Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Bilbao
The ría and the Guggenheim in six hours
The opera house on the river, Calatrava's footbridge, the funicular to Artxanda, Gehry's museum, the fine arts museum and the shipyard turned maritime museum.
Bilbao was a city of iron and shipyards until the 1980s, and the river, the ría, was where the work was done. When the yards closed, the city put its new buildings along the water instead: a glass footbridge, a titanium museum and a concert hall where the ships were launched. This route follows the left bank downstream from the old town, with a funicular ride up Artxanda for the view of it all, and ends at the last crane of the old Euskalduna yard.
The route, stop by stop
-
Teatro Arriaga
The neo-baroque opera house on the river, opened in 1890 and named after Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, the Bilbao composer who died at 19. A fire gutted it in 1914, and it reopened in 1919 with Verdi's Don Carlo.
10 min here Walk here → -
Zubizuri
Santiago Calatrava's white arched footbridge of 1997, with a deck of glass tiles. They proved slippery in Bilbao's rain, and a non-slip carpet now covers them.
10 min here Walk here → -
Monte Artxanda
The funicular has climbed 770 metres up the hill since 1915. From the top you can see the whole city laid along the river, with the Guggenheim in the middle.
35 min here Walk here → -
Museo Guggenheim Bilbao
Frank Gehry's titanium-clad museum opened in 1997 and changed the city's fortunes. Jeff Koons's flower-covered Puppy guards the entrance, Louise Bourgeois's spider Maman stands on the river side, and Richard Serra's steel spirals fill the largest gallery.
-
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao
The city's fine arts museum, from El Greco and Goya to Bacon and the Basque painters, reopened in July 2026 with an extension by Norman Foster and Luis María Uriarte. Entry to the permanent collection is free.
45 min here Walk here → -
Itsasmuseum
The maritime museum, opened in 2003 on the site of the Euskalduna shipyard, with old dry docks and boats outside. The red crane on the quay, la Carola, was built in 1957 and was the most powerful lifting machine in Spain.
More walks in Bilbao
More in Bilbao
Every walking route in Bilbao, the full Bilbao guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.