Plaza Nueva is Bilbao’s oldest surviving square, built in 1849. Pop by for some coffee, watch locals and visitors pass by, or try some of the city’s top pintxos. Café Bar Bilbao is one of the most famous here, known for its squid pintxo and the ham-and-onion version, which are local favourites.

Chillida-Leku is an open-air museum near the city of Hernani, about an hour and a half from Bilbao, dedicated to the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida. Around 40 of his monumental steel and granite works are dotted through meadows and woodland, with smaller pieces displayed inside the restored 16th-century Zabalaga farmhouse. The grounds are peaceful and easy to wander, and there’s also an organic café and shop on site.

Built from the late 14th to the 15th centuries, the Santiago Cathedral is the city’s oldest major church, dedicated to Saint James (Santiago), Bilbao's patron saint. The building features a mix of different styles: its core is Gothic (nave, vault, cloister), a grand Renaissance portico was added in the 1500s, while much of the façade and tower with spire were rebuilt in a neo-Gothic style in the late 1800s by Severino de Achúcarro. Inside, you’ll see three naves, several side chapels, the Gothic cloister accessible via the Door of the Angel ('Puerta del Ángel'), and beyond the main altar, there’s an ambulatory with chapels. Floods in 1983 caused damage, but the cathedral was restored and reopened around 2000.