Home · Booking Ahead
What to book, and what not to
Worth arranging
| What | Ahead? | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| The Guggenheim | Book ahead | Buy on the museum's own website to choose your time and skip the queue; the museum warns against resellers. Every ticket includes an audio guide. |
| Opera at the Euskalduna | Book ahead | The ABAO opera season sells out for popular productions; book through ABAO or the Euskalduna as soon as the season is announced. |
| A match at San Mamés | Book ahead | Athletic Club's own site sells match tickets, and big games go quickly to members first. Stadium tours and the museum are sold there too. |
| Bilbao BBK Live | Book ahead | The summer music festival on Mount Kobetas draws more than 100,000 people; tickets and rooms go months ahead. |
| Rooms in August | Book ahead | Hotels fill for Aste Nagusia, the nine-day festival after mid-August. Book early, or come another week. |
| The best-known restaurants | Book ahead | Bilbao and Biscay have several Michelin-starred restaurants; reserve directly with them, well ahead for weekends. |
| The Fine Arts Museum | Optional | Usually walk-in. Booking helps around special exhibitions and the weeks after the new extension opens in October 2026. |
| Concerts at the Euskalduna | Optional | The Bilbao Symphony Orchestra and touring shows sell tickets on the venue's site; popular nights can fill. |
| The Bizkaia Bridge walkway | Optional | The gondola is a walk-on ferry; the visit to the high walkway is sold separately and can be busy in summer. |
| The Artxanda funicular | Just go | Turn up and ride. Cars leave about every quarter of an hour, and the Barik card works. |
| Pintxo bars | Just go | The bars of the old town and the Plaza Nueva are walk-in only; go from one counter to the next. |
| The river, the parks and the old town | Just go | The riverside walks, Doña Casilda Park, Abandoibarra and the Seven Streets are public space, open to all. |
Booking Ahead
In full
Why booking matters here
Bilbao is not a city of endless queues. Its sights are spread along the river, many of them public space, and outside August and the big events it is rarely overwhelmed by visitors. The places that do sell out are the ones with a fixed number of seats or entries: the Guggenheim on busy days, the opera, a big football match, the summer festivals and the most famous restaurants.
This page gives no prices, opening hours or dates, because they change and the official sites are the only reliable source. Check each one before you travel, and buy from the venue's own website or box office rather than from a reseller.
A simple rule works for most visits: book the Guggenheim for the day you want, book any performance or match you have your heart set on, book your room early if your dates fall in August or on a festival weekend, and leave everything else open. The city is small enough that a free afternoon is always easily filled.
The Guggenheim
The Guggenheim is the one sight most visitors plan a day around. Tickets are sold on the museum's official website, which lets you choose a time and avoid the line at the door, and the museum itself warns visitors to buy there to avoid ticket fraud. Every ticket includes an audio guide.
The museum shuts on some days of the year, and on most Mondays outside the summer, so check its calendar before you build an itinerary around it; the itineraries page plans around those closures. Puppy and Maman, the two big sculptures outside, can be seen from the street at any hour, with no ticket at all.
The opera, concerts and the stage
The Euskalduna is the home of the city's main opera season, organized by ABAO, and of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1920. Popular operas sell out, so book as soon as the season goes on sale through ABAO or the Euskalduna's own box office. Its main hall seats 2,164 people.
The Teatro Arriaga on the river has its own program of theater, dance and music. For both venues, the best seats for the most popular nights go early, but tickets for most performances can be found a few days ahead.
Bilbao's other stages include the Campos Elíseos theater on Bertendona street in the Ensanche, opened in 1902 and known locally as El Campos or the Bombonera de Bertendona for its richly decorated front, and the cultural program of Azkuna Zentroa, whose cinema, exhibitions and talks rarely need advance booking.
Football
A match at San Mamés is one of the great experiences of the city. Athletic Club is famous for its policy of fielding players born or trained in the Basque Country, and for never having been relegated from the top division since it began in 1929. Big matches sell out to the club's members, so tickets for visitors can be hard to find.
Tickets are sold on Athletic's official site, and the same site sells tours of the stadium and entry to the club museum, opened in 2017, which you can visit on days without a match. Avoid unofficial resellers outside the ground.
The stadium itself is worth seeing even without a match: its outer skin of white panels lights up at night, and from the riverside walk near the Euskalduna you can see it across the water. The museum pairs well with the Itsasmuseum, a short walk away along the river, on the same afternoon.
Festivals and rooms
Rooms are the thing most likely to run short. During Aste Nagusia, the nine-day festival that begins on the first Saturday after 15 August, and during Bilbao BBK Live in early summer, the city fills and hotels raise their rates. Book as early as you can if your dates are fixed, or choose another week. See when to come for the calendar, and where to stay for the areas.
BBK Live tickets go on sale months before the festival, and its site on Mount Kobetas, built for the event southwest of the city, is reached by shuttle buses, so plan the journey back as carefully as the tickets. Big concerts at San Mamés, which has hosted stadium shows since 2017, sell out fast as well.
Eating out
Bilbao and Biscay have one of the highest numbers of restaurants recognized by the food guides in Spain, among them several with Michelin stars. Those restaurants need a reservation, often weeks ahead for weekends; book directly with the restaurant.
The pintxo bars, which are how most people in Bilbao actually eat out, never take bookings. You stand at the counter, choose, eat and move on. Traditional restaurants in the old town are usually fine without a booking at lunchtime on weekdays, but busier on weekend evenings. The eating and drinking page explains how it works.
Places you can simply walk into
Most of Bilbao needs no ticket at all. The riverside walks, the old town, the Plaza Nueva, Doña Casilda Park, Abandoibarra, the bridges and the views from Artxanda are public and open to everyone. The Mercado de la Ribera is a working market, and the churches welcome visitors outside services.
The Artxanda funicular runs about every quarter of an hour and takes the Barik card. At the Bizkaia Bridge, the hanging gondola is a working ferry you board like any other; only the visit to the high walkway, with its lifts up the towers, is sold as a separate ticket and may have a wait in summer.
Smaller museums, among them the Itsasmuseum, the Basque Museum in the old town and the exhibitions at Azkuna Zentroa, rarely need booking either, though group visits and guided tours may have to be arranged in advance.
The Fine Arts Museum
The Fine Arts Museum in Doña Casilda Park is usually easy to visit without booking. Its new extension, designed with Norman Foster, was due to open officially on 5 October 2026, and the first weeks after an opening tend to be busier, so check the museum's site for timed entries in that period.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It does not affect what is recommended here, and no sight page on this site carries one.
For the hours between check-out and a train or flight: