Bilbao

About Bilbao

Bilbao fits into a day trip, but it's worth giving it two. The backbone is the Nervión estuary: on one side, Frank Gehry's Guggenheim with its titanium skin and Jeff Koons' "Puppy" guarding the entrance; on the other, the Casco Viejo, known locally as the Siete Calles, a tangle of pedestrian streets packed with pintxo bars and neighborhood life. In between sit Abando and the Ensanche, the bourgeois 19th-century quarter with the best shopping and the Museo de Bellas Artes, which in our view is worth the entry fee even more than the Guggenheim itself if classical painting is your thing (Goya, El Greco, and none of the August queues).

You can cover the city on foot, but Norman Foster's metro (the glass-canopied entrances are nicknamed "fosteritos") and the tram stitch together the outer points for €1.50-1.60 a ticket. Two detours worth making: the Mercado de la Ribera, right by the river in the Casco Viejo, for good, cheap food, and the Puente Colgante between Portugalete and Getxo, an 1893 iron transporter bridge and UNESCO World Heritage Site that still ferries cars and people across on a gondola. For the postcard shot, head to Calatrava's Zubizuri.

Weather calls the shots here. Bilbao gets a lot of rain, nearly all year round, so the trade-off isn't heat but water. June and September are the sweet spot: 20-21°C, less rain than the rest of the year, and none of the August crush, when Aste Nagusia (Semana Grande, kicking off the Saturday after the 15th) fills the city with txosnas, concerts and fireworks — and sends hotel prices soaring. Great if you're after a party; a hassle if you want quiet museum time.

Real prices: mid-range hotel €90-140 a night (hostels from €36), set lunch menu €12-18 for three courses and wine, café con leche €1.50-2.10, and general admission to the Guggenheim around €18. Grabbing pintxos on the go beats sitting down for a set menu if you're short on time.