$20 Flights to Bilbao: Is Spain’s Greenest City Worth It?

When you see roundtrip flights from Valencia to Bilbao for about $20, it’s hard not to treat that as an experiment.

As an American family of six (plus four dogs) who’s been living in Spain for a few years now, we weren’t just asking, “Is Bilbao a cool place to visit?” We wanted to know: could this actually be a place we’d move to if we ever left Valencia?

We spent about four days in Bilbao and nearby Getxo, traveling as a trio (two parents plus our oldest daughter), and looked at everything through a “could our whole family function here?” lens: schools, safety, weather, kid activities, and what day-to-day life might actually feel like.

Here’s what we found.

Our Bilbao Experiment: Can a $20 Flight Reveal a City We’d Actually Move To in Northern Spain?

We treated Bilbao as a real test city, not just a quick getaway. The question in the back of our minds was: if we ever left Valencia, could we actually see ourselves living in Bilbao or nearby as a family?

The barrier to running that experiment was basically zero.

We had $20–$25 roundtrip tickets from Valencia directly to Bilbao. No Madrid stopover, no weird routing. I’m pretty sure it was Vueling. At that price point, it stopped being “a vacation” and started feeling more like, “Okay, this is a low-risk way to go see what life up there might actually feel like.”

This was a short, focused trip: roughly four days in and around Bilbao, not a long, slow stay. Even though we only had one of our four kids with us, we were constantly thinking, “Would this work with all four? Could we do school runs here? Sports? Normal life?”

Part of why we picked Bilbao is that, as far as we know, it’s the largest city in northern Spain. Compared to other popular Spanish destinations people usually mention, Málaga, Alicante, Sevilla, northern Spain just doesn’t get talked about as much in English. Bilbao is smaller than Valencia but still one of the bigger cities in the region, which matters when you’re a family who needs schools, activities, and infrastructure, not just beaches and old town vibes.

So the “experiment” was simple: fly up for about $20–$25 roundtrip per person, spend four days on the ground, and see how it feels compared to our life in Valencia, especially if you’re thinking about moving to Bilbao or somewhere nearby like Getxo, often considered the best neighborhood near Bilbao for families.

First Impressions of Bilbao: Green Hills, Different Climate, Different Vibe

Bilbao hit us immediately as a totally different world from Valencia. You step off the plane and it’s just rolling green hills. It honestly feels like you’ve landed in a different country.

Northern Spain in general, and Bilbao in particular, struck us as extremely green right away, even from the airport: hills, trees, that kind of layered landscape that feels very alive.

Coming from Hawaii, I’m having a hard time with how little it rains in Valencia and just the lack of greenness.

Valencia has a lot going for it, but climate-wise it’s been an adjustment. Day to day, it’s more of a semi-desert vibe: long stretches without rain, plants built for dryness, and that feeling that water is kind of rare.

So landing in Bilbao, the contrast was really stark. Visually, Bilbao reminded me a lot of Hawaii: regular rain, saturated greens, and hills wrapping around the city. For us, that first impression was a big deal.

If you’re sensitive to climate and wondering how rainy Bilbao really is, that’s part of the tradeoff: you get this “wow” moment of green, but you also have to be okay with more rain than in Valencia and a different Bilbao vs Valencia climate overall. For us, just seeing that northern Spain landscape again, the green, the hills, the moisture in the air, scratched an itch we didn’t realize had gotten so strong after a few years in Valencia.

Discovering Getxo: The Coastal Town Near Bilbao We’d Move To First

If we had to pick one place in the Bilbao area to actually live, it would be Getxo.

Getxo is just outside the city, and we got there on public transport, metro or tram, super quick. If it was even 12 minutes away from the main metro, like dead center of the metro, I’d be shocked. It felt really close in.

We spent a good chunk of time there just doing normal life stuff, which is usually the best test of whether somewhere feels livable.

We walked around the town, went to bookshops, grabbed coffees and ice creams. It’s a really, really nice town.

The vibe was exactly that “closest nice pueblo next to a bigger city” feeling. You still feel connected to Bilbao, but you’re not in the dense city center. If you’re more of a small-town person who still wants city access, this is the sweet spot.

From a family angle, Getxo was kind of the easy answer to “Is Bilbao worth visiting with kids?” There are little playgrounds scattered as you walk through, it’s calm and walkable, and you’ve got the coast and beach there. For us, that coastal, kid-friendly, still-connected-to-the-city combo is hard to beat.

The catch is cost. Getxo is pricey, but it’s really nice. Northern Spain in general can be pricier in certain cities and neighborhoods, especially Bilbao and nearby San Sebastián. San Sebastián is one of the most expensive cities in Spain, up there with Barcelona and Madrid, and it’s only about an hour’s drive from Bilbao. So compared to some other northern towns that are cheaper, places like Bilbao, Getxo, and San Sebastián can be significantly more expensive.

For what we were looking for, though, Getxo worked. Close enough that you still feel like you’re part of Bilbao, but with that smaller “pueblo next to a bigger city” feel. If your priorities are coastal, kid-friendly, and still connected to the city, even if you have to pay more for it, Getxo would be the first place we’d look.

