Indulge in a five-hour lunch featuring just-caught grilled fish and txakoli. Hike along the northern route of the Camino de Santiago to visit Ermita de San Telmo and the unique Flysch rock cliffs.

I first visited Bilbao, Spain, in the 1980s, before the Guggenheim Museum was built and the city was featured in prominent TV and film, like James Bond. While my then-beau rehearsed with the Bilbao ...