66: Melbourne leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, San Sebastian 40: Melbourne leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, San Sebastian 32: San Sebastian leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, San Sebastian 45: Melbourne leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, San Sebastian 50: Melbourne leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

San Sebastian
60match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MelbourneSan Sebastian

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. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneSan Sebastian
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation31 m6 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneSan Sebastian
City population5,350,705189,866
People per km²5353,118
Museums within 10 km4314
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
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 Melbourne 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. 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.