VacationSelector
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ocean City, Maryland 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 Ocean City, Maryland for

  • families
  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’s own page.

Choose San Sebastian for

  • food and drink
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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. Ocean City, Maryland 78, San Sebastian 68: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Ocean City, Maryland 40, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Ocean City, Maryland 14, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Ocean City, Maryland 45, San Sebastian 44: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocean City, Maryland 50, San Sebastian 72: San Sebastian leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Ocean City, Maryland 42, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Ocean City, Maryland 78, San Sebastian 66: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Ocean City, Maryland 34, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Ocean City, Maryland 24, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Ocean City, Maryland 40, San Sebastian 32: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocean City, Maryland 18, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocean City, Maryland 22, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocean City, Maryland and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Ocean City, Maryland
40match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on food and drink and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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
Ocean City, MarylandSan Sebastian

Where the figures come from

Ocean City, Maryland 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.

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. Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcean City, MarylandSan Sebastian
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2 m6 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcean City, MarylandSan Sebastian
City population6,844189,866
People per km²733,118
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ocean City, Maryland 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.