Bilbao
Bilbao is the textbook case of a city rebuilt around one building: a titanium museum on a cleaned-up river, with a medieval old town of seven streets and the best pintxo bars in Spain behind it. Two nights, an umbrella, and San Sebastián an hour away.
Bilbao in a nutshell
Bilbao: what to expect
Before writing this we counted 246,000+ planned stops across Spain on Stippl.
Two nights covers Bilbao, and the first of them belongs to the Guggenheim. Frank Gehry's titanium museum on the Nervión changed the city's economy rather than just its skyline, and the rest sits within a walk of it: the Casco Viejo's Siete Calles with the pintxo bars of Plaza Nueva, the Mercado de la Ribera on the river, the Museo de Bellas Artes across the park, the Artxanda funicular for the panorama and the Vizcaya transporter bridge out at Portugalete. Most travellers give Bilbao 2 nights on Stippl.
Bilbao is planned as a short break, and as one half of a Basque pair. 42.8% of Bilbao stops planned on Stippl are a single night and 30.9% are two, with almost nothing longer, and the city is routinely done together with San Sebastián an hour and a quarter east, the museums here and the beach there.
Sleep in the Casco Viejo for atmosphere or Abando for the hotels, book the Guggenheim slot the day before, and take the airport bus in. Bilbao has no high-speed rail to Madrid yet, which is why the airport carries the arrivals. Skip Aste Nagusia in late August unless the festival is the point, since the city runs at capacity, and skip the trip if rain ends it, because this is the Atlantic coast and it rains in every month.
Plan Bilbao in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
Download the appWho Bilbao is for
Art and architecture people
The Guggenheim is the building as much as the collection, the Bellas Artes holds the Spanish masters, and the Azkuna Zentroa is Philippe Starck's wine warehouse.
Basque Country pairers
Bilbao and San Sebastián are done together, an hour and a quarter apart, with the museums here and the beach and the Michelin cluster there.
Short-break travellers
42.8% of Bilbao stops on Stippl are a single night and 30.9% are two, which is the long weekend the city is priced for.
Pintxo eaters
One pintxo and one drink per bar through Plaza Nueva and Calle Jardines, with the hot list on the board rather than the cold display on the counter.
Football travellers
Athletic Bilbao fields only Basque players, and San Mamés on a match night is a civic event rather than a sporting curiosity.
Rain-tolerant walkers
The Atlantic coast is green for a reason, and the city works in the wet: covered arcades, a market, museums and bars.
Maybe not for you: anyone who wants a beach with the city, since the coast is a metro ride out; and anyone whose trip ends when it rains, because it rains here in every month of the year.
The best time to visit Bilbao
The wet mild winter
November to March
Thirteen to 16 degrees by day, the wettest months of the year, the cheapest rooms and the Guggenheim without a queue; the txirimiri drizzle is the local word for the weather.
The best window
May to June
Warm, drier, the terraces on Plaza Nueva full and the day trips along the coast at their best, before the Spanish holiday reaches the north.
Summer
July and August
The mildest big-city summer in Spain at about 25 degrees, the counter-programme to Andalusia, with Aste Nagusia in late August filling every bed.
The second window
September and October
Still warm, the light softening on the titanium, and the harvest in the txakoli vineyards along the coast.
- Most travellers give Bilbao 2 nights on Stippl, and 42.8% of stops are a single night. One day covers the Guggenheim and the Casco Viejo; the second is for pintxos, the funicular and the transporter bridge, and a third goes to San Sebastián.
- Aste Nagusia in late August is the one crowded week. Nine days of the Big Week, with concerts, fireworks and the Marijaia effigy, and the city runs at capacity, so book months ahead or come the week after.
- The Guggenheim sells timed slots, and the day before is enough. Book it rather than queue for it, and go on a weekday morning when the titanium is in the light and the atrium is empty.
- It rains in every month. This is the Atlantic coast, the Basque Country is green because of it, and wet cobbles in the Casco Viejo are the practical hazard rather than anything worse.
- Bilbao has no high-speed rail to Madrid yet. The airport carries the arrivals, with the A3247 bus every fifteen minutes into the centre, and the Basque Y line is still being built.
- A tourist tax is coming. A Basque law allows town halls to levy one and Bilbao is expected to follow; nothing is charged today, and it will appear on the room bill when it does.
Add your Bilbao dates and we'll flag the weather
Stippl shows the season, crowds and prices for every stop on your route.
