Guggenheim, Casco Viejo & Bacalao Pil Pil in Bilbao, Spain

I’m really excited to interview Lindsay Woychick of Words By Woychick about Bilbao, Spain. Lindsay’s tips for the best things to do in Bilbao are awesome because she came to Bilbao for a study abroad program to continue learning Spanish and fell in love with the city. She loves how lively the streets are and how affordable it is to live there.

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Entrance to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Photo by Piotr Musiol on Unsplash.

Bilbao, Spain

Bilbao is an industrial port city in northern Spain that is surrounded by lush, green mountains. It is the capital of the province of Bizkaia. It is famous for the Guggenheim Museum, which houses many modern and contemporary pieces of art. The building itself (and the “spider” outside) are just as famous as the art inside.

Lindsay says the city’s weather is similar to Seattle and that the best months to visit are August through October. Early fall generally has temps in the 70s and mostly sunny skies. Bilbao’s biggest festival is Aste Nagusia (“Great Week”), which is held in the last two weeks of August. The festivities begin with “txupinazo” (Basque for rocket) and there are fireworks every night.

During your visit, check out the plazas and bars of old town Casco Viejo and catch a soccer match at San Mamés Stadium (aka Catedral). Ride the Artxanda Funicular up the hillside. And go shopping at La Ribera Market, which was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records in 1990 as the most complete municipal food market.

We share a lot of resources and local suggestions in today’s podcast, but you should also check out Bilbao Turismo, the local visitor’s bureau. They are a wealth of information and can help you plan an itinerary based on your time, budget, and interests.

If you’d like to learn how to travel for free using airline miles and hotel points, check out my free 7-day email course.

La Ría or Bilbao’s River. Photo courtesy of Eduardo Kenji Amorim on Unsplash

Getting around Bilbao

The local airport is Bilbao Airport (BIO), which is a fifteen-minute drive to the city. Use our Expedia tool below to find flight, hotel, and rental car options.

Lindsay strongly urges you to avoid renting a car when visiting Bilbao. The traffic, tolls, and lack of parking make driving a car a hassle, even for locals. The city has clean, comfortable, easy-to-use, and safe public transportation. If you must rent a car, click here for the best offers from Avis, Budget, or Hertz.

Uber and Lyft are excellent ways to get around and they also have an excellent metro system.

View of the city by Yves Alarie on Unsplash

Places we talked about on the podcast

Here is a map of all of the places we talked about on the podcast episode with Lindsay Woychick about Bilbao, Spain. You can zoom into the map and click on each dot to explore the city.

• Red dots = best places to eat in Bilbao, Spain
• Green dots = best things to do in Bilbao, Spain
• Yellow dots = best places to stay in Bilbao, Spain

Who is Lindsay Woychick?

Lindsay Woychick is an independent contractor known for her communication strategy and copywriting currently living in the Greater Bilbao Area. In her work, she is most passionate about non-profit work, capital projects, and campaigns, as well as coalition building and influencing positive policy change.

When she’s away from her keyboard, Lindsay enjoys spending time sipping great Spanish wines alongside her husband, daughter, and French bulldog. She is motivated by running, languages, and travel. In her years of international travel, she’s visited the Bahamas, Curaçao, France, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain.

Lindsay Woychick on La Ría (aka Bilbao’s River)

Here are a few articles that she’s written:

• Meeting Her Soulmate in Spain on the I Wanna Know with Hannah Tyler Podcast
• No Spain, No Gain on the You Globe Girl Podcast
• Five Post-Pandemic Upgrades to Your Spanish Study Abroad Experience

You can connect with Lindsay on her website and on Instagram.

Click here to download our one-page guide of Lindsay’s tips for Bilbao.

Big thanks to today’s affiliate partner – AwardWallet

This episode is brought to you, in part, by AwardWallet. Using airline miles and hotel points makes travel affordable, but keeping track of all of those loyalty programs can be a challenge. That’s why I use AwardWallet to track my miles and points balances, reservations, and special goodies like free hotel night certifications and airline companion passes.

Having everything in one easy-to-use dashboard helps ensure I don’t let any rewards expire and makes logging into my accounts super easy. Go to WeTravelThere.com/awardwallet to start your free account.

Canal view in Bilbao. Photo by David Mark on Pixabay

Stay tuned for our next episode

Vanessa with her business partner Mary

Listen to the next episode when Vanessa Famighetti of Beyond the Nest shares the best things to do in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. In this episode, we talk about the hot springs at Atotonilco, the pink neo-Gothic spires at Arcangel, and the artist galleries at Fabrica Aurora. We hope you’ll join us when We Travel There.

What’s your favorite part of Bilbao? Send us a Tweet, let us know in the comment section below, or continue the discussion in our Facebook group!

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To see which cities we’ve interviewed and scheduled, please visit WeTravelThere.com/map. If you’d like to be a guest on the show, please submit an application at WeTravelThere.com/guest.

Related episodes

To learn more about Spain, listen to our other interviews:

• Plaza Mayor, Prado Museum & Madrid Art Week in Madrid, Spain
• Eating Tapas & Paella in Valencia, Spain with Craig Wealand
• Tapas, Flamenco Dancing & Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain