Rent your car at Bilbao Airport

The Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, with its titanium architecture designed by Frank Gehry, is one of the most photographed buildings in the world and the stop no visitor skips. A few minutes' drive away, the Old Quarter concentrates the Siete Calles, the Ribera Market — the largest covered market in Europe — and a pintxos scene that turns any afternoon into an unforgettable gastronomic experience. Parking near the estuary and walking along both banks is the best way to understand the urban transformation that turned Bilbao into a European reference point.

Less than half an hour from the airport, the Biscay coast unfolds some of the most spectacular landscapes on the Cantabrian Sea. Getxo, with its marina and the mansions of El Arenal, contrasts with the beach of Mundaka, considered one of the best surf waves in Europe, and with the cliffs of Bermeo and Ea, small fishing villages that have kept the maritime character of the Basque Country intact. Without your own car, many of these spots are simply out of reach for most visitors.

Less than an hour to the south, La Rioja Alavesa surprises with vineyards, avant-garde wineries designed by names like Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid, and medieval villages like Laguardia perched on hilltops. Vitoria-Gasteiz, European Green Capital and seat of the Basque Parliament, adds a medieval old town declared a monumental ensemble and a cultural scene that few tourists take the time to discover. With a rental car from Bilbao Airport, these getaways are simply a matter of deciding to leave the city.