Bilbao: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
For a century Bilbao was iron and steel — ore from the hills, blast furnaces and shipyards along the river, a black and polluted industrial port. In the 1980s the industry collapsed, and the city gambled on culture: in 1997 a titanium museum opened on the site of an old dock, and within a few years planners everywhere were talking about the Bilbao effect. Two hours along the river, flat.
A short history of Bilbao
In 1300 the nobleman Diego López de Haro granted town rights to the settlement on the bank of the Nervión River. For centuries Castilian wool and iron from the nearby mines were shipped out from here. In the 19th century Bilbao became a city of steelworks and shipyards and the industrial centre of the Basque Country. In the 1980s, when industry collapsed, abandoned factories were left along the river. In 1997 the Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry, opened, and the city transformed itself around it.
The ten best sights in Bilbao
1Guggenheim MuseumGehry’s titanium ship on the river, with a flower dog guarding the door
2MamanLouise Bourgeois’s giant spider standing over the riverside walk
3AbandoibarraThe riverside promenade that replaced the shipyards
4ZubizuriCalatrava’s white footbridge; the glass deck is slippery in rain
5Museo de Bellas ArtesOne of Spain’s best painting collections, a few steps from the Guggenheim
6ItsasmuseumThe maritime museum in the old shipyard, with a giant crane outside
7San MamésThe stadium of Athletic Club, who field only Basque players
8Plaza MoyuaThe elliptical square at the heart of the nineteenth-century town
9Azkuna ZentroaAn old wine warehouse on forty-three different columns, with a glass-bottomed pool
10Plaza NuevaAn arcaded square of pintxo bars in the old town
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Bilbao →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Bilbao:
Free walking tours in Bilbao
The museum that changed a city
For a century Bilbao was iron and steel — ore from the hills, blast furnaces and shipyards along the river, a black and polluted industrial port. In the 1980s the industry collapsed, and the city gambled on culture: in 1997 a titanium museum opened on the site of an old dock, and within a few years planners everywhere were talking about the Bilbao effect. Two hours along the river, flat.
- Guggenheim Museum · Frank Gehry designed it with software from the aircraft industry, and its curves are clad in thirty-three thousand sheets of titanium thinner than a coin, so the building changes colour with the weather. At the entrance stands Puppy, Jeff Koons’s twelve-metre terrier made of living flowers, replanted every season.
- Maman · Louise Bourgeois made this nine-metre spider in bronze and steel as a tribute to her mother, who repaired tapestries — patient, protective, weaving. It carries a sac of marble eggs under its body, and it stands on the riverside walk where the shipyards were.
- Itsasmuseum · Down the river, in the old Euskalduna shipyard that closed in the 1980s after violent strikes, the maritime museum keeps the dry docks and a giant red crane, La Carola, named after a girl who crossed the river every day to work. It tells the story of the industry the Guggenheim replaced.
- Museo de Bellas Artes · Before the Guggenheim, Bilbao already had one of the finest art museums in Spain, paid for by the iron fortunes: El Greco, Goya, Zurbarán, and the Basque painters of the industrial age who painted the furnaces and the river.
- Zubizuri · Santiago Calatrava’s white footbridge, a curved deck of glass tiles hung from a leaning arch. The glass turned out to be dangerously slippery in Bilbao’s constant rain, so the city laid a black rubber mat over it, to the architect’s displeasure.
- Azkuna Zentroa · The city’s old wine warehouse, gutted by the designer Philippe Starck and rebuilt inside as a culture centre. The roof is held up by forty-three columns each made in a different style, and on top is a swimming pool with a glass bottom, so people in the hall below see swimmers overhead.
The seven streets
The old town of Bilbao is the original medieval settlement, seven parallel streets on the right bank of the river, founded in 1300 as a port for the wool and iron trade. It is still the place to eat: pintxo bars around an arcaded square, a vast market on the river, and the Basque museum. An hour and a half, flat, with a funicular at the end.
