Bilbao: your first hour after landing
You have just landed at Loiu, 12 km north of Bilbao, in a terminal shaped like a dove taking off — and the city wastes no time. One bus, the A3247, runs the whole arrival argument: 25 minutes to Plaza Moyúa for €4.50, or a taxi for about €27. What waits is a compact, walkable city rebuilt around a river: Gehry's titanium Guggenheim and its flower-covered Puppy, a medieval old town of pintxos counters, a metro of glass fosteritos, and a coast of transporter bridges, surf villages and a hermitage in the sea. This guide walks the arrival in order: the transfer maths, where to sleep between the Ensanche and the Casco Viejo, the first pintxos, the museum rules, the three day trips that matter, and the good news on tax — there is none to pay in 2026.
In this guide
You just landed in Bilbao. Ride the Bizkaibus A3247 from outside arrivals — about 25 minutes to Plaza Moyúa for €4.50 — then walk the river promenade to the Guggenheim. Keep an Airalo eSIM live for metro maps and museum tickets, and book the Gaztelugatxe and San Sebastián day tours early — the coast days sell out first.
Quick facts
Airport
Getting in
Currency
Languages
Time zone
Emergency
Plugs
Tap water
Tourist tax
Best months
Map
Stays, sights, and landmarks in Bilbao — live hotel prices plus the key places from this guide.
Settle in
Land at Loiu and treat the last 12 km as stage one: a small, calm terminal, one bus that matters, and a city that starts as the river bends.
Set up data before you leave home — a Spain plan on an Airalo eSIM loads in minutes, so maps and bookings work from the arrivals hall. For a longer Spain trip, compare Saily and Yesim.
Run the arrival checklist in this order:
- Keep your passport in your hand luggage — Spanish hotels must register every guest at check-in
- Take the A3247 from the stop outside arrivals unless you land near midnight; the taxi rank beside it is the fallback, at about €27 to €30
- Drop your bags, then walk the river promenade to the Guggenheim before anything else — the city explains itself from that path
Sort the money question early: there is no tourist tax in 2026 and no arrival fee, so the bus fare is the last surprise of the day.
If a delayed or cancelled flight wrecked the arrival, EU rules may owe you compensation — AirHelp checks the claim, worth five minutes before you write the day off.
Getting around
Times are airport to city centre.
Bizkaibus A3247 airport bus
Buses run every 15 minutes from April to October and every 20 minutes the rest of the year, roughly 06:00 to midnight, from the stop outside arrivals. Pay the driver or the Bizkaibus cabin by cash or card; a Barik card cuts the fare to about €1.50, but the card is sold at metro machines in the city, not at the terminal.
Taxi from Bilbao Airport
Metered and regulated, with Aena's indicative fares at €27 on a working day and €30 on a public holiday to the centre; luggage carries no extra charge.
Pre-booked transfer
The fixed-price option for late landings, groups and big bags — the driver meets you in arrivals with your name on a board.
Rental car from BIO
A car earns its keep on Gaztelugatxe and coast days, not in the centre, where parking is scarce and the metro is quicker. The main desks sit in the arrivals hall.
Bilbao runs on foot and metro — the promenade ties the Guggenheim, Plaza Moyúa and the Casco Viejo into one half-hour walk, Foster's glass fosterito entrances mark the metro, and the tram glides along the estuary. The rides in from Loiu:
Choose the bus in daylight — it stops near almost every central hotel. Choose the taxi when you land late or with big bags.
Compare a pre-booked transfer — a Kiwitaxi transfer or Welcome Pickups puts a driver in arrivals at a fixed price. Driving yourself, price the pickup on AutoEurope first: a car earns its keep on coast days, not in the centre, where parking is scarce. Either way, buy a Barik card (€3, from metro machines) on day one — it discounts bus, metro, tram and funicular.
