Culture & History

Embark on a sailing tour through the heart of Bilbao. Get a new perspective of this beautiful city from the estuary. The boat has a capacity of 80 people and seating both outside and inside. On the one-hour tour, set off from the City Hall Bridge in Pio Baroja Square through the heart of the Villa. Head toward Zorrozaurre riverbank and finally to the entrance of the Deusto Canal. Conclude the tour where you began. On the two-hour route, begin from the same jetty in Pio Baroja Square. Cruise past Bilbao's most significant landmarks and buildings and then on a tour of the estuary to the Puente Bizkaia area.  Listen to an audioguide, available in Spanish, Basque, English, French, German, and Italian, to pick up insights into the particular route being sailed and the history of the city and its buildings, bridges, and other constructions.

Access the Museum between gates 19 and 20 of the famous San Mamés stadium where the tour visit begins. Then experience a unique insight into the world of football at grass level. Live the experience of a real-life footballer as you run out onto the field from the tunnel, wander through the locker rooms, and imagine the buzz of excitement in the press room. Along with the stadium tour, visit the modern and innovative Athletic Club museum, home to a wide selection of fascinating football memorabilia. Explore the museum and marvel at its collection of 500 original football-related objects that have been collected over more than a century. See the past and present of the club come to life as you admire trophies, costumes, graphics and audiovisual material celebrating the Red and Whites. There’s plenty to see and do at the museum with 4 audiovisual productions, 13 interactive systems, 600 videos, an immersive video-wall, and a playroom equipped with entertainment for all ages.

Meet your guide outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao to begin a guided tour of both the inside and the outside of the museum. Skip the ticket line and discover more about one of the foremost symbols of the city. Learn why Bilbao was chosen as the home for the stunning Frank Gehry-designed building, and discover the structure of the building and the outdoor sculptures that surround the museum.  Then, get to know the most important works of the Guggenheim's permanent and rotating collections as you wander through its galleries, atrium, and terrace in the company of your guide. Admire its undulating, serpentine forms, among large-scale works of art that will surprise you due to the material used.

Your boat route through the Bilbao estuary and the Bahía del Abra will start in the capital of Vizcaya, a few meters from the town hall bridge. From there, board a traditional boat with interior and exterior seats and enjoy a panoramic route along the Nervión Estuary. This trip can last up to 2 hours and 45 minutes. During it, see places like Canal Deusto, the Hanging Bridge of Portugalete, the city of Getxo or the fishing port of Santurtzi. In Bilbao, Getxo, Portugalete or Santurtzi, you can go down to the mainland to visit monuments freely and without haste with 24 hours to enjoy this pass.

Leave Bilbao and discover other exciting and historic locations on the Basque Coast on this day tour. See the Vizcaya Bridge, the historic city of Gernika, visit a traditional fishing village, and enjoy a tasting of local products. Travel along the river of Bilbao, discovering the interesting industrial past of the city, and once at the coast, stop to see the Vizcaya Bridge, a UNESCO World Heritage designated site. Pass by the majestic Castle of Butron, and eventually arrive at the Biosphere of Urdaibai. Admire the beautiful view from its lookout point, and discover the secrets of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, a filming location of the famous TV series “Game of Thrones”. Make another stop in Bermeo, a typical fishing village, and stop to take a walking tour to enjoy its charming atmosphere. Take part in a tasting of local food, where a sample of pintxo is included. Reach the last stop in Gernika, and make a visit to the interesting Assembly House and the famous Tree of Gernika.

Benefit from pick-up at your hotel in Bilbao, and then get back to nature on a trip to the amazing rock islet of Gaztelugatxe, located on the coast of Bizkaia just 35 kilometers from Bilbao city center. Arrive at the viewpoint and get 2 hours of free time to explore independently. Use the time to climb to the 10th-century hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, where you can touch the bell of the chapel three times and make a wish. Soak up the stunning views of the Bay of Biscay before traveling to Bermeo to take a walking tour of the charming fishing village. Continue to the historic town of Gernika, site of one of the first aerial bombings by Nazi Germany, and visit the Casa de Juntas (Assembly House) with the famous Tree of Guernica that symbolizes the traditional freedom of the people.

