Área de Autocaravanas de Kobetamendi — Hotel in Bilbao

Parked Motorhome at Hostel for 2 nights which cost €100 (€50 per night) the most I ever paid to park. Wholly inadequate facilities for this money which included a very bland, sub standard and tasteless breakfast at the hostel.|My wife and I booked this as we could not book its sister facility on top of the hill which I cannot understand. People of a certain age like us do not like to travel long distances not knowing that a pitch will be available on arrival at their new destination.|The ability to book in advance removes this completely unnecessary uncertainty and stress. I have also heard anecdotally and note from reviews elsewhere that it can be a free for all at the barrier with motorhomes arriving at the barrier and jumping the Q ahead of motorhomes which have been instructed to wait in the adjacent car park.|Accepting bookings is also advantageous to staff as they are not required to turn away disappointed stressed drivers turning up, possibly after a long drive, and possibly finishing up with no place to stay.|This is a car park with 8 of its parking spaces numbered set around 2 corners. The spaces are no bigger than regular car parking spaces.|It is not possible to park in space number 6 when spaces 5 and 7 are occupied.|Likewise it is not possible to park in space 3 when spaces 2 and 4 are occupied.||I must emphasise that the staff at the hostel were very courteous, friendly and polite.||Now to my stay, and some of my experiences at the Hostel Car Park: Other than EHU there are no facilities whatsoever, no grey water discharge or chemical toilet discharge or tap to collect fresh water.|Showers and washing up facilities are available at the hostel a significant distance away .|First night, a Belgian couple knocked on our Motorhome door asking as to where they could book in and asking as to how much it cost. They had been turned away from the Aire up the hill.|They were amazed to learn that it cost €50 per night, I pointed out that this included breakfast to which the husband replied "but we do not need breakfast, we are in a motorhome.|Sometime later we had a similar enquiry from a young couple from Brazil who were travelling in a rental Motorhome and returning to Brazil next day, again they were stunned, decided that they would not pay such an exorbitant price and left.|Next morning we were again approached by a young couple from Ibiza, again travelling in a rental motorhome. They had stayed overnight but were unable to plug into EHU as their cable was too short to reach the power points around other units.|They were not having breakfast as they do not eat breakfast but they were not permitted to opt to not have breakfast.|They were enquiring as to where they could discharge grey water/chemical toilet.|They were surprised to learn that they could go up the hill as they did not realise that both facilities were connected. They had also attempted to stay at the other facility but again it was full.|So finally we departed on the morning of 31 October to catch our ferry.|We went up the hill to empty our chemical toilet only and this was quite the experience.|I entered the cabin with my windscreen docket, I wished the young man on duty a cheerful Bon Dia and showed him my windscreen sticker so as to indicate that we had stayed down at the hostel, I informed him that we wanted to empty the chemical toilet only.|This young man did not acknowledge my presence, picked up a pen and sheet of notepaper, walked around me to the window as if I was not present.|He noted the registration number of my motorhome on his piece of notepaper.|He then walked outside, stood inside the barrier and indicated with his foot where I was to park. He then pointed up a flight of steps beside the entry hut stating that it is up there. As I returned to my Motorhome to drive through the barrier he became embroiled in a screaming row with a truck driver who was unloading construction materials for a facility which is being constructed inside the entrance.|The truck driver had the stabilizers extending from his truck and was unloading his cargo with a hand held Palfinger type hydraulic lift.|The young man from reception was insisting that he move his truck.|I repeatedly indicated that I had more than enough room to pass but but this young man was not interested.|As I passed through the barrier I noted that a van pulled up to the barrier behind me and rather than obstruct it I drove to the third or fourth pitch on the left hand side which was unoccupied. I pulled into this pitch leaving ample room for other vehicles to pass.|I removed my chemical toilet and proceeded to walk to the steps leading up to the chemical toilet disposal unit.|However the young man saw me, left the hut and began screaming that I could not park where I was parked and that I needed to drive up to the higher level where the disposal facility is located.|I put it to him that he had told me to park inside the barrier and pointed up the steps and told me that the facility was up there.|This young man began screaming again stating that he had not told me to park inside the barrier.|I drove around the site to the chemical toilet disposal facility, I emptied our toilet, replaced it and drove to the out barrier.|I was left waiting at the barrier until I sounded the hooter, the young man from reception came to the window and demanded my number.|I said I gave it to you on my way in some minutes ago. He said I need your pitch number. I again informed him that we had entered minutes earlier and had not stayed overnight. He then opened the barrier.|This was our last day in Spain after a wonderful nearly 6 weeks trip so I decided that this young man was obviously having a really bad day and that this should not detract from my happiness and it has not.|I do not intend to stay in either facility in the future.|I do intend visiting Bilbao in the future as we enter or depart the ferry terminal.||However I find it regrettable that a beautiful city like Bilbao, a port city with a very busy international ferry terminal appears to be so poorly equipped to...

Updated review! If you are reading this after the 1.7.24 you wont be staying here until 18.7.24 !! See 2023 review below.

Anyways, finally I got to stay here & it was worth it for the view :) I did see an unfortunate motorhomer coming up the dreaded wrong road (with a sign that says no motorhomes) see Google map insert pic & avoid it, marked in blue. Google maps did not send me up this road.....thankfully. What amazed me was not the steep narrow road, but the fact the apartment blocks adjacent to it have near vertical footpaths to access them!! Anyway the 58 bus (& Bilbao buses) has a very good access system with a ramp that comes out even accomodating the steep uneven bus stop roads. The bus itself will accomodate a wheelchair or small mobility scooter up to approx 120 cm long, otherwise you wont fit in the bus accomodation space.

There is a Bilboa city wifi terminal situated on a lamp post at the front of the camping, probably only viable with the first row of campers though, unless you have an ariel.

One of the roads the bus travels near the bus terminus has a bar called the Poker Bar which as it turns out may be in a literal sense, dont miss this downtown road as part of your sightseeing trip!

On my first visit in 2023 I had to stay at Camping Sopelena (see unsatisfactory review) which is a 2.4 (return) mile (3.8 KM) hike up & down hills to a long (& possibly crowded) metro trip to Bilbao. Why the local Bilbao council cant set up a temporary pop up campsite to deal with whatever nonsence is going on here, during the 3 week closure during July I dont know ? Maybe they dont...

Check-in was very disorganised. On arrival we were handed a form with our entry time, for your 24 hrs ,van registration, and pitch number, however it was illegible and the lady didn’t speak any English and kept yawning.I understand we’re in Spain, but for a campsite that mainly welcomes international visitors, a little more communication support would have been helpful. After much sign language, we eventually figured out that we needed to pitch up first, then complete the form and return it by the time stated. When I went back to reception, there was just one person painstakingly processing everyone’s details and payments. Many others were also confused, hurriedly filling in their forms. After a 30-minute wait we were finally checked in ,you also have to take your form back to check out We didn’t sleep well due to a local dog barking most of the night The toilet system was inconvenient — you had to collect a key each time and return it, until eventually the toilets became blocked and were out of order. The only positive was the location: right next to a 58 bus stop with regular services (every 20 minutes) into the city. But honestly, one night was more than enough for us. If you can find somewhere...