VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
The Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square, Skopje
SkopjeThe Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Skopje by George M. Groutas, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Sebastian or Skopje?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Skopje for

  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Skopje’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, Skopje 6: San Sebastian leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Skopje 52: San Sebastian leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Skopje 56: Skopje leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Skopje 42: San Sebastian leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Skopje 70: San Sebastian leads by 2 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Skopje 56: San Sebastian leads by 24 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Skopje 35: San Sebastian leads by 31 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Skopje 45: San Sebastian leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian and Skopje are level on 40.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Skopje 80: Skopje leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Skopje 38: San Sebastian leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Skopje 27: San Sebastian leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Skopje.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Skopje
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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

Skopje in July

32 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianSkopje

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.

Skopje 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.

Skopje's sunshine is measured 68 km from the centre, at Stip.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Skopje: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Skopje-Petrovec (18.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianSkopje
Official languageSpanishAlbanian, Macedonian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Denar (MKD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m251 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsSkopje International Airport (SKP)16 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianSkopje
City population189,866422,540
People per km²3,118739
Museums within 10 km1417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian or Skopje 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.