Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Tickets and Tours

The Guggenheim Museum building has become a synonym of what Bilbao represents to the world, as together with this construction, great urban plans were developed to turn this city from an industrial epicentre into the great tourist destination it is today. In turn, a visit to this museum is one of the best things to see or do in Bilbao no matter what time of the year you are travelling to the largest city in the Basque Country.

So I advise you to keep reading this publication to understand where you can buy tickets to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, how much money they will cost, what times you can visit this beautiful museum and what are the works that you can not miss on a tour. All this with the amount of details you need to feel confident that visiting this museum will be one of the best decisions when in Bilbao.

The most complete option

Bilbao Guggenheim Museum Guided Tour

Tickets to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

Ideal to enjoy a unique place, full of magic and without having to waste time in long lines to buy tickets at the ticket office.

From £83 at Hellotickets

If you are looking to visit the museum with the accompaniment of a specialist who will help you understand the origin and importance of these works along with the history behind the lives of its artists, buy tickets to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao online.

Recommended if you are looking to learn about the important influence the construction of this museum had on the modernisation of Bilbao and to make it a major tourist destination in Spain.

Tickets to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao are not expensive if you consider that you are guaranteed access to the inside and outside of this famous museum. Two areas that usually have modernist works by contemporary artists such as Ives Klein or Jeff Koon.

There are two rates for this, the first is the simple and conventional entrance offered by the museum, which costs about 13 euros approximately per adult and about 6.5 euros for the over 65s or for students between 18 and 26 years of age. Children under 17 years of age enter the museum free of charge.

However, there are other more interesting and convincing tickets that are the best investment available for those who want to understand the history behind this museum, its importance for the city and also the details of each and every one of the works on display. This costs approximately 70 euros per person and consists of a 2-hour guided tour with a specialist in the cultural background of the museum as well as in the curatorship of its art.

You may find this price a little high compared to the basic ticket, but you must understand that this difference stems from the fact that you are paying for an exclusive service. That is, with a guide who is at your disposal to answer all your questions and give you information that you didn't even know existed about one of the most famous museums of the last decades. Moreover, this kind of prices are not too far away from what it costs to pay a guide to accompany you to the best villages outside Bilbao.

You have different ways to buy tickets for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and one of them is the ticket office. It is open every Tuesday to Sunday during the same opening hours of the museum and for many it is actually the best alternative to buy tickets at the last minute.

The official website of the museum does not sell tickets for the same day and also has a limited number of tickets. So it is common for tickets to sell out on the website, so you are told to go to the ticket office to confirm if the capacity allows you to get tickets, knowing that the online tickets are already sold out.

However, the problem with buying tickets at the museum's ticket office usually arises during peak tourist seasons. That is, Christmas, Easter and summer. Since most people tend to buy their tickets on the museum's website or through external and private guides like the service I told you about. This means that there is only a fraction left for the physical ticket office and that drastically reduces your chances of getting tickets for the same day if you arrive too late to the venue.

So the best thing to do is to book your ticket online on some of the websites that also offer you other of the best guided tours in Bilbao or also on the museum's website itself. The latter in case you feel comfortable visiting the museum unaccompanied by a specialist in its works and history.

Tickets to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao are not included in any of the city's tourist passes because Bilbao is not big enough to have a pass that includes 20 museums, 10 galleries and 15 attractions in a single package as is the case in other metropolises such as London, Paris and New York.

So in order to buy tickets to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao it is always necessary to purchase the ticket individually knowing that you are only getting access to this particular site. However, there is also the fact that there is a city tourist pass called the Bizkaia Card and it is a plastic and physical card that is sold under 24, 48 and 72 hour modalities.

The benefits of this pass are more focused on transport, as when you use it you get free entry to any transport system such as the metro, buses or trams in the city. It also offers you some discounts for consumption in some very specific Basque gastronomic establishments or other shops run by local entrepreneurs.

At the same time, the fact that these tickets are not included in a tourist pass does not mean that a visit to this museum is not one of the most interesting things to do in the city. In fact, spending a couple of hours at the Guggenheim Museum is one of the best things to do in Bilbao in a 3-day trip.

Yes, there are special tickets for children, but the unusual thing about them is that they do not offer more benefits or additional services, but rather a financial saving. The fact is that children under 18 years of age can enter the museum free of charge, every day of the year, regardless of the time selected for the purchase of other tickets for the adults accompanying them.

This makes a visit to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao a cost-saving experience for the whole family group and the most curious thing is that this site is one of the most elegant and important in the whole city. So getting to this site is one of the best things to see or do in Bilbao with children. At least if they are old enough to enjoy a tour of one of the most important art collections in Spain as well as a real jewel of modern architecture.

At the same time, the price paid by young people under the age of 18 to participate in guided tours with a specialist in this museum are usually drastically lower than the adult rates. The price is almost always around 18 euros per child or adolescent, while an adult pays an average of 70 euros.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is one of the most accessible places in the whole city by public transport and has at least 5 simultaneous alternatives to reach it from the metropolitan area of Bilbao, as well as from the surrounding area. If you want to get there by bus you can take lines 01, 10, 18 and 17 to get off at the Museo 1 stop. Lines 11 and 71 also leave you very close by if you get off at the La Salve or Campo Volantín stops.