Describe your trip, get a Bilbao itinerary in seconds
Everything in this guide is already in Stippl. Tell the planner how long you have and what you like: it builds the route, the days and the travel times, and you edit whatever you want.
Things to do in Bilbao
Photo by David Vives via PexelsThe Guggenheim
Gehry's titanium building on the river, booked as a timed slot the day before rather than queued for, with Jeff Koons's Puppy at the door and Richard Serra's steel inside; the building is the exhibit.
A pintxo crawl through Plaza Nueva
One pintxo and one drink per bar around the arcaded square and along Calle Jardines, asking for the hot list on the board rather than the cold display, then a sit-down dinner.
The Artxanda funicular at sunset
Three minutes up the hill for the best panorama of the city, the museum and the river, then the walk down or the ride back.
The Mercado de la Ribera
The old town's market on the river, the largest covered market in Europe by floor area, with a pintxo hall on the ground floor for lunch.
The Vizcaya transporter bridge
A UNESCO site and a working ferry out at Portugalete, a gondola hung from a nineteenth-century iron bridge, reached by metro and worth the crossing and the walkway on top.
The Bellas Artes across the park
The Spanish masters, Basque art and a garden between it and the Guggenheim, on a much shorter queue.
The neighbourhoods of Bilbao
Casco Viejo
The seven streets
The medieval core around the Siete Calles, with Plaza Nueva, the Gothic cathedral and the Mercado de la Ribera, and the densest pintxo concentration in the city. For first visits and evenings.
The most atmospheric base and the loudest, with the bar streets populated past midnight.
Abando
The museum grid
The nineteenth-century Ensanche across the river, with Gran Vía, the Guggenheim, the Bellas Artes and the Doña Casilda park, wide and elegant. For the better hotels and the museums.
The best hotels and the museums on foot, at business-district prices and quiet nights.
Indautxu
Residential and lively
Just west of the Ensanche around the Azkuna Zentroa, loaded with bars that are not on the tourist route. For food at local prices.
Local prices and local bars a few minutes from the Guggenheim, in plain streets with no sight of their own.
Bilbao La Vieja
The regenerated quarter
South of the old town across the river: galleries, street art, multicultural kitchens and experimental bars, the edgiest part of the city. For budgets and nights out.
The cheapest beds and the least polished bar scene, and a bridge to cross to the old town.
Deusto
Across the river
By the university, quiet and green, with riverside paths, local cafés and no visitors. For a stay away from the route.
Quiet and green with nobody else in it, and a metro ride to anything worth seeing.
See every Bilbao neighbourhood on one map
Save the areas you like and Stippl plots your days so you're not crossing the city twice.
Where to stay in Bilbao
Sleep in the Casco Viejo for atmosphere or Abando for the hotels, the two options every guide gives, and stay inside the historic core and the riverfront, because the southern industrial zones are not worth being in. Most travellers give Bilbao 2 nights on Stippl and the city is priced as a short break rather than a resort, so two nights is what the rates assume.
Casco Viejo
€90–170
Pensions and small hotels in the seven streets, €70 to €150 a double, with bar noise until late.
Abando
The city's hotel volume, from business three-stars to riverside design hotels, €100 to €250 a double.
Indautxu
€85–160
Boutique hotels and apartments away from the route, €90 to €180 a double.
Bilbao La Vieja
€70–140
Hostels and cheap apartments south of the river, €50 to €110 a double.
Deusto
€70–130
Plain hotels and student-district apartments, €60 to €120 a double.
What to eat in Bilbao
Small plates on bread or skewered, one or two per bar then move on
Olive, anchovy and guindilla on a stick, the original pintxo
Salt cod in an emulsion of its own gelatine and oil
Aged beef chop over embers, shared between two
The local dry white, poured from height
Discover food spots in Stippl
Find restaurants and markets on the map, save them to your itinerary, works offline too.
Bilbao customs and what not to do
This is the Basque Country
The city is bilingual and Bilbo is its Basque name; the distinction matters to people here, and an attempt at the language is noticed.
Move between bars
The pintxo form assumes it, and settling in one place for the evening misses the quarter; one or two per bar, pay, move on.
Ask for the hot list
The counter display is the cold half; the good half is grilled to order and often written on a board behind the bar.
Athletic is not small
The club fields only Basque players, and the bars fill on match nights as a point of civic identity rather than a sporting habit.
Dinner is late
Kitchens fill from nine, and the pintxo hour before it is dinner for most people rather than a starter.