Dive into the real Game of Thrones experience during a tour of the incredible filming locations for Season 7. Walk in the footsteps of Tyrion, Daenerys, and Jon Snow as you explore incredible landscapes. First, walk along King's Landing beach, filmed at Muriola Beach in Barrika. Explore the location where Davos Tyrion and Gendry had to flee from the Gold Cloaks. After that, head to a medieval-like castle at Butron Castle. Take some photos with cloaks and swords and feel like a Lord or a Lady of Winterfell. Next, continue the tour with a visit to the Dragonstone Fortress at San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in Bermeo. Climb up 241 steps just like Daenerys and feel like a true Khaleesi. Take a lunch break in Bermeo where you can enjoy pintxos, tapas, and a local white wine called txakoli. Finally, make the last stop at Dragonstone beach where Daenerys first walked when she finally came back home. Filmed at Itzurun Beach in Zumaia, this 60million-year-old beach was the perfect choice to set Dragonstone.

From Bilbao, leave for San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, an islet that can only be accessed by a pedestrian path. Make a panoramic tour of the area and learn the area’s dreamlike cliffs, a feature of the HBO hit series, Game of Thrones. Continue to the Guipuzcoan town of Getaria, where we will enjoy a guided tour of its historic quarter, and where we can admire its traditional fishing port, the church of San Salvador, and the monument in honor of Juan Sebastián Elcano, a sailor who turned the world and that he was born in this small town. Take a moment to eat in one of its many restaurants at Getaria. Enjoy the gastronomy of grilling local fish and seafood. From here, leave for San Sebastián for a guided tour of the city. See the Church of San Vicente and the Basilica of Santa María del Coro before heading back to Bilbao.

Our pintxo discovery experience begins at Ribera Market, the largest covered food market in Europe and where Michelin star bosses and ordinary citizens stock up on some of the best food the city has to offer. We want you to understand the importance of food in how we relate to each other and the special little tricks to doing it like a local. Then it's time to dive into the old town and its hidden secrets, so our first stop would be one of the classic bars where the "txikiteros", the local wine drinkers, sing songs as they drink. If we are lucky, we have the option to share with them a wine and a classic aperitif discussing the traditions and symbols of the Basque Country. Next, we will go to the emblematic Plaza Nueva, to taste 2 pintxos and learn about the local Basque wine: Txakoli in one of its local bars. Once we have visited the old town, we will cross the river to enter the Ensanche, the economic center of the city. We will visit a very historic bar and we will have the opportunity to taste Rioja wines, as well as pintxos that mix the most advanced cuisine with the most traditional flavors of local products. Your tour ends here, where you will not only be filled with delicious pintxos, but also gain a new insight into the local culture and traditions. And most importantly, you will feel like an authentic Bilbao.

A professional local guide will meet you at the entrance to the museum. Discover the temporary and permanent exhibitions in the museum during your 1.5 hour tour. This spectacular building adds to an area where the Nervión makes its marks with pleasant riverside walks. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is surrounded by promenades, parks and recently-built squares, where you can see the work of artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Eduardo Chillida, Yves Klein, Jeff Koons, and Fujiko Nakaya. Since opening in 1997, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao's acquisitions have focused on works from the mid-twentieth century to the present day, thus complementing the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and forging a unique identity at the same time. Visited by about one million people every year, one of its main attractions is the ArcelorMittal gallery, which is a large space where eight works by sculptor Richard Serra are permanently displayed. Of the 24,000 square metres occupied by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 11,000 are reserved for exhibition spaces. The architectural heart of the 20 galleries that make up the museum is the atrium, a large open space of curved volumes, surrounded by large glass curtain walls and crowned by a large skylight.