In the city
Start at the Guggenheim, because everyone does and because it earns it: Gehry's titanium riverboat of a building, Koons' flower-covered Puppy outside, and the La Salve bridge behind. Go inside — the collection and the ground-floor gallery are the point, not just the shell. Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 19:00, closed Mondays outside high summer; €18 for adults, under-18s free, and timed tickets booked online skip the queue.
Walk the Abandoibarra promenade east, then cross Doña Casilda Iturrizar park to the Museo de Bellas Artes, the old-master counterweight to the Guggenheim's spectacle. Double back via Azkuna Zentroa, the former wine warehouse turned culture centre — look up for the glass-bottomed rooftop pool.
Cross into the Casco Viejo, the old town's Siete Calles — the original seven streets. Santiago Cathedral anchors them, the arcaded Plaza Nueva is the living room, and the Mercado de la Ribera is one of Europe's largest covered food markets.
Ride the Artxanda funicular for the postcard. The 1915 railway climbs from Plaza del Funicular, on the Campo Volantín riverbank, to the hilltop park in about three minutes — the whole city bowl in one frame, a few euros and less with Barik.
See the city from the water at least once. Estuary boats leave the Pío Baroja pier in front of City Hall. Browse the Bilbao listings on GetYourGuide for cruises and food walks, and compare Klook when stacking activities.
After you land in Bilbao: Bookable experiences
Where to stay your first nights
The Artist Grand Hotel of Art.
Best for the Guggenheim-facing splurge — a rooftop terrace, a spa and the museum across the streetSleep directly opposite the Guggenheim at Alameda de Mazarredo 61, the address that traded for years as the Gran Hotel Domine. It is the city's five-star flagship: 145 rooms, a rooftop terrace where breakfast faces the titanium, a spa and two restaurants. Book it for the museum at the door.
Hotel Ercilla de Bilbao, Autograph Collection.
Best for Ensanche polish — 1970s glam, a rooftop bar and Indautxu metro at the cornerStay on Calle Ercilla, in the grande-dame hotel refreshed as 1970s glam: 325 rooms, the Bermeo restaurant, a rooftop terrace bar and Indautxu metro four minutes away, the Guggenheim a 13-minute walk. Book it for polish and the easiest all-round location in the city.
Casual Bilbao Gurea.
Best for a budget Casco Viejo base — themed rooms beside the cathedral and the pintxos streetsBed down at Bidebarrieta 14 in the Casco Viejo, steps from Santiago Cathedral: 26 themed rooms with private bathrooms, free WiFi, bikes to borrow and Plaza Nueva 200 metres away. Book it early — the old town's good-value rooms go first.
Stay in Abando and the Ensanche for a first visit — the grid puts Moyúa, the metro and the Guggenheim around the corner. Choose the Casco Viejo for character: pintxos streets at the door, a livelier soundtrack at night.
Book any of the three well ahead for Aste Nagusia and Athletic home weekends. There is no city tax at check-in, so the rate you book is the rate you pay.
Where to eat first
Eat standing up on day one — pintxos are Bilbao's native format: bites lined along the bar, ordered by pointing, washed down with a zurito or a glass of txakoli. Three first stops:
Gure Toki, Plaza Nueva 12.
Start under the old town's arcades at the bar locals name first — miniature cooking rather than plain tapas, from the classic gilda (olive, chilli and anchovy on a spike) to croquetas and whatever the kitchen is testing. Arrive before 20:00 or expect a scrum.
La Ribera, Mercado de la Ribera, Erribera Kalea 20.
Eat inside the market, where the gastro space cooks from the stalls' produce — fish landed that morning, mushrooms in season, tortilla by the slab. The easiest first-night answer in the Casco Viejo: everything under one riverside roof.
El Globo, Calle Diputación 8.
Cross to the Ensanche for the classic counter near Plaza Moyúa — jamón ibérico, txakoli poured from a height and regulars ordering without looking. Two pintxos, one glass, no table.
