Mi vida hoy sigue su camino;
me gusta, es el que elegí.
Pero aún hay veces en que me sorprendo
soñando que vuelvo por ti.

Rafa Pons, “La niña de Getxo”

Our first All You Can Fly trip took us to Bilbao, the biggest city in the Basque region in Spain. As we described last week, it was easy to get two tickets with our Wizz Air All You Can Fly-pass. We had to get up pretty early, as the flight leaves Vienna at 06:10. Anyway, we got to the Airport at 5:00 and had time for a  quick breakfast at the Airport Lounge.

The flight, about 90% full, took off nearly on time. A little nap and a couple of good songs on Spotify later we approached Bilbao Airport, flying in over the Gulf of Bizcay. What a landscape: mountains, sea and a marvellous golf course (more on that later) right on the shores welcomed us to that lovely city!

 Then we broke a record: touch down at 08:49, jump into the Airport bus (perfect connection to the city in less than 20 min.), get off the bus in Gran Via, 50m walk to the hotel, at the reception for check-in at 09:19. 30 min from touch down to hotel check-in!

The GHA Discovery hotel loyalty program

Thanks to our GHA Platinum status, the NH Collection Villa de Bilbao offered us an upgrade and an early check-in. GHA Discovery, GHA standing for Global Hotel Alliance, is the loyalty card program of an alliance of independent hotel chains like NH, Avani, Anantara, Kempinksi, Viceroy, Shaza or Sukothai, to name a few of the around 40 brands participating in that program. We love GHA Discovery, as it is one of the loyalty programs where one can obtain good status and good benefits relatively easy.

GHA Discovery is our number 2. The hotel loyalty program we love most is the Shangri-La Circle program of the Shangri-La hotel group. We enjoyed Shangri-La Diamond status for many years and this was by far the best program we ever experienced. Unfortunately, there are not enough Shangri-La hotels in the destinations we travel to in order to maintain that status (they are mostly in Asia). But let us assure you, that program is far beyond anything you would get from Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton or the other big chains.

Charming Bilbao

Back to Bilbao!

The city is simply marvellous and charming! With some 300-400 thousand inhabitants it is not too big. The number of “have to see- things” is quite limited: of course the Guggenheim Museum, the Old Town, The Vizcaya Bridge and the Funicular (check out www.mypremiumeurope.com on Bilbao, which gives a nice overview of things to do). In one day you could cover most of it.

But in reality this city lives from its great atmosphere. Clean and with impressive buildings which to a big degree result from wealth created through the steel industry boomand the importance of Bilbao as harbour in the 19^th century, Bilbao reinvented itself in the late 1990s to become a culture city.

Public transport is great with busses, trams and a metro line connecting the most important parts of the city. Take the BARIK-card (the same thing like the Oyster card in London), load it with € 10,- for 2 persons and you should be fine for three days in the city, including the Airport bus.

Also, many things are in walking distance. Walking from the hotel to the Old Town took us about 30 min. But we were had to stop at halfway for half an hour to watch the “Bilbao Mile”, an obviously famous running competition right on Gran Via!

Bring good shoes and enjoy walking around!

Or – take bike! Renting a bike with the Bilbao Bici or the BIZKAIBIZI-App is easy and reasonably priced (€ 2,50 per half hour at the time we were there).

Getxo

Getxo is a small city located 12 km away from Bilbao (technically a separate city, but factually Getxo is part of Bilbao´s metropolitan area with Getxo being located at the mouth of the river Nervión on the shores of the Gulf of Bizcay). You can reach Getxo with a 30 min. metro ride from downtown Bilbao.

After climbing the Vizcaya Bridge and crossing it on the way back with the amazing “hanging ferry”, we then took a bike and rode along the coast in direction Sopela, passing the old fishermen´s village, and the windmill. Getxo offers a super-relaxed atmosphere, and it was great to watch young men playing Pelota, a basque racket game (sort of related to Squash) ust alongside people chatting in cafés or others just watching the time go by.

