Knooks and crannies with many bars, restaurants, shops, souvenir stops. Very enjoyable and easy to get to strolling along the river from the Guggenheim museum.

Walking through the old town is a must when in Bilbao. Lots of beautiful buildings, narrow cobblestoned alleys, interesting shops and interesting people. The best part is probably all the tapas (actually, it's not tapas but pintxos) bars where people have an early evening snack at a very affordable price. The most popular bars have people spilling out on the... More

A general buzz of good will with bars displaying pintxos every few yards being enjoyed by both locals and 'tourists'; a genuinely welcoming place. I suspect that the Plaza Nueva and areas around the metro might get hectic in the Summer but there are plenty of other places in the main town to escape to!

a good place to go shopping and see the old part of the city. You can go eat at restaurants Basques and wine tasting, beer and pintxos (similar too tapas)

Look for San Nicolas Church(1756)and go to Plaza Nueva,after this to Plaza Unamuno with the Vasco Museum.Then go to Portal de Zamudio and enjoy your visit watching the people and the seven medievals streets(1400 ), mainly Somera street.

The historical centre of Bilbao is all contained in this small district with cobblestone paved road and old houses with shops and restaurants on the ground floor. Most of the zone is traffic-free and in the centre of these ten roads there is the St. James cathedral, important stop on the Santiago trail.

Bilbao's Casco Viejo (old city center) is stunning. The architecture is amazing and the winding cobble stone streets are what north americans think of when imagining Europe. By day there is plenty to see, eat and shopping. By night La Calle Somera is filled with bars to wet your whistle. A must see in Bilbao

I guess our timing was a little off. Most of the stores were closed when we arrived around lunch time. Even though it was interesting to walk through the small streets I did miss the liveliness that most of these old parts of town (in Spain) has.

Although the concierge at our hotel said the area is safe we saw a lot of unsavory characters and didn't feel very confortable in the area, in fact someone followed us for a while. Also there is not really that much to see unless you go to the Archeological Museum.