VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Sebastian or Stockholm?

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 Stockholm for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Stockholm 64: San Sebastian leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Stockholm 57: Stockholm leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian and Stockholm are level on 72.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Stockholm 68: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 30 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Stockholm 30: San Sebastian leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Stockholm 65: Stockholm leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Stockholm.

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.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

Wins on shopping 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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianStockholm

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.

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianStockholm
Official languageSpanishSwedish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m22 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianStockholm
City population189,866984,748
People per km²3,1185,260
Museums within 10 km14266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian or Stockholm 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.