Save room for the Siete Calles crawl afterwards, where every second doorway is another counter. For guided pintxos crawls, browse the Bilbao listings on GetYourGuide and book ahead in high season.
Day trips and more
Three escapes cover the essentials: the rival food capital, the world's oldest transporter bridge, and a hermitage on a rock in the sea. Carry a layer — the coast writes its own weather.
San Sebastián and the Gipuzkoa coast
Ride east to La Concha, the shell-shaped bay that makes San Sebastián the Basque Country's beauty winner, and graze the Parte Vieja's counters. The guided version strings the coast into one day — Hondarribia's coloured houses, a step into France at Hendaye and the port of Getaria — in about ten hours. Going it alone, Pesa buses run from Bilbao Intermodal in about 1 hour 15 minutes. Check availability →
Getxo and Portugalete
Take the metro about 25 minutes to the river's mouth, where the Vizcaya Bridge has ferried its hanging gondola between Portugalete and Las Arenas in Getxo since 1893 — the world's oldest transporter bridge and a UNESCO site. Ride the gondola across, then take the lift to the walkway 50 metres up. The two-hour cruise from Pío Baroja pier passes beneath it. Check availability →
Gaztelugatxe and Gernika
Climb the 241 steps to the hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, the islet the world met as Dragonstone, and ring the bell at the top. The tour pairs it with Mundaka, the surf village on the Urdaibai estuary, and Gernika, whose Assembly House anchors Basque self-government and whose 1937 bombing Picasso made immortal. Six hours, meeting at Puppy, entry included — worth it: the site runs timed reservations in peak season. Check availability →
Leave a day for the Rioja: the bodega quarter at Haro pours famous reds about an hour south, the wineries strung along the station streets.
When to go and what it costs
Come May to June or September to October for mild days and the city at working pace — warm enough for terraces, quiet enough to walk into the Guggenheim without a strategy.
Come in mid-August if you want Aste Nagusia: nine days of concerts, street food, fireworks over the river and the Marijaia effigy presiding — the city at full volume, with prices to match.
From November to March, expect the sirimiri, Bilbao's famous fine drizzle: mild temperatures, empty museums and the lowest rates of the year. You trade blue skies for space.
Budget by the fixed costs, not the headline. The airport bus is €4.50, the Guggenheim €18, a pintxo about €3 and city singles about €2 or less before the Barik discount — the variables are the room and the day tours.
What to pack
Tap items to check them off — your list is saved on this device.
Pack for four seasons in a day and wet stone — days split between promenades, museum floors and pintxos counters:
- Comfortable walking shoes Shop walking shoes on Amazon →
- Sunscreen Shop sunscreen on Amazon →
- Reusable water bottle Shop water bottle on Amazon →
- Phone charger and power bank Shop power bank on Amazon →
- Daypack Shop daypack on Amazon →
- Sunglasses Shop sunglasses on Amazon →
- Light rain jacket Shop rain jacket on Amazon →
Add a compact umbrella — the sirimiri arrives without asking — a warm layer for coast wind, and shoes with real grip: wet old-town stone is Bilbao's classic slide.
Language, visa and entry
✓ Visa-free entry
Spanish runs Bilbao day to day, but Basque is everywhere — in station names, museum labels and greetings. Most hotel staff work in English, yet the city warms when a visitor opens in Basque — learn the chips.
Six phrases do most of the work:
Sort entry paperwork before booking anything non-refundable. Spain sits inside Schengen: Americans, Canadians, Britons and others enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180, with a passport valid three months beyond departure and issued within the last ten years. The EU's Entry/Exit System now records non-EU arrivals electronically, so expect a photo and fingerprints on a first entry instead of a stamp.
Do not pay anyone for an ETIAS. The EU travel authorisation is not yet in operation for Spain — when it launches it will be sold only through the official EU site, and any page charging for one today is a scam.
