Abando & Ensanche

A look around

What you’ll be living next to. Swipe through.

1/6

Where it sits

The circle is Abando & Ensanche and roughly a 10-minute walk around it.

How far is everything?

From the middle of this area to the city's headline sights — pick your own on the city page and these become your list.

• Plaza Nueva pintxos15 min walk1.2 km
• Basílica de Begoña15 min walk1.2 km
• Mercado de la Ribera15 min walk1.3 km
• Casco Viejo & the Seven Streets16 min walk1.3 km
• Santiago Cathedral16 min walk1.3 km
• Getxo & the estuary mouth (beach)28 min taxi9.2 km
• Vizcaya Bridge28 min taxi9.2 km
• Getxo beaches & promenade28 min taxi9.5 km

On your doorstep

What you’re living next to if you stay here.

• 1.Guggenheim Museum — Frank Gehry's swooping titanium masterpiece, the building that put Bilbao on the map — as thrilling outside (Puppy, the spider, the mist sculpture) as in. Come for the architecture even if modern art isn't your thing; it defines the city.
• 3.Puppy — Jeff Koons's giant West Highland terrier, 12 metres of living flowers, standing guard at the Guggenheim's entrance and replanted each season. A joyful, only-in-Bilbao photo; the locals adore it.
• 5.Artxanda funicular & viewpoint — A vintage funicular climbs the hill in three minutes to a terrace with the whole city spread below — the Guggenheim, the river and the green ring of hills. The best panorama in Bilbao; magic at sunset.
• 7.Zubizuri bridge — Calatrava's white swooping footbridge over the Nervión, all curved glass and cables — a sculptural river crossing between the old and new city. Photogenic day or night; part of the riverside architecture trail.
• 8.Museo de Bellas Artes — The city's superb and often-overlooked Fine Arts Museum — old masters to Basque painters and modern names, in a park beside the Guggenheim. Excellent, uncrowded and great value; a rewarding couple of hours.
• 9.Azkuna Zentroa — A grand old wine warehouse reinvented by Philippe Starck into a culture centre — its atrium held up by 43 wildly different columns, with a glass-bottomed rooftop pool overhead. A striking, free wander in the heart of the shopping district.
• 11.Doña Casilda Park — The city's elegant central park behind the Fine Arts museum — duck ponds, a pergola, fountains and shady paths, full of locals at the weekend. A lovely green pause between museums and the river.
• 12.The Nervión riverside walk — The reclaimed riverbanks are now a continuous promenade of bridges, sculpture and modern architecture linking the Guggenheim to the old town. Walk or cycle it to see how the city remade itself; best in the evening light.