Flight
Bilbao is the closest airport to fly into. From London, Easyjet flies in the week commencing August 27th for approximately 60 pounds return. The flight is approximately one and a half hours. From New York, Delta and BA fly in the week commencing August 27th for approximately $600-650 return. Flight time is generally 14-15 hours with 1 stopover. From Sydney, there are various permutations and airlines available but you’ll likely need to do 2 stopovers (one in Asia and one in Europe) before reaching Bilbao with a .... fairly long ... total flight time. The other option is to fly to Madrid or Barcelona and take a train to Bilbao. Spain has a well connected rail network - a train from Madrid to Bilbao takes 5 hours (c.50 EUR return), and from Barcelona to Bilbao takes 6 1/2 hours (c. 90 EUR return).
Shuttle
August 31, 2019 2:30 pm - 11:00 pm
There will be a shuttle to bring guests from Bilbao to the venue and back. The bus will leave Bilbao (from Gran Hotel Domine Bilbao, Alameda de Mazarredo 61, 48009 BILBAO) at 2.30pm sharp. The bus will make two trips from the venue back to Bilbao in the evening (at around 9pm and 11pm). Alternatively, the venue is a 15-20 minute car ride from the center of town so taxis should also be easily callable and inexpensive if you prefer to leave outside of these two times. Un autobús llevará a los invitados desde Bilbao y Vitoria hasta el restaurante y de vuelta. El horario está aún por determinar.
Rental Car
The easiest way to see the Basque country is by car hire in Bilbao. That said, if you’d prefer not to drive or hire a car there is also public transport available across the basque country. If you’re just coming for the wedding, it is similarly easy to get a bus from Bilbao airport to the centre of the city and we’ll be organising some form of transport from the centre to the venue. A few things to note about driving cars in Spain: - it’s right hand side drive (but I would say much easier than driving in italy) - there are generally manual cars much more readily available than automatic but if you look hard enough you’ll be able to find an automatic car - for those with an Australian licence, you’ll need a valid Australian license AND an international drivers license.
Travel Note
Bilbao is one of the main cities (along with Vitoria Gasteiz and San Sebastian) of the Basque Country, one of the autonomous regions of Spain. The Basque country is split into 3 provinces - Biscay (of which the capital is Bilbao), Alava (of which the capital is Vitoria) and Gipuzkoa (of which the capital is San Sebastian). People speak Spanish (Castellano) and Basque in the Basque Country. In general the larger cities will have signs in both Spanish and Basque, while the smaller cities may only have Basque signage. Spain's official currency is the euro (make sure you change cash before arriving) and August is the height of summer (expect 18-30 degrees celsius).