The tram is probably the most entertaining way to get to this site, knowing that it is a very touristy and peculiar means of transport. If you choose this option, you should get off at the Guggenheim stop. At the same time, with Bilbao's modern metro system you have the option of getting off at Moyua station and to get to the museum you will have to take the Ercilla-Guggenheim exit and you will be just a few steps away from the museum.

If you arrive by car you should know that the museum does not offer parking for its visitors, but you can still leave your car in nearby areas such as the car park in Plaza Pío Baroja or the car park in Plaza Euskadi. People with disabilities can park in the spaces provided by the municipality in the vicinity of the museum.

If you are just arriving in the city, but can't wait to visit the museum immediately after landing, you also have the option of booking a private transfer from the airport to the centre of Bilbao. This will drop you off directly at the entrance to the museum if you wish and is recommended if you are visiting the city without luggage.

The immensity and beauty of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao's facilities have directly influenced the fact that the sculptures on permanent display outside the museum are some of the most important works to see when visiting the site.

The arachnid sculpture Mama by Louis Bourgois, the 13 m high Puppy sculpture by American artist Jeff Koons, the permanent installation by Jenny Holzer, The Big Tree and the Eye by Anish Kapoor and the tulips which are also by Jeff Koons are some of the most important elements of the museum's permanent collection.

The museum's interiors include works by Antonio Saura, Jorge Oteiza, Mark Rothko and other great exponents of 20th century abstractionist art. The work The Matter of Time by the sculptor Richard Serra is also another of the great artistic treasures that distinguish this museum from other contemporary art collections.

It is also appropriate to highlight the benefits associated with a guided tour, as a specialist can help you understand more easily the importance behind the permanent collection of this museum. The same applies to other sites in the Basque Coast region, as a planned and guided visit from Bilbao to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe is often a more recommendable plan for tourists, at least compared to having to reach the site by your own means.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has 9,000 square metres of exhibition space inside and outside the iconic building that houses the permanent and temporary exhibitions of this institution dedicated to contemporary art.

According to the museum's curators, it is estimated that 90 minutes is enough time to see most of the permanent collection in detail. That while with an additional 1 hour you can fully appreciate any of the temporary exhibitions with works from other parts of the world that are commonly held in this museum throughout the year.

That means that with about 3 hours you should have already visited the entire museum in its entirety and in this context it is very appropriate to know that the guided tours that I have mentioned have the perfect duration. For with two hours of continuous information you can leave the premises with a deeper and more accurate understanding of the works that characterise this museum without having to endure long walks along a kilometre-long system of corridors and exhibits, as happens in other museums around the world.

This also means that this can be an activity that can fit perfectly into any time of your day during a three-hour time gap. Allowing you to enjoy other plans such as one of Bilbao' s best gastronomic tours without any inconvenience during the same day of your visit.

As one of the most important tourist attractions, the Guggenheim Museum is open for as long as possible. If you want to visit it you can do so from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 7 pm. However, there are also exceptions throughout the year, as depending on the number of tourists it is possible that on some Mondays the museum is open during the same opening hours as the rest of the week.

You should also know that the museum is closed on December 25th and January 1st. Also, on 31 December and 24 December the doors are usually closed a little earlier for the festivities at around 5pm.

As for the guided tours, it is useful to keep in mind that you can select different times throughout the day and on average they usually start at 10am, 10:30am, 1pm and 4: 30pm. However, this depends on your interests, as this is a private tour that is reserved exclusively for your group of companions.

The fact that the museum stops receiving visitors at seven in the evening allows you to have the rest of the evening available to enjoy the best things to do at night in Bilbao. This is in the hypothetical case that you have decided to visit the museum just before it closes.

There are several tips I can give you to make the most of your experience visiting the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The first recommendation that is relevant is that you should choose a day when you know you will have two or three hours available for a leisurely tour of this famous institution dedicated to modern and contemporary art.

The second recommendation I can give you is that you should opt for guided tours with specialists in the history and art collections of the museum.

This is because it is an experience that offers you a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of the importance of each and every one of the works of art you see on the tour. You will also be able to understand more easily the importance of such an impressive architectural work for a city like Bilbao, which in its past was an industrial epicentre for the economic hub of the Basque Country.

If you visit the museum in summer or winter, I recommend that you choose days when the weather is forecast to be rainy or too hot. Visiting a building with internal air conditioning like this one is one of the best things to do in Bilbao in summer, knowing that any urban tour through its streets would mean having to endure some of the heat waves that have characterised the Spanish summer for the last couple of years.

In the vicinity of this museum there are hundreds of options to enjoy a good, authentic Basque meal or a more conventional meal. Crossing the street Alameda de Mazarredo you will find at least a dozen restaurants ranging from Moroccan food to traditional Spanish taverns.

If you walk a couple of streets towards Plaza Moyúa you will get close to some of the best pintxos in Bilbao, as it is in this area that you will find some of the most authentic and loved restaurants by the locals.

Odoloste restaurant , La Casita de Sabino and the modest seafood restaurant Mazarredo are just a few of the best and closest to the museum that might satisfy your appetite if you're not willing to walk a little further to find another restaurant that also belongs to the city's gastronomic treasures.