VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

San Sebastian or Washington DC?

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
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Washington DC for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: San Sebastian leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Washington DC 67: San Sebastian leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Washington DC 64: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Washington DC 73: San Sebastian leads by 7 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 7 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Washington DC 72: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 12 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Washington DC 28: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Washington DC 26: San Sebastian leads by 24 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Washington DC.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Washington DC
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianWashington DC
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation6 m72 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianWashington DC
City population189,866689,545
People per km²3,1183,896
Museums within 10 km1498
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian or Washington DC 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.