VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
Castle Square and the Royal Castle, Warsaw
WarsawCastle Square and the Royal Castle

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Warsaw by Raymond Petrik, Pexels License.

San Sebastian or Warsaw?

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 Warsaw for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Warsaw’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, Warsaw 12: San Sebastian leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Warsaw 60: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Warsaw 70: Warsaw leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Warsaw 66: Warsaw leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Warsaw 47: San Sebastian leads by 25 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Warsaw 52: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Warsaw 62: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Warsaw 72: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Warsaw 55: Warsaw leads by 15 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Warsaw 64: Warsaw leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Warsaw 63: Warsaw leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Warsaw 35: San Sebastian leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Warsaw.

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.

Warsaw
55match

Wins on prices 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

Warsaw in July

25 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianWarsaw

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). Warsaw: 1991-2020 normals, Warszawa-Okecie (7.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianWarsaw
Official languageSpanishPolish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m118 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsWarsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)8 km from centre172 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianWarsaw
City population189,8661,862,402
People per km²3,1183,601
Museums within 10 km14117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Warsaw 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.