Bilbao Audioguías

The Casco Viejo metro station drops you directly into the old quarter. Bilbao Airport is served by regular buses that reach the city centre in about thirty minutes. The Guggenheim is on the riverfront about fifteen minutes walk from the Casco Viejo, so most tours can connect the two on foot along the regenerated estuary path.

The Casco Viejo has cobbled streets and some narrow alleys that are tricky with pushchairs. The riverside path along the estuary and the museum district around the Guggenheim are flat and very accessible. The metro has lifts at most stations. The new city grid built in the nineteenth-century Ensanche district is flat and fully accessible.

Pin txos are the central experience: try a circuit of bars on Calle Ledesma or in the Casco Viejo, ordering one or two items at each rather than sitting down for a full meal. For something more substantial, bacalao al pil-pil (salt cod in its own emulsified gelatin and olive oil) is the Basque dish you should seek out. Txakoli wine is crisp and low-alcohol, poured from height to aerate it.

Spanish works in most tourist contexts, and English is understood in hotels, the Guggenheim, and larger restaurants. The Casco Viejo bars are friendlier if you attempt a few words in Spanish. Basque (Euskera) is used on signs alongside Spanish and you will hear it, but nobody expects visitors to speak it.