On the way back from the shores near Getxo, we passed by the Golf course which we saw from above when we approached Bilbao Airport: The “Real Sociedad de Golf de Neguri”.

Real Sociedad de Golf de Neguri

As passionate golfers, we had to see that course! The private club is well protected by an entrance for members and invitees only, restricted by heavy bars. We managed to pass the bars on our bikes and pedaled to the clubhouse. In front of the clubhouse we met a very nice gentleman who was happy that we spoke Spanish to him. He turned out to be the ex-president of the club and was so kind to show us around. What a golf club! Certainly one of the top clubs and top courses we have seen (and we have seen quite a lot!).

The nice encounter ended with an invitation to play a round of golf together, when we pass by next time and bring our golf equipment! We will certainly come back to that offer, thank you, Borja!

La Movida

We enjoy cultural events in the cities we go to. On the second evening we decided to go to a show in the Campos Eliseos Theatre: “La Movida el Musical de los 80” was essentially a musical celebrating the late 1980s in Spain. Not the best we have seen, but nice songs and good performers in a gorgeous theatre setting!

Pintxos

The third day we spent walking around and continuing to indulge ourselves with Pintxos, the Basque version of Tapas. There are uncountable Pintxo´s bars in Bilbao, especially in the Old Town. Already on day 1, we found our preferred Pintxo bar on Plaza Nueva, Urdiña Taberna (Plaza Nueva No. 5). Nothing better than enjoying some Pintxos with a glass of wine or beer (or a second one, or a third one…).

You cannot be in Bilbao without having Pintxos – most of them are made as little transient pieces of art with your stomach as final destination!

The trip home

Booking the trip home (you remember – there is only a 72-hour booking window for Wizz Air All You Can Fly-tickets!) was easy. We did it right after checking in at the hotel on day 1. As I was checking flight prices before our trip (see our blog entry on planning flights) I estimated the chance to get a return ticket high – and this is what it turned out to be.

On Wednesday morning, we took the 7:22 bus just in front of our hotel, bringing us directly to the Airport. We had unusually good weather for October in Bilbao, and when we left, it started raining. No worries Bilbao, we cried too! But we will be back!

After another lounge-breakfast, we arrived home with lots of new impressions, new friends and a new favourite city!

Total cost of the trip

We are very cautious of indicating how much you should budget for your trip, as everyone has different travel preferences.

But let us give you an idea:

We paid € 40,- for the Wizz Air tickets for two persons both ways (4x the € 9,99 booking fee of an All You Can Fly ticket). Using a BARIK card (one card works for 2 persons) With € 10,- you should be fine for three days public transport including Airport transfers for two. Our all afternoon bike trip cost us about € 30,-.

A good breakfast in a typical bar will amount to somewhere around € 20,- for two.

Tickets for the Guggenheim are € 25,- for a couple, our theatre tickets cost slightly under € 100,- (2 tickets).

The biggest expenses are hotels and dining and will obviously depend on your hotel and dining preferences.

For us, the total cost of the trip for two persons was around € 750,- (we saved about € 160,- at the hotel using GHA Discovery-points, and we saved € 50,- as we had an Airport transfer voucher in Vienna). So without the voucher, we would have come close to € 1.000,- for a three day trip.

Can you do it cheaper? You certainly can, but we indulged in great food, a very nice hotel and going to a musical show.

We saved € 100,- compared to standard tickets using our All You Can Fly-pass. So the gross saving for the trip using Wizz Air´s All You can Fly was about 10 % of the total cost of the trip (€ 100,- dsaved on plane tickets at a total cost of € 1.000,-).

(Nearly) free airlines tickets don´t save you as much as you may believe they would, but we will dig deeper into that question another time. In the meantime, we plan our next trip! Can we do the Maldives in November? Check out in the coming weeks!