- Teatro Arriaga · The opera house at the edge of the old town is named after Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, born in Bilbao in 1806, who wrote an opera at thirteen and three string quartets at eighteen and was called the Spanish Mozart. He died in Paris ten days before his twentieth birthday.
- Mercado de la Ribera · An Art Deco market hall of 1929 stretched along the river, said to be among the largest covered markets in Europe. Fish and meat are on the lower floors; the ground floor is now a hall of pintxo counters where the town eats at noon.
- Santiago Cathedral · The Gothic church at the heart of the seven streets, dedicated to Saint James because the northern pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela passes through Bilbao. Pilgrims still get their stamp here, and the scallop shell that marks the way is set in the pavement outside.
- Euskal Museoa · The museum of Basque life in an old Jesuit college. In the cloister stands the Mikeldi idol, a stone animal more than two thousand years old with a disc between its legs, which nobody has fully explained. Upstairs, a relief map of the province shows why the Basques lived from the sea.
- Plaza Nueva · A closed neoclassical square of arches completed in 1851, lined with pintxo bars, and on Sunday mornings a market of stamps, coins and old books under the arcades. At noon on weekends the whole square is standing up with a glass in hand.
- Basilica of Begoña · The church of the Virgin of Begoña, patron of Bizkaia, on the hill above the old town, reached by a long stair or a public lift. Sailors of Bilbao prayed to her before sailing, and when Athletic Club wins a title the players climb here to offer it to her.
The coast of Bizkaia
North of Bilbao the river opens to the sea through the oldest transporter bridge in the world, and beyond it the Bizkaia coast runs east in cliffs and fishing villages to the estuary of Urdaibai and the town of Gernika. A full day and a car; the steps at Gaztelugatxe need a booked slot in summer.
- Vizcaya Bridge · Built in 1893 so that ships could still sail up the river to Bilbao, it carries a gondola hanging on cables from a girder some forty-five metres up, ferrying cars and people across in a minute and a half. It was the first bridge of its kind in the world, copied in many countries, and it still works every few minutes, day and night.
- Puerto Viejo, Algorta · Across the bridge, the iron barons built their mansions along the shore of Getxo, and below them survives the old fishermen’s village: white houses and stairs climbing from a tiny harbour, with bars where the fishermen drank.
- San Juan de Gaztelugatxe · A hermitage on a rocky island joined to the coast by a stone bridge and a winding stair of more than two hundred steps. Tradition says ring the bell three times and make a wish. The island was Dragonstone in Game of Thrones, and so many people came that entry is now booked in summer.
- Mundaka · At the mouth of the Urdaibai estuary, a sandbar shapes a long left-breaking wave that surfers consider one of the best in Europe, and on a good autumn swell they come from all over the world. When the sand shifts, the wave can vanish for a season.
- Casa de Juntas, Gernika · For centuries the assemblies of Bizkaia met under an oak here, and the lords of the province swore to respect Basque laws beneath it. On the twenty-sixth of April 1937, a market day, German and Italian planes sent by Franco’s allies bombed the town for three hours; the oak and the assembly house survived. Picasso painted Guernica that spring.
- Elantxobe · A fishing village clinging to a cliff so steep that there is no room for the bus to turn: at the top of the village it drives onto a turntable in the square and is spun round by hand. Below, the houses tumble down to a harbour of small boats.
Getting to Bilbao and getting around
- Bilbao Airport · A white terminal by Calatrava shaped like a dove; twenty minutes by bus
- Abando Station · The main station, with a giant stained-glass window of Basque life
- Artxanda Funicular · Three minutes up to the view over the whole city
Cheap eats in Bilbao
Bilbao eats pintxos like San Sebastián, but its classics are its own: bacalao al pil-pil, salt cod in an emulsion of olive oil and garlic shaken in a clay dish until it turns creamy; the Bizkaína sauce of dried red peppers; and on the coast, marmitako, the tuna-and-potato stew the fishermen cooked on board. A pintxo and a txakoli cost a few euro at the bar.