Staying in a Bilbao Hostel as a Family: Cost, Comfort, and Surprises

We accidentally stayed in a hostel for the first time.

We usually have to book for seven people, so we’re always filtering for bigger spaces, and this one just looked like a good deal in a good area.

It turned out to be a really nice hostel in the middle of Bilbao, and the location was fantastic. Perfect, perfect location.

Because we booked for so many people, we had a private room. Our room even had its own bathroom, some rooms shared a bathroom down the hall. We had a little living area, a sitting area, and then all of us in one bedroom. For us, it felt more like a small apartment setup, but at hostel prices.

Breakfast was optional, around eight bucks, all you can eat. Nothing fancy, but for a family that made mornings simple and still budget-friendly compared to a traditional hotel breakfast in the city center.

The hostel had both shared rooms and private rooms, so you could do the classic bunk-bed hostel thing or what we did and have your own space. They also did nightly social events, trivia, meet and greets, with cheap drinks (like two euros for a glass of wine) so people could actually connect.

Coming in with that “hostels are for 20-somethings” mindset, this was a lot better than we expected: clean, respectful, comfortable, and a cheaper, more social alternative in the middle of Bilbao if you’re a small family or group looking to save money. If you’re juggling multiple currencies or paying for stays abroad, tools like Wise have also been really helpful for us to move dollars into euros without getting crushed on fees.

Riding the Artxanda Funicular: Bilbao’s Mountaintop Park and City Views

One of our favorite things we did in Bilbao was take the Artxanda funicular, basically a little tram, up to the top of the big hill that overlooks the city.

We went in summer, and coming from Valencia, just escaping the heat for a bit already felt like a win.

At the top, it’s not some overbuilt tourist complex.

It’s just a park. Benches, open space, paths. It was beautiful. We spent a lot of time just sitting on a bench, hanging out, watching people.

So many people were up there: families, runners doing laps, kids playing in the middle park. Tons of dogs too, people brought their dogs up in the tram, which I loved seeing as a family with four dogs back home. If you’re wondering whether Bilbao works with kids or pets, this is a good snapshot of the vibe.

From up there you can look over the entire city and see the water and how everything fits together. For us, especially thinking about moving from Valencia to Bilbao or maybe living in Getxo, being able to see the whole layout like that, and feel Bilbao’s cooler summer weather at the same time, made the funicular and park an easy “yes” on the list of things to do.

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Would We Move to Bilbao? Schools, Kids’ Activities, and Expat Fit

If we were to ever move somewhere else in Spain, it would probably be northern Spain, and most likely Bilbao, after weighing Bilbao vs Valencia for our family.

Out of everywhere we’ve looked, it’s the one that actually seems to work for our reality now: four kids, four different personalities, and a lot of logistics around schools and activities.

Bilbao is smaller than Valencia, but it’s still one of the bigger cities up there, and that matters. Because of its size, it has way more options for kids’ activities: football, basketball, swim, art, flamenco… all the things our kids are into now, plus whatever new thing they decide on next. In smaller northern cities like Oviedo, you just don’t have as many choices.

Schools are the other huge piece. A lot of smaller places don’t have many schools, and with four kids, finding four spots is almost impossible. We’ve seen that play out. Even in Valencia, we couldn’t get all of our kids into the same school for the first two years. Year three is the first time we finally have everyone together.

That experience really shapes how we think about moving. We’re not interested in repeating a two-year puzzle of drop-offs, pick-ups, and kids spread across different schools. Bilbao, being one of the bigger cities in the north, gives us more schools to work with and more flexibility.

The expat side matters too. For a larger family, I’d prefer Bilbao over a smaller northern town because it has a slightly bigger expat community. That just makes day-to-day life and building community a bit easier when you’re not from here.

So when people ask about living in Bilbao vs Valencia, that’s how we see it: Valencia is larger and it’s our home base now, but Bilbao feels like the northern version that could still support our kids’ activities, school needs, and the kind of community we want.

How Safe Is Bilbao Compared to Valencia and U.S. Cities?

From a safety perspective, Bilbao felt very close to Valencia for us, probably around 85–90% as safe, and both felt light years safer than what we were used to in the U.S.

In Valencia, we feel extremely safe. We’ll let our kids go to the corner market a block over. Our middle-schooler walks herself to art class, probably a 5–10 minute walk across a couple of blocks, from our son’s football field to art and back, still in the city center. In the States, we just wouldn’t have done that.

Using that same lens, Bilbao stacked up really well.

I’d say we personally felt about 85–90% as safe as we do in Valencia walking around Bilbao. You see women walking at night through the city center. You see kids on the bus alone. It’s very similar to what we see in Valencia.

There is a difference in terms of specific areas. In Bilbao, there’s probably one street you kind of avoid. We got close to that street and yeah, it looked a little sketchy. But even then, it didn’t feel anything like the rougher neighborhoods you might be picturing from certain U.S. Cities. It’s just not the same category.

