What is the Bilbao outdoor escape game?
The Bilbao outdoor escape game is an escape room taken out onto the streets: you play on your phone, and at each of the 10 stops a puzzle waits that you solve by studying the surroundings and thinking it through. Expect 52 minutes of walking and 3.7 km of city, all inside a window of roughly 2 hours.
Puzzles sit at places such as the Guggenheim with Jeff Koons' Puppy, the Zubizuri footbridge, the Teatro Arriaga, the arcaded Plaza Nueva, the Cathedral of Santiago and La Ribera Market. Bilbao lends itself to this format because the walk runs along the flat riverside and then through the narrow lanes of the Old Town, so the puzzles follow one another at a steady pace. Stuck? If a riddle resists, a first, second and third pointer are there to crack it.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 52 min · 3.7 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Solve
At each stop, work out the puzzle by looking at the surroundings and reasoning it through. No prior knowledge is required.
Look closer
The clues are hidden in the details around each place, from façades to statues and the features of the squares.
Walk
Google Maps leads you from puzzle to puzzle: about 52 minutes of walking across 3.7 km in total.
No rush
There is no countdown. Take a hint when you need one, stop for a coffee, and carry on later or another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends on a day out
Everyone brings something to the puzzles, and nobody has to know Bilbao beforehand.
Couples
A shared challenge that keeps the conversation going during a stroll, with no pressure from a clock.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 each play on their own phone, a practical choice for colleagues.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from Doña Casilda Park to San Antón church
10 stops · about 52 min walking · start: Doña Casilda Iturrizar Park · finish: Church of San Antón
Two stretches make up the trail. The first runs beside the river: an English-style park with a large pond, then the Guggenheim, with the Zubizuri carrying you on to City Hall. The second is the Old Town, entered through the Teatro Arriaga, where Plaza Nueva, Plaza Miguel de Unamuno and the Cathedral of Santiago come in turn, followed by the market of La Ribera. The last stop, the Church of San Antón, sits beside the old bridge. Stops can be swapped in the app, Google Maps handles the legs, and no entry tickets are needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Doña Casilda Iturrizar ParkStart
This English-style park in the Ensanche district was laid out in the early 1900s and is named after Casilda de Iturrizar, a widow who left much of her fortune to charities in Bilbao. Locals call it the Park of the Ducks, after the birds on its large pond.
2Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Frank Gehry's museum of modern and contemporary art opened in 1997, its curved forms clad in titanium, glass and limestone beside the Nervión river. Jeff Koons' Puppy, a giant dog covered in flowering plants, guards the entrance, and Louise Bourgeois' giant spider Maman stands by the water.
3Zubizuri
Santiago Calatrava designed this footbridge over the Nervión, opened in 1997, and its Basque name means white bridge. A tilted white arch holds the curved walkway with steel cables, and the original glass-brick deck proved so slippery in the rain that it was later covered with a non-slip mat.
4Bilbao City Hall
The city hall on the right bank of the Nervión was inaugurated in 1892 to designs by Joaquín Rucoba, who also built the Teatro Arriaga. Its eclectic, baroque-inspired façade looks onto the river, and in front of it stands a large abstract sculpture by the Basque artist Jorge Oteiza.
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5Teatro Arriaga
Bilbao's main theatre opened in 1890, designed by Joaquín Rucoba in a neo-baroque style inspired by the Paris Opera. It is named after Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, a composer born in Bilbao who died in 1826 aged only 19 and is often called the Spanish Mozart.
6Plaza Nueva
This enclosed neoclassical square in the Old Town, with 64 arches around its arcades, was completed in the mid-19th century after decades of building. Its arcades are lined with pintxo bars, and on Sunday mornings collectors gather here to trade stamps and coins.
7Plaza Miguel de Unamuno
This Old Town square honours the writer and philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, born in Bilbao in 1864, whose bust stands here. From the square the Mallona stairs climb towards the Basilica of Begoña, and the Basque Museum and the Archaeological Museum are right beside it.
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8Cathedral of Santiago
This Gothic church dedicated to St James was largely built in the 14th and 15th centuries and only became a cathedral in 1949, when the Diocese of Bilbao was created. Its neo-Gothic façade and tower were added in the late 19th century, and pilgrims on the northern Way of St James pass by.
9La Ribera Market
The Mercado de la Ribera stands on the bank of the Nervión, where Bilbao's market has been held for centuries. The current building, designed by Pedro Ispizua and opened in 1929, has art deco details and large stained-glass windows, and it is one of the largest covered markets in Europe.
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10Church of San AntónFinish
This Gothic church stands next to the San Antón bridge, at the old river crossing where medieval Bilbao grew up. The church and the bridge both appear on the city's coat of arms, together with two wolves.
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Thomas– United Kingdom –
Collected on GetYourGuide
A very good value way to experience a city tour for our family of 4. There was lots of useful information and we visited some great areas of the city we would have completely missed otherwise. It was very hot when we did the tour (38 degrees Celsius) but the format means you can stop as often as you want for ice cream and drinks. The end point is a good 20 mins walk from the start which was not a problem given where we were staying but it can be done in any order so it is worth looking at the 10 locations before starting to work out where best you want to start/end