What to do · Urdaibai
San Juan de Gaztelugatxe
Information
- Price
- Free · advance booking on controlled-access days
- Duration
- 2 h 30
- Distance
- 2.8 km
- Season
- All year; avoid orange-alert days
- Who it's for
- With good legs; not with a pushchair
What it is
An islet off the Bermeo coast joined to land by a stone bridge, with the hermitage of San Juan at the top. From the Urizarreta entrance you go down 1,200 m along a path with slopes of 35%, cross the bridge and climb the 241 steps to the hermitage. The return is via Ermu, 1,600 m with a 15% gradient. It is a protected biotope and Natural Monument.
The reservation
On controlled-access days, set by the Bizkaia provincial council's annual calendar, you need a free ticket booked on its website and you show it at the checkpoint, printed or on your phone. The rest of the year entry is free. The capacity is 1,462 people a day, and the council asks you not to go on 24 June, 31 July, 29 and 31 August or 30 December, days of local festivals. If your plans change or the weather is bad, cancel the reservation so someone else can use it.
Getting there and parking
Via the BI-3101, between Bermeo and Bakio. At Urizarreta there are 22 free public spaces and, below, a paid private car park; at Lurgorri, 57 spaces a kilometre's walk from the Ermu access. They fill up from 10:00 to 16:00. A 2 m height barrier stops motorhomes entering. In summer, Bizkaibus A3517 runs direct from Bilbao (every hour in June, every half hour in July and August); the rest of the year, take a bus to Bakio or Bermeo and the A3524 minibus, cash only.
Worth knowing
The hermitage is usually closed: the reservation gives access to the route, not to the interior. Bring comfortable footwear, water and sun protection. Drones, camping, climbing, diving and shellfish gathering are prohibited. It is not recommended with a pushchair or if you have difficulty walking: for those cases there is the Ermu viewpoint.
Dragonstone
In Game of Thrones the islet is Dragonstone, Daenerys Targaryen's castle, and the hermitage is replaced by a fortress, as Visit Bizkaia recalls. Turismo Euskadi adds that the castle was added with digital effects and that access was closed for a few days during filming. What you climb is real: the path, the bridge and the 241 steps. The castle does not exist, so do not expect anything from the series at the top; the scene in which Daenerys arrives on the beach and meets Jon Snow was filmed on another coast, at Itzurun beach, in Zumaia.
With teenagers
