What is the Bilbao self-guided walking tour?
The Bilbao self-guided walking tour is a narrated walk with your phone as the guide: the World City Trail app sets out the route and, each time you reach a stop, tells you the history, legends and odd facts behind what you see. Reckon on about 3 hours overall, including 52 minutes on foot across 3.7 km and 10 stops. The route follows the Nervión from the Guggenheim into the Old Town, from Gehry's titanium to Gothic stone.
In Doña Casilda Iturrizar Park you hear about the widow who left much of her fortune to the city's charities, and why locals call it the Park of the Ducks. At the Guggenheim the narration turns to Jeff Koons' flower-covered Puppy and Louise Bourgeois' spider Maman, and at the Zubizuri to the glass-brick deck that proved so slippery in the rain that it was later covered with a non-slip mat. The Teatro Arriaga brings in the composer Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, born in Bilbao, dead at 19 and often called the Spanish Mozart. At the Church of San Antón the story closes with the bridge, the church and the two wolves on the city's coat of arms.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 52 min · 3.7 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
Step by step on the walk
A chapter for each stop
Every stop has its own narrated chapter, mixing history with local legends and curious details, and each chapter can be read as well as heard.
Directions included
Google Maps plots every leg from one stop to the next; together the legs come to about 52 minutes on foot over 3.7 km.
Breaks built in
Head into a café or a museum whenever you feel like it. The app keeps your place, so you carry on later or another day.
Tips and flexibility
Along the way the app suggests local dishes and shops worth a look, and you can change the starting stop or the sequence.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of people. 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.
- Walk when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who will like this walk
First time in Bilbao
A single walk links the main sights and explains each of them, so you get your bearings quickly.
Not a fan of group tours?
Nobody holds up a flag and nobody counts heads: stay longer wherever your curiosity is caught and move on when you want.
Families
Children get the legends, adults get the history, and anyone can pause the narration with a tap.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- 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.
- Groups of up to 5 work best; larger groups split up, one ticket per person.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Along the Nervión and into the Old Town
10 stops · about 52 min walking · start: Doña Casilda Iturrizar Park · finish: Church of San Antón
The walk sets off in Doña Casilda Iturrizar Park and keeps to the Nervión as far as the Guggenheim Museum before Calatrava's Zubizuri takes you over to the City Hall on the right bank. Beyond the Teatro Arriaga lies the Old Town: Plaza Nueva with its arcades, Plaza Miguel de Unamuno at the foot of the Mallona stairs, and the Cathedral of Santiago. La Ribera Market stands on the riverbank, and the walk finishes at the Church of San Antón beside the old bridge. All stops are outdoors, and the app lets you reorder them.
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.
Read the full story →
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.
Read the full story →
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.
Read the full story →
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.
Read the full story →
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Italy –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Very fun
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