- Plaza Nueva · Pintxos under the arches, a few euro
- Mercado de la Ribera · A hall of pintxo counters over the fish market
- Bermeo · Marmitako, the tuna stew, in the port where it was born
- Bakio · Txakoli at the cellars on the hills over the beach
- Monte Artxanda · Grilled chops and the city view at the top of the funicular
- Puerto Viejo, Algorta · Fishermen’s bars and anchovies on the harbour steps
Museums in Bilbao
Bilbao is the city that the Guggenheim made famous, but its museums go wider: one of Spain’s great painting collections, a maritime museum in a shipyard, a Basque museum, and down the coast the peace museum of Gernika.
- Guggenheim Museum · Gehry’s building and Serra’s steel spirals
- Museo de Bellas Artes · El Greco, Goya and the Basque painters
- Itsasmuseum · The shipyard, its dry docks and the red crane
- Euskal Museoa · The Mikeldi idol and Basque life
- Gernika Peace Museum · The bombing of 1937 told by those who lived it
Nature and day trips near Bilbao
Bilbao sits in a green valley ringed by hills, and the coast of Bizkaia beyond it is cliffs, coves and the estuary of Urdaibai, a biosphere reserve of marsh and oak wood where migrating birds stop on their way between Africa and northern Europe.
- Urdaibai · Ospreys and spoonbills from the bird centre
- San Juan de Gaztelugatxe · Cliffs, sea arches and the island stair
- Monte Artxanda · The green hill over the city
- Mundaka · The estuary mouth and its wave
- Lekeitio · Walk to the island at low tide
- Bakio · A sandy surf beach under vineyards
Things to do in Bilbao with kids
A giant spider, a dog made of flowers, a bridge that flies cars across a river, and a funicular to a park on a hill: Bilbao is easy and fun with children, and the riverside walk is flat and traffic-free.
- Guggenheim Museum · The flower puppy and the fog sculpture outside
- Vizcaya Bridge · Ride the hanging gondola across the river
- Artxanda Funicular · Up to a park and playground
- Azkuna Zentroa · Swimmers walking on the ceiling
- Itsasmuseum · Boats and the giant crane
- Elantxobe · Watch the bus being turned by hand
Holy places in Bilbao
Bilbao is on the northern pilgrim road to Santiago, and its cathedral is dedicated to Saint James. The faith of the sailors was to the Virgin of Begoña on the hill, and on the coast every fishing village has a hermitage on a headland facing the sea.
- Santiago Cathedral · The pilgrim church of the seven streets
- Basilica of Begoña · The sailors’ Virgin on the hill
- San Juan de Gaztelugatxe · Ring the bell three times on the island
- Casa de Juntas, Gernika · The oak of Basque liberties
- Castro Urdiales · A Gothic church on the harbour rock
Nightlife in Bilbao
Bilbao goes out in the old town and in the streets around Ledesma and Pozas in the new town, and in August the Aste Nagusia, the great week, turns the riverside into nine days of concerts, fireworks and bars run by the town’s associations.
- Plaza Nueva · Weekend crowds under the arches
- Teatro Arriaga · Opera and theatre by the river
- Abandoibarra · The August festival along the river
- Plaza Moyua · The bars of the new town
- San Mamés · A home match of Athletic and the bars around it
Frequently asked questions about Bilbao
What is there to see in Bilbao?
The top sights in Bilbao are Guggenheim Museum, Maman and Abandoibarra. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Bilbao?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Bilbao without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Bilbao?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Bilbao, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The museum that changed a city.
How do you get to Bilbao and get around?
The main ways are Bilbao Airport, Abando Station and Artxanda Funicular. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Bilbao, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Bilbao that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Bilbao for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.