VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Sebastian or Tokyo?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Tokyo 68: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 29 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 59 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Tokyo 48: Tokyo leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Tokyo.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
60match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianTokyo

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). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianTokyo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation6 m6 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianTokyo
City population189,86614,264,798
People per km²3,1186,501
Museums within 10 km14192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian or Tokyo 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.