11 Best Hotels in Bilbao, Bilbao and the Basque Country

Sandwiched between the Casco Viejo and the industrial area surrounding the Guggenheim, this corporate hotel soars seven stories over the Nervión, and its best rooms boast semicircular windows that make you feel like you're hovering over it. Cloudlike beds, exceptional breakfasts, and personable service make this hotel a regular choice among business and leisure travelers.

This cozy, cinema-themed pension with in-room Nespresso machines and huge TV is a good value. Sure, there's no round-the-clock reception, and rooms aren't impeccably soundproof, but staff are exceedingly personable and all of Bilbao's main sights are at your fingertips.

Built in the mid-19th century for Empress Eugenia de Montijo, wife of Napoléon III, this neo-Gothic limestone castle-cum-hotel with rooms in the watchtowers and defensive walls is one of the most extraordinary lodgings in the area (and Relais & Châteaux agrees). Overlooking the Urdaibai Nature Reserve wetlands 30 minutes north of Bilbao, near Gernika, it's a favorite home base for bird-watchers, with excursions by canoe available for exploring the marshes. The excellent restaurant focuses on local products, from seafood to Txakolí, making this a culinary destination as well.

This sleek art hotel across from the Guggenheim showcases the conceptual wit of Javier Mariscal, creator of Barcelona's 1992 Olympic mascot Cobi, and the structural know-how of Bilbao architect Iñaki Aurrekoetxea. Design highlights include undulating seven-story walls in the lobby, glass elevators, and bathrooms with wood-plank floors. Rooms are minimalist yet well appointed and decorated in calming grays, whites, and earth tones.

Overlooking the San Mamés soccer stadium (known as "La Catedral") and with views of the Nervión River, this former schoolhouse is just a 15-minute walk through the lush Parque de Doña Casilda gardens from the Museo de Bellas Artes and the Guggenheim. Rooms are contemporary in style. The restaurant, El Botxo, serves carefully prepared Basque and international cuisine.

With rooms overlooking Bilbao from the heights of Artxanda, this Basque farmhouse with cheery interiors and eager young owners offers excellent value. It's surrounded by the green hills and meadows you see from the Guggenheim Museum, so what you lose here in big-city ambience you gain in fresh air and solitude. Nearby asadores—including one next door—are good dining options. You'll need a car to get to downtown Bilbao.

Between the Guggenheim and the Museo de Bellas Artes, this quiet boutique hotel with floor-to-ceiling windows and impeccable service is the sister property of the Domine just up the street. Its Y2K aesthetic—picture all-white rooms, crimson throw pillows, and white leather sofas with polished steel legs—ironically feels current once again.

A small, attentively run hotel near the Atxuri station, this modest pensión has modern rooms with views of some of Bilbao's oldest architecture. The owner and manager offer helpful advice about Bilbao.

This quirky, cozy hotel occupies a traditional town house in the Casco Viejo. The beamed ceilings, stone floors, and ethnographical and historical objects (including a portable Spanish Civil War combat confessional) convey a sense of place—a welcome trait in a city where bland name-brand hotels dominate the market.

Designed by architect Ricardo Legorreta and inspired by the work of Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida (1920–2002), this blocky high-rise hotel was built over what was once the nerve center of Bilbao's shipbuilding industry; fittingly, it recalls a futuristic ocean liner. The Meliá is filled with contemporary art and a collection of Spanish ship models, including miniaturized versions of vessels constructed in the city's historic shipyards. Rooms are high, wide, and handsome, with glass, steel, stone, and wood trimmings. The views from upper floors are superb. Both the café and the restaurant, Aizian, are excellent.

Across from the Teatro Arriaga in the Casco Viejo, this design hotel has a blended style of contemporary and antique. Centenary limestone blocks, exposed brickwork, hand-hewn beams, and spiral wooden staircases are juxtaposed with clean new surfaces of glass and steel. The standard rooms and the showers are a tight fit, and the street below can be noisy on weekends.