Bilbao
Spain
A steel city that rebuilt itself around a titanium museum, and eats better than almost anywhere in Europe
Photo by Antonio Gabola on Unsplash
Photos by Yves Alarie, Neil Martin, Mark Neal and Diana Novak on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Spain
May to June, and September — this coast is green because it rains, in every season
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 145mm in Nov
Where it is
43.26°N, 2.93°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Crawl the Casco Viejo one pintxo and one txakoli at a time
- Walk the river from the Guggenheim to the Zubizuri
- Take the funicular up Artxanda at dusk
- Climb the 241 steps at Gaztelugatxe
- Eat at the market rather than around the museum
Bilbao travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Spain
Mid-rangeCards work nearly everywhere; the smallest bars and the markets still prefer cash. Always take the euro price when a terminal asks.
ATMs & cards
Use CaixaBank, Santander or BBVA machines. Euronet is heavy in the old towns and its rate is poor; the banks are free or close to it.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the machines in the Casco Viejo
Use these instead
- BBVA
- Santander
- Kutxabank
Pintxo bars take cards, though a round of two pintxos and a txakoli is the kind of bill where cash is faster.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Spain
SafeVery safe. The old town gets busy and loud on weekend nights in a good-natured way; the usual care with bags in the market and on the metro at rush hour.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the old town on weekend nights — loud and good-natured; the usual care with bags in a crowd
- the coast in a swell — the beaches at Sopelana and Bakio get serious surf
- the Gaztelugatxe steps in wet weather — 241 of them, exposed, and slippery
Very safe. The Basque country has among the lowest crime rates in Spain..
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Spain visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Spain
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date (MMR, tetanus, polio)
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingPintxos, which are not tapas: you stand, you point, you pay at the end, and you move to the next bar after one. The Basque country has more Michelin stars per head than anywhere on earth, and the cheap end is just as serious.
Nightlife
A pintxo crawl rather than a night out: one pintxo, one small glass, then the next bar, and it starts at seven.
- Casco Viejo — the seven streets, and most of the bars in them
- Calle Ledesma — the newer strip across the river
- Pozas — where locals go when the old town is full
- Deusto — student prices, over the bridge
Closing: Pintxo bars to midnight, late bars to 3am, and Thursday night is the local one.
A beer in a bar: €2.50–3.50 for a zurito
You pay at the end, and you are trusted to say what you had.
Getting around
Easy- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- CabifyWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
- Against a taxi
- About level with a metered taxi, and where a city sets a flat airport fare the taxi usually wins.
Several cities cap private-hire licences hard, so at peak the app may simply have nothing to send.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Madrid — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Spain
Why these are Spain's numbers and not Bilbao's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fair. Maps, calls and streaming; tethering a laptop works for an hour, not a day. Mobile runs at 77% of the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Bilbao, so these are medians for all of Spain. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Spain, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Spanish
- HelloHolaOH-la
- PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
- Thank youGraciasGRA-thyas
- Yes / NoSí / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse mePerdónper-DON
- How much is it?¿Cuánto cuesta?KWAN-to KWES-ta
- The bill, pleaseLa cuenta, por favorla KWEN-ta
- Cheers!¡Salud!sa-LOOD
Religion
Catholic
Nominally Catholic and deeply secular in practice. Churches are working buildings as well as sights, and Semana Santa is taken seriously even by people who never attend Mass.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Eat late — lunch from 14:00, dinner rarely before 21:00
- Greet with two cheek kisses, right cheek first, between women or a man and a woman
- Stand at the bar to drink; it is cheaper than sitting and more sociable
- Say buenos días on entering a small shop, and adiós on leaving
Don't
- Do not expect anything to be open between 14:00 and 17:00 outside the big cities
- Do not order sangria in a serious restaurant — it is a tourist drink; ask for tinto de verano
- Do not tip heavily; rounding up or a euro or two is normal
- In Barcelona, do not assume Catalan and Spanish are interchangeable — the distinction matters to people
Where to stay in Bilbao
No Holistay rentals in Bilbao yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Bilbao on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Bilbao BIO
20 minfrom the airport· 5 km as the crow flies
20 min by bus into the centre.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