Safety and health
Keep ordinary city sense around the crowds
Bilbao is a calm big city, and violent crime is rare. The realistic risks are pickpockets in packed pintxos bars, in San Mamés match-day crowds and on busy metro platforms — bag zipped, phone off the table edge.
Respect the rain and the tram lines
Sirimiri turns old-town stone and the estuary promenade slick, and the tram runs almost silently along the river. Look both ways at crossings, and give the tracks a wide berth on wet ground.
Take the coast seriously at Gaztelugatxe and Mundaka
The 241 steps are steep and uneven, the islet closes in storm weather, and the Mundaka rivermouth break is for experienced surfers only. Swim at guarded beaches and mind the flags.
Drink the tap water, and know where care is
Bilbao's water is safe, so bottles are a choice, not a need. For anything serious, dial 112: Hospital Universitario Basurto is the central hospital, and a farmacia de guardia (duty pharmacy) is always open overnight.
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EuropeFrequently asked questions
The arrival, the museum and the tax that is not there, in short.
Facts checked October 2026.
The Bizkaibus A3247 leaves from outside arrivals about every 15 to 20 minutes and reaches Plaza Moyúa in about 25 minutes: €4.50 in cash or by card, about €1.50 with a Barik card. A taxi from the rank takes about 15 minutes and runs about €27 on a working day, €30 on a public holiday.
No. Neither Bilbao nor the Basque Country charges an overnight tourist tax in 2026. A Basque regional stay tax is in preparation and is expected from 1 January 2027, so check again before a 2027 trip.
Mondays, outside high-summer exception periods. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 19:00. Adults pay €18, under-18s enter free, and booking a timed ticket online skips the longest queues.
Not yet. ETIAS is not in operation for Spain, so no authorisation exists to apply for — beware any site selling one. Normal Schengen rules apply: most visitors enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180, and the Entry/Exit System now records arrivals electronically.
Yes — Bilbao's tap water is good quality and locals drink it daily. Bars and restaurants must offer free tap water on request, and refilling a bottle at the hotel is the norm.
May to June and September to October: mild days, open terraces and thinner crowds. Mid-August brings Aste Nagusia, the city's festival week, with peak prices; winter is the wettest and cheapest season.
Prices are typical 2026 rates in euros (EUR). Fares, museum hours and tax position verified October 2026.
Bilbao, in your pocket
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Sources and last verified
Airport transfers against Athletic Club's official San Mamés arrival guide and Viajeros Callejeros (read October 2026): A3247 at €4.50 cash, about €1.50 by Barik. Older €3 listings predate the April 2025 fare rise in Wikipedia's Bizkaibus article; two 2026 blogs quoting €5 were treated as outliers. Taxi against Aena's indicative fares (€27 working day, €30 public holiday) and transfers from €46, via airportexit.guide. Guggenheim hours and the €18 adult ticket against two 2026-checked listings of the museum's terms (Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 19:00, closed Mondays; under-18s free). Tourist tax against 2026 Basque reporting: no stay tax in force in 2026, a regional tax expected from 1 January 2027. GetYourGuide products opened and read (city page bilbao-l93): the Gaztelugatxe tour, the San Sebastián excursion, the Bilboats cruise. Hotels against Expedia: the Ercilla page opened and read (Ercilla 37, 325 rooms); The Artist Grand Hotel of Art and Casual Bilbao Gurea confirmed as current listings under those names, property URLs flagged in the research pack. Photo credits: Gaztelugatxe by Diego Delso, Puppy by José Ligero Loarte, the airport by Basotxerri and La Concha by Juan Francisco Contreras Fernández, all via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; the Casco Viejo street by Zarateman via Wikimedia Commons, CC0; the rest via Pexels. Last verified October 2026.
Affiliate disclosure: hotel names, transfers, experiences, and products linked in this guide may earn After You Land a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices and times were checked in Oct 2026 and change often — confirm before you book.