Study Abroad in Bilbao, Spain

Bilbao is a small, walkable city with great public transportation, amazing food, and stellar cultural offerings. There are numerous free exhibits and concerts every week, and I took full advantage of the cheap, incredible food options across the city.

I went to Spain as a Spanish major wanting to cement my language skills, and ISA's Bilbao program let me do exactly that. Homestay was the only housing option (which I wanted), and my host family was incredible; my host parents supported my language immersion tirelessly (talking with me over daily family-style lunch about Basque culture and and Spain and teaching me new vocabulary) while also giving me the independence to explore the city and travel.

ISA's pre-program visa-support process in the US left a lot to be desired, but Genoveva (the on-site coordinator in Bilbao) is the absolute best. She connected me with volunteer opportunities, cultural experiences, and students seeking English tutors.

Be aware ISA offers classes through CIDE (el Centro Internacional de Español) at Deusto University. CIDE is a language exchange program designed specifically for North American students, so you'll start and end the semester on a North American schedule and take classes with mostly other North Americans unless you opt into classes with locals (although you will have to push to take more than one class with Spanish students per semester). The CIDE instructors are excellent, though, and they offer a variety of classes designed to meet requirements for Spanish and Business degrees. They will cancel some offerings (like Medical Spanish my year) for low enrollment, so pick backup classes with your advisor.

I joined Deusto's Basque dance group, and you can take language classes separate from your CIDE classes at the university's language center in the evenings (including French and Basque). There is also a chapter of the international student group Happy Erasmus in Bilbao that organizes weekly events and weekend trips in English for students from around the world.

I loved Bilbao so much I took a gap year after my program to continue volunteering on a tall ship based in the city. For a student who had never left the united states before but wanted as much Spanish immersion as possible, it was an incomparable experience.

Bilbao is a beautiful city rich in culture with amazing views, inspiring art, delicious food, and kind people! The city's vibrant atmosphere and welcoming spirit allowed me to feel at home within days of arriving. The city offers experiences for everyone to enjoy: lively nightlife, picturesque hikes, world class gastronomy, and spirited fútbol matches of Bilbao's own professional team. The public transportation is in a class of its own as it is reliable, clean, and efficient allowing easy access to explore the city within or take quick day trips to nearby cities and beaches. Whether it was walking around historic Casco Viejo, riding the metro to nearby beaches, taking in the views of the city from above per the funicular, eating pintxos at La Ribera market, or simply sitting on a bench in the park, my time in Bilbao was a once in a lifetime experience with memories I will cherish forever.

Bilbao is an absolutely amazing city nestled right in the middle of the mountains and the beach. What more could you ask for? With a short metro to the beach, countless stunning mountains surrounding you at every angle, beautiful greenery, lively culture, and most of all: pintxos, Bilbao has something for everyone! Bilbao is very safe and is perfect for nature lovers who want to be centralized in a modern city. The public transportation is very clean, efficient, and laid out wonderfully compared to other major cities in Spain!

I always knew I wanted to study abroad, but I chose Bilbao specifically because I wanted to experience the culture, language, nature, and people of Spain without having to deal with ginormous cities like Barcelona or Madrid. Bilbao is absolutely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. It's surrounded by green mountains on either side with plenty of hiking and multiple insanely beautiful beaches 20 minutes away on the Metro. In Bilbao, I lived in a homestay, and between my host mom, Elena, and my program manager, Genoveva, I always felt safe. I also felt supported in my academics at the university and adjusting to the homestay. This freed me up to experience Bilbao, Spain, and Europe. I took many trips to the historic cities near Bilbao, like Pamplona, San Sebastian, and Guernica. I experienced nightlife with some great friends I met on the trip and got to eat some of the best food I'd ever had. On a normal day in the first month, I would walk across the river, with a great view of the Guggenheim, and into Universidad de Deusto, which is this beautiful European building full of smart Basque students and teachers. After my language, history, and culture classes, I would most likely take the metro to the beach with my friends, where we would relax under the sun and cool off in the Cantabrian Sea. Then we'd grab a pintxo, probably tortilla de patata, and head home to have dinner with our host parents and siblings. I will never forget all those beautiful moments I had while studying abroad, and I can't recommend Bilbao, or anywhere in Spain for that matter, enough! It's also great if you're looking to build your resume. There are local programs that hire students to teach local kids English.

My typical day during the week involved waking up, getting ready, grabbing my umbrella and boots and walking to the metro in the rain. Then a 30 minute ride followed by a 10 minute walk in the rain to class. The class rooms were freezing but the professors were wonderful. The classes were not hard, but the Language immersion classes were all in Spanish and with mostly American students. The business side had more of a mixture of international students and were taught in English. At 130 I would hope back on the metro, go home eat lunch with my host family and take a siesta till 4, go for a run on the pathway next to the beach, come back finish some homework and hangout till dinner with was at 930-10 when my host mom got home. We would eat all together watching El Hormie Guero on TV and then go to bed. On the weekends I went on trips all over Europe, I visited 15 different cities. There was a 2 week spring break so we got to go to Morocco and I visited family in Germany, but other students went all the way to Jerusalem and Egypt. I hung out in the ISA office a lot too which was literally the building next to the school. If I wasn't out traveling we went out on the town, there is a great night life scene where people start partying at 2 in the morning and then go home at 7. We also went to the beach a lot and had surfing lessons with a discount for the Unviersidad de Deusto. It rained a lot in Bilbao in the spring, and it was cold. It had similar weather to Seattle but colder and very little sunshine. That was my biggest disappointment, but the public transit was amazing, and my host family was so gracious and loving. I would definitely go back.