VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
Mountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola, Telluride
TellurideMountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Telluride by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Sebastian or Telluride?

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 Telluride for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Telluride’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, Telluride 5: San Sebastian leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Telluride 38: San Sebastian leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Telluride 20: San Sebastian leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Telluride 20: San Sebastian leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Telluride 93: Telluride leads by 21 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Telluride 30: San Sebastian leads by 50 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Telluride 45: San Sebastian leads by 21 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Telluride 66: San Sebastian leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Telluride 25: San Sebastian leads by 15 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Telluride 7: San Sebastian leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Telluride 35: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Telluride 45: San Sebastian leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Telluride.

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.

Telluride
36match

Wins on 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

Telluride in July

23 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianTelluride

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.

Telluride 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). Telluride: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Telluride / Lime (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianTelluride
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 m2,667 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsMontrose Regional Airport (MTJ)64 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianTelluride
City population189,8662,607
People per km²3,1181,372
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 Telluride 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.