VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

San Sebastian or Seoul?

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 San Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Seoul for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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. San Sebastian 68, Seoul 18: San Sebastian leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Seoul 84: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 3 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Seoul 77: San Sebastian leads by 3 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 14 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 45 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Seoul 50: Seoul leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 25 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Seoul.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
60match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianSeoul

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. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianSeoul
Official languageSpanishKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Won (KRW)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation6 m38 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianSeoul
City population189,8669,668,465
People per km²3,11815,973
Museums within 10 km1481
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian or Seoul 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.