If you look at the crime statistics, Bilbao and Valencia are pretty close. The main thing in both is petty theft, people taking things out of cars, grabbing a phone off a table if you’re not paying attention. That lines up with what we’ve heard and seen: lock your car, don’t leave your stuff unattended, and you’re mostly fine.

There’s also this historical layer that still shapes how some people think about Bilbao. Our dentist was telling us about the 80s, the car bombings, and the issues back then, so some people still carry that older reputation in their heads. But that doesn’t match how the city felt to us walking around with our kid in 2020s Bilbao.

One more comparison: I might have felt actually less safe in parts of Barcelona than in parts of Bilbao, if I’m being completely honest. So if you’re wondering whether Bilbao is safe to visit with kids or to live in as an expat family, we’d put it firmly in the “yes, this feels good” category, just a notch below Valencia in how relaxed we felt.

The Truth About Bilbao’s Rain: How Bad Is It Really?

Bilbao has a rainy reputation, but it’s not the apocalypse level that a lot of Spaniards make it sound like.

Spaniards frequently warn that it rains “so much” in northern Spain, especially around Bilbao, and honestly, they make it sound like the end of the world. From our perspective, that’s not how it lands.

We’re coming at this from Hilo, Hawaii, basically rain city of America in terms of sheer amount of rainfall.

Our baseline for “a lot of rain” is pretty high. Compared to that, Bilbao’s rain doesn’t feel extreme at all.

Weather-wise, Bilbao gets grouped in people’s minds with places like Seattle and Portland, and that’s not totally wrong, but there are some key differences. From what we’ve seen and heard, Bilbao has a bit less rain than Seattle and Portland and more sunny skies. You’re not going to get as much endless gray as Portland; you’re going to get more sun and a little less rain.

Compared to northern Europe, it tilts even more in Bilbao’s favor. Based on what we’ve seen, Bilbao also has less rain than Amsterdam and anywhere in the UK or Ireland. If you’re from the UK or Ireland, you’re probably getting better weather in Bilbao, more sun, less cold, less constant drizzle.

Now, does it rain a lot? Yes and no. Expats we spoke with in Bilbao said it rains almost every day or every other day, but usually for very short times. So if you’re tracking “rainy days” on a calendar, it looks like it rains constantly. But what’s really happening is an hour or two of showers and then it’s gone. Every now and then you get a storm that lasts a couple of days, but the typical pattern is short bursts, not all-day downpours.

That’s also why Bilbao and the surrounding region look the way they do. If you want green and lush, you have to have rain. There’s no way around it.

Seasonally, the summers are great. There’s really not that much rain, and the heat is so much more tolerable than in Valencia. If you’re comparing Bilbao summer weather to Valencia, that’s a big deal, especially with kids who melt in August.

So, does it rain a lot in Bilbao? Yes, in the sense that you’ll probably see rain almost every day or every other day if you’re asking how rainy is Bilbao really.

But it’s usually an hour or two, not a full day of gray. If you’re coming from places like Seattle, Portland, Amsterdam, or anywhere in the UK or Ireland, you’re likely getting less rain, more sun, and better overall weather in Bilbao.

Our Final Takeaways: Is Bilbao Worth It for Travelers and Potential Expats?

If there was somewhere we were ever to consider in Spain beyond Valencia, it probably would be Bilbao, this green city in northern Spain.

After this trip, Bilbao and nearby Getxo are our number one pick in Spain if we ever decide to leave Valencia, and northern Spain in general is where we’d look first for a future move.

For travelers, especially if you’re wondering whether Bilbao is worth visiting with kids, our answer based on this trip is yes. The combination of green landscapes, milder summers, city infrastructure, and relative safety really stood out for us. Compared to southern and coastal favorites like Málaga, Alicante, or Sevilla, we personally prefer the greener landscape and softer climate you get in the north.

On the expat side, Bilbao wins over other northern cities we’ve looked at mainly on schools, activities, and the expat community. Oviedo and Gijón are great in their own ways (we almost bought a farm near Oviedo), but if we had to pick one area now that balances family life, things to do, and that northern Spain vibe, it would be Bilbao and its nearby coastal towns.

Getxo in particular felt like the best fit for the kind of lifestyle we’d want: close to the city, but with that coastal, family-friendly feel. If we ever made the move, that’s probably where we’d start our housing search.

The main trade-offs are cost and rain. Some northern areas like Bilbao, Getxo, and especially San Sebastián are more expensive than many other parts of Spain, and you are trading more frequent rain for those green landscapes and milder summers.

One extra note if you’re creating content about your own travels or scouting trips like this: turning raw trip notes or videos into something organized and useful is a lot easier with tools like ContentFold, which can help you spin out blog posts, newsletters, and more from a single trip.

After this trip, Bilbao and its coastal neighbors moved from “interesting weekend trip” to “real contender” on our list of places we’d live if we ever left Valencia and were seriously moving from Valencia to Bilbao. It’s greener, cooler in the summer, and has more going on for families than a lot of other northern Spanish cities we’ve looked at, even if it does come with a higher price tag and more rain. If you’re already living in Spain or thinking about moving here, it’s absolutely worth doing your own version of this $20 experiment and seeing how Bilbao feels for you on the ground.

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