VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

San Sebastian or Venice?

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

  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Venice for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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, Venice 56: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Venice 60: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Venice 94: Venice leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Venice 27: San Sebastian leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Venice 45: San Sebastian leads by 27 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Venice 86: Venice leads by 6 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Venice 45: San Sebastian leads by 21 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Venice 68: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Venice 57: Venice leads by 17 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Venice 20: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Venice 62: Venice leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Venice 40: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Venice.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on food and drink and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Venice
55match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianVenice

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.

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianVenice
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m2 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianVenice
City population189,866250,369
People per km²3,118602
Museums within 10 km1452
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
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 Venice 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.