VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
Minato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock, Yokohama
YokohamaMinato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Yokohama by Yoshio Kohara, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

San Sebastian or Yokohama?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Yokohama for

  • prices
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Yokohama’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, Yokohama 46: San Sebastian leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Yokohama 72: San Sebastian leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Yokohama 55: Yokohama leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian and Yokohama are level on 44.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Yokohama 66: San Sebastian leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 6 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 20 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian 80, Yokohama 87: Yokohama leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 20 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Yokohama 55: Yokohama leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Yokohama 56: Yokohama leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Yokohama 60: Yokohama 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 Yokohama.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
60match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Yokohama
Best match
64match

Wins on prices and families 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

Yokohama in July

28 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianYokohama

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.

Yokohama's sunshine is measured 29 km from the centre, at Tokyo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Yokohama: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Yokohama (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianYokohama
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 m24 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 SebastianYokohama
City population189,8663,757,630
People per km²3,1188,585
Museums within 10 km1438
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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