Looking at Rick Steves' Spain book 2014 page 233, there are bus connections from Lekeitio to Bilbao hourly and takes 1.25 hours. The train connections I found, uses the Lurraldbus Euskotran to back track to Zarautz then use the Lurraldbus pesa to Bilbao. This takes 1 hour and 45 minutes. I tried the Alsa site in Basque country, but Lekeitio is not listed as a city to leave from. Is this the route Rick is referring to? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Annelle
www.termibus.es shows bus schedules from Bilbao to Lekeitio and other destinations. You probably can't book these ahead and would not need to.
There are bus connections from Bilbao to Lekeitio. Last summer we made that trip. We didn't buy our tickets online. Instead, we went to the bus station in Bilbao and purchased them. I think we even did it the morning of our trip. The bus wasn't full at all. It is a nice drive through the windy northern coast of Spain. We later took the bus from Lekeitio to San Sebastian. I hope you enjoy your time in Bilbao and Lekeitio.