VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Sebastian or Steamboat Springs?

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

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: San Sebastian leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Steamboat Springs 30: San Sebastian leads by 58 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Steamboat Springs 14: San Sebastian leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Steamboat Springs 20: San Sebastian leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 16 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Steamboat Springs 12: San Sebastian leads by 68 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Steamboat Springs 62: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Steamboat Springs 46: San Sebastian leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Steamboat Springs 22: San Sebastian leads by 18 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Steamboat Springs 17: San Sebastian leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Steamboat Springs 28: San Sebastian leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianSteamboat Springs

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.

Steamboat Springs 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianSteamboat Springs
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation6 m2,052 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianSteamboat Springs
City population189,86613,224
People per km²3,118503
Museums within 10 km140
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.