San Francisco or San Sebastian?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on places to eat and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. San Francisco leads by 5 points.5
| San Francisco | San Sebastian | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 55 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 2 |
| Beaches 10 km | 44 | 10 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. San Francisco leads by 28 points.28
| San Francisco | San Sebastian | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 | 55 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,359 | 472 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 39 | 26 |
Museums & heritage. San Francisco leads by 5 points.5
| San Francisco | San Sebastian | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 39 |
| Museums within 10 km | 57 | 17 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 29 | 7 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 51 | 41 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 3 |
Nightlife. San Francisco leads by 28 points.28
| San Francisco | San Sebastian | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 40 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,434 | 388 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 928 | 338 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 87 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 97 | 12 |
Nature & day trips. San Francisco leads by 4 points.4
| San Francisco | San Sebastian | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 56 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 17 | 11 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 4 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 57 | 52 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 70 hectares |
Good for families. San Francisco leads by 27 points.27
| San Francisco | San Sebastian | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 30 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 48 | 5 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 70 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. San Francisco leads by 9 points.9
| San Francisco | San Sebastian | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 54 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 147 | 89 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. San Sebastian leads by 28 points.28
| San Francisco | San Sebastian | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 71 |
| Price level global | 100 | 60.8 |
| Daily budget | — | €122 |
Year-round weather. San Francisco leads by 20 points.20
| San Francisco | San Sebastian | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 58 |
| Monthly daytime high | 14 °C to 23.2 °C | 11.2 °C to 22.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 0 mm to 105 mm | 92 mm to 203 mm |
| Dry months | 7 | 0 |
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.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | San Francisco | San Sebastian |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 11 h 15 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 1 h 30 m €129-164 BIQ · 40 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 11 h 25 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 2 h 0 m no fares BIO · 75 km |
| MunichMUC | 11 h 45 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 2 h 10 m €203-242 1 stop BIO · 75 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 11 h 0 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 2 h 0 m €196-210 1 stop BIO · 75 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 10 h 50 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 1 h 45 m €126-289 1 stop BIQ · 40 km |
| MadridMAD | 11 h 40 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 1 h 5 m €76-169 EAS · 16 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 11 h 55 m €653-1326 1 stop SFO · 18 km | 1 h 10 m no fares EAS · 16 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 5 h 35 m €286-328 1 stop SFO · 18 km | 7 h 20 m no fares BIO · 75 km |
| LisbonLIS | 11 h 25 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 1 h 30 m €129-223 1 stop BIO · 75 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 13 h 20 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 3 h 45 m €192-214 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
| Measure | San Francisco | San Sebastian |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | – | Spanish |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | 16 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | San Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations | San Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | San Francisco | San Sebastian |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 873,965 | 189,866 |
| People per km² | 1,455 | 3,118 |
| Museums within 10 km | 50 | 14 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 108 | 45 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 2 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco or San Sebastian somewhere new.