Best time to visit Bilbao

Spain · Europe

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Bilbao

Tap a month for its page

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Apr–Aug — these months score within a whisker of each other; 26C max, 4 rainy days. Sep is the next best.

Plan this trip

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Where to stay

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Things to do in Bilbao

Guggenheim Museum Frank Gehry's spectacular twisting titanium-clad modern art museum is perhaps the most…
Vizcaya Bridge Also known as Puente Colgante (the hanging bridge)…
Puppy Not a museum, but it is directly in the front of the Guggenheim Museum…
Azkuna Zentroa An amazing building which has been modernized…
Cathedral of St. James (Santiago) Gothic-style 14th-century cathedral, named after Bilbao's official patron saint.
Plaza Nueva Bilbao's Plaza Nueva was first named Plaza de Fernando VII.
Zubizuri The graceful white pedestrian bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava…

Tours and tickets in Bilbao

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Bilbao), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	13°	13d	80%	5.1h	ok	13C max, 13 rainy days
Feb	15°	11d	79%	6.6h	ok	15C max, 11 rainy days
Mar	16°	13d	76%	8.0h	good	16C max, 13 rainy days
Apr	18°	11d	77%	9.0h	sweet spot	18C max, 11 rainy days
May	21°	11d	79%	10.1h	sweet spot	21C max, 11 rainy days
Jun	24°	8d	80%	9.9h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Jul	26°	4d	79%	10.9h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Aug	27°	5d	78%	10.1h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Sep	25°	8d	78%	9.6h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Oct	22°	10d	78%	7.3h	ok	22C max, 10 rainy days
Nov	16°	15d	80%	5.9h	ok	16C max, 15 rainy days
Dec	14°	14d	81%	5.1h	ok	14C max, 14 rainy days

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the Guggenheim: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest from June to September; quietest from November to February.

Then and now

Bilbao's June days now average 24.2°C, 4.5°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 10 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	11.6°	12.3°	13.6°	14.7°	17.0°	19.7°	22.2°	22.4°	22.1°	19.4°	15.2°	12.7°
2017–26	12.6°	15.2°	16.3°	18.4°	20.8°	24.2°	25.8°	26.5°	24.7°	21.9°	16.4°	14.1°
Change	+0.9°	+2.9°	+2.7°	+3.7°	+3.8°	+4.5°	+3.5°	+4.1°	+2.6°	+2.5°	+1.2°	+1.4°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far Bilbao is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type C and F plugs at 230 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Euro. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for Spain: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — Credit and debit cards are widely accepted. Some shops ask for ID, sometimes a passport, before taking a card.
UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — Not expected; at better restaurants leave 5 to 10% in cash for exemplary service. Round up taxi fares if you like.

Getting around Bilbao

Buy an anonymous Barik card (€3, then load at least €5) from Metro Bilbao machines, Bilbobus and Bizkaibus booths or shops showing the Barik sign, and hold it to the reader: until 31 December 2026 a zone 1 Metro ride costs €0.61 and a Bilbobus ride €0.44. Without one, a zone 1 Metro single is €2.00, valid for 2 hours from entry, and a Bilbobus single €1.70, bought on the bus. Bizkaibus line A3247 runs from the airport every 15 minutes to Bilbao's Termibus, stopping on Gran Vía, at Plaza Moyua and on Alameda Recalde; without a Barik it costs €5, payable by bank card at Bizkaibus's airport booth.

Apps — Rides: Bolt, Cabify, FreeNow, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp.

Bilbao is difficult to drive in. Hilly one-way streets, and frequent construction projects, make it a nightmare for drivers in parts of the city. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Bilbao, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

Emergency — 112 (any emergency).
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (50)

Bilbao in pictures

Bilbao Cementerio de Mallona Vistas 01 — i

Basotxerri, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bilbao Zubizuri 09 — i

Basotxerri, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Puppy de Jeff Koons 2021 Bilbao, España — i

José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cityscape Bilbao, Spain panoramio (1) — i

Tommie Hansen, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bilbao ville — i

PA, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Bilbao is like

Bilbao, with a population of about 350,000 (2018, and over a million in the metro area), is the largest city in Spain's Basque Country. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: Guggenheim Museum, Abandoibarra etorbidea, 2 (Tram: Guggenheim). More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: In the summer see an open air concert at the Kiosko del Arenal El Arenal Parque (across from Plaza Arriaga). More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: All buses to other provinces leave from the TermiBus terminal aka Bilbao Intermodal. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: With a rate of only 33.4 crimes per 1000 inhabitants, the Basque Country has one of the lowest crime rates in Europe. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Bilbao, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Bilbao

Also in Spain

Nearby

Kind of place

Cities

Bilbao is in Spain, Europe. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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