Hotel Recommendation in Bilbao Spain

I stayed at the Bilder Boutique Hotel. It was my splurge but still a reasonable splurge compared to some places. This area, though, is a great location. It’s the north side of the Casco Viejo, which is a heck of a lot more fun for your last night in Spain. Right across the street is the taxi stop (they aren’t allowed into old town) and it’s not more than a half hour from there to the airport, especially at that early hour. It was probably less time but can’t remember for sure. The Bilder didn’t have little refrigerators but they did have a coffee maker so that plus a pastry and fruit bought the night before works for an early breakfast. Also, assuming you are going through Madrid, the counters in Bilbao don’t open until a couple hours at the most before the flight so don’t bother with the three hour international rule if you’re checking a bag. You’ll be spending time in line for no reason. It’s a small airport and easy to manage.

There is a Holiday Inn Express next to the airport. Good if you just want to stay close to the airport, not so good if you want a last night in the city.

Ten days in Donostia-San Sebastian seems a lot, considering the size and attractions of the city. And the rainy weather, very similar to the one in Seattle for most of the year. I would recommend to stay in Bilbao at least two of those nights, it´s a surprisingly beautiful city with a very nice, lively old quarter, great architecture, very similar food scene to the one in D-SS, and plenty of things to do and see. Holiday Inn Express would be a good choice as it´s next to the airport, but as Bilbao is not big, the ride from the city center to the airport is less than 20min. There´s a bus to the airport every 15min from the center, a taxi ride would be around 30-35eur. Any hotel in the center would be fine, really.

I'm with Mikel. There's more to see in Bilbao, though San Sebastian has the beautiful beach (but not much beach weather, in my experience).

I agree with the others to spend more time in Bilbao rather than 10 days in San Sebastian. It would be a shame to miss seeing this really interesting city, and 10 days in San Sebastian is a long time. But to your question about a hotel, I would opt to stay in the city rather than at an airport hotel so at least you could walk around and have a nice dinner. We stayed near the Guggenheim and found it to be an ideal location, but the city is so walkable that pretty much any area would work.