Bilbao City Guide - Getting There By Road

A network of motorways and highways converges on Bilbao. The city can be reached by the A8, which is connected to Donostia-San Sebastian and the French border at Irun, and by the A68, which connects with Barcelona and the A7 along the Mediterranean coast. Bilbao is connected to Burgos by the A68 (journey time - 1 hour 30 minutes) and to Valladolid by the Autovía de Castilla (Castile Freeway) (journey time - 2 hours 30 minutes). From there the Autovia del Norte (Northern Freeway) leads to Madrid (journey time - 4 hours). Bilbao is connected to Santander (journey time - 1 hour) by the Autovía del Cantábrico (Cantabrian Freeway).

Emergency breakdown service: Real Automobile Club Espana (tel: 902 300 505; website: www.race.es).

Bilbao's main bus station is the bus terminal Termibús (tel: (94) 439 5077; website: www.termibus.es), next to the exchange station of San Mamés. Termibús connects with the San Mamés metro station, the tramway and the Renfe short-distance rail lines.

Alsa (tel: 902 422 242; website: www.alsa.es) operates routes to most of the cities in Spain, as well as routes between Bilbao and cities in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, UK and Switzerland.

PESA (tel: 902 101 210; website: www.pesa.net) operates the bus connection between Bilbao and San Sebastian, while La Union (tel: (94) 427 1111; website: www.autobuseslaunion.es) operates the routes from Vitoria, Pamplona and Logroño. Bizkaibus (tel: 902 222 265; website: www.bizkaia.net) is a bus road network connecting Bilbao to all the districts in Vizcaya.