• 3 min de lectura
• 3 min de lectura
On September 14, with the start of the school year, the Ezagutu Portua program, carried out by the Port Authority of Bilbao since 2014, returned to bring the Port of Bilbao closer to schoolchildren, vocational training and university students, and the general public. Since its inception, 68,000 people have visited the Port.
This initiative allows visitors to learn about the history, activity, origin and destination countries, and the people who work in a Port that is more than just an infrastructure. The Port of Bilbao is a logistical, commercial, and industrial hub that has driven the development of Bilbao itself, the riverside municipalities, and Bizkaia/Euskadi in general, supporting companies in their internationalization, and supplying industries with raw materials and the population with consumer products of all kinds, from food to everyday items.
Through the Ezagutu Portua program, a perfect summary is offered to also understand how the Port of Bilbao contributes to a decarbonized, competitive, globally connected, innovative, responsible, and sustainable economy and society.
Visits for all audiences
These visits take place for the general public on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 AM and last approximately two hours.
Educational visits for vocational training students, university students, and schoolchildren between 5th grade of primary school and 4th year of ESO (secondary education) take place from Monday to Friday. They are adapted to the knowledge level of each group, and during the bus tour, different explanations are provided with visual and comparative contributions. One of their characteristics is the importance given to making the visit constructive and participatory, and for this reason, different techniques are used in the workshop classroom, such as manipulating objects and performing simple scientific measurements to awaken greater interest and encourage logical reasoning.
Visits can be conducted in both Basque and Spanish, and Ezagutu Portua offers educational and recreational material for schools to work with before the visit and to reinforce concepts and ideas afterward.
The visits are conducted by bus to see firsthand the work of the different terminals. The loading and unloading of natural gas used in homes; the food that then fills supermarkets; the containers where Basque industry exports products to nearly 900 ports around the world; or the movement of wind components such as blades that are sent to multiple locations are some of the activities that can be seen. Likewise, visitors can observe the enormous ships that dock in the port area, the cranes used to load and unload them; the trains that leave and arrive at the Port, and the terminals dedicated to passengers.
Registration is free and can be done through the form available on the port authority's website.
7,742 visitors in a single academic year
This initiative allowed 7,742 visitors to learn about the Port of Bilbao in the 282 guided tours organized during the 2025/2026 academic year. Specifically, 151 visits were made for schools, with the presence of 3,622 people between 10 and 16 years old, and 94 specific visits focused on university and vocational training students to learn about port activity and professional development opportunities. Additionally, the weekend visits open to the general public gathered 1,076 people in the 37 visits conducted between September and June.