Rain is not a reason to stop
The city carries on in the wet, and so should you; the arcades, the market and the museums are built for it.
Do
- Book the Guggenheim as a timed slot the day before
- Get a Barik card if you are staying two nights; it roughly halves the metro fare
- Take the A3247 airport bus; it runs every fifteen minutes and takes under half an hour
- Eat the pintxo hall lunch at the Mercado de la Ribera
- Pack for rain in any month
Don't
- Sit down in one pintxo bar for the evening
- Book the southern industrial zones; the city is compact and the core is the point
- Call Basque a dialect, or Bilbao only by its Spanish name
- Plan Aste Nagusia week without a booking; the city runs at capacity
- Expect a beach in the city; the coast is a metro ride out at Sopela or Plentzia
What a Bilbao trip costs
Budget
€60–100
A hostel bed in the old town, pintxos standing up, the free viewpoints, the airport bus.
Mid-range
€130–220
A hotel in Abando, the Guggenheim, a sit-down dinner, the funicular.
High-end
€280–550+
A design hotel by the river and a starred kitchen.
Track what you actually spend
Set a daily budget per country and log expenses in any currency while you travel.
Fun facts about Bilbao
The Guggenheim Bilbao is clad in about 33,000 titanium panels. They read differently with the weather off the Nervión, which in this city means differently most hours of the day.
The museum's opening in 1997 gave economists a phrase. The Bilbao effect, a city rebuilt around one building, is now shorthand for the same bet made anywhere else.
The Mercado de la Ribera is the largest covered market in Europe by floor area. It stands on the river at the edge of the seven streets, and the pintxo hall downstairs feeds the old town at lunch.
The Vizcaya bridge at Portugalete is the world's oldest transporter bridge. Built in 1893 and UNESCO-listed, it still carries cars and people across the river in a hanging gondola. |
Athletic Bilbao has never been relegated and fields only Basque players. It is one of three clubs never to leave Spain's top division, on a policy no other major club keeps.
The seven streets of the Casco Viejo are the original city. The Siete Calles were laid out in the fourteenth century and the whole medieval town fits inside them.
Local tips for Bilbao
Take the airport bus
The A3247 runs every fifteen minutes and reaches the centre in under half an hour for about €3, and there is no high-speed rail to Madrid yet.
Get a Barik card
For two nights it roughly halves the per-trip metro fare against the occasional ticket, and it works on the funicular and the buses.
Aste Nagusia is the full week
Late August, nine days, and the city runs at capacity; every other week of the year has room.
Rain, not crime
Wet cobbles in the Casco Viejo and a genuinely wet climate in most months are the practical hazard; the city is calm and prosperous with no particular crime concern.
The old town runs late, safely
The bar streets stay populated well past midnight, and walking back to Abando over the bridges is normal at any hour.
Two nights is the booking
Most travellers give Bilbao 2 nights on Stippl and 42.8% of stops are a single night, so the Guggenheim goes on the first day and the pintxos on the second.
Bilbao questions, answered
Two nights: most travellers give Bilbao 2 nights on Stippl, 42.8% of stops are a single night and almost none run longer. One day covers the Guggenheim and the Casco Viejo, the second is for pintxos and the funicular, and a third night is better spent in San Sebastián.
Yes, because the building is the exhibit as much as the collection: Gehry's titanium curves on the river, the atrium, Serra's steel spirals and Koons's Puppy outside. Book a timed slot the day before rather than queuing, and give it two hours.
Both, an hour and a quarter apart by bus: Bilbao for architecture and museums, San Sebastián for the beach and the food, and 30.9% of Bilbao stops planned on Stippl are two nights, which the pair needs at each end. Put them into Stippl with the bus between, then ask people who have done the Basque coast, in subreddits like r/spain, which end to fly into.
Yes. This is the Atlantic coast, it rains in every month, and the Basque Country is green because of it; the txirimiri drizzle has its own word. May, June and September are the drier windows, and the city works in the wet, with the market, the museums and the arcaded bars.
The A3247 bus, every fifteen minutes and under half an hour to the centre, stopping in Abando and by the old town. There is no rail link from the airport and no high-speed train to Madrid yet, so the airport carries the arrivals and the bus carries you.
Not today. The Basque Country passed a law allowing town halls to levy one and Bilbao is expected to follow, so check the room bill when you book. 10.7% of Bilbao stops planned on Stippl carry no overnight at all, the day-trippers from San Sebastián, who would not pay it anyway.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Bilbao in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
Download the app