Kiel Bar

About this place Kiel Bar

Kiel Bar in the Casco Viejo adds another node to Bilbao's gay Siete Calles cluster — a bar that functions well both as an opening venue for the evening and as a late-night option when the surrounding pintxos bars have wound down. The atmosphere is casual and friendly in the manner of the best neighbourhood gay bars: no particular concept or theme, a reliable programme of drinks and music, and the social ease that comes from a venue that knows its purpose and executes it without complication. The bar's location within the Casco Viejo makes it naturally part of the bar-hopping circuit that organises social life in the district, and for visitors building an evening around the gay scene of the old town, Kiel provides a third option alongside Medea and Shangri-La to construct a genuine bar crawl without needing to travel far. The relatively compact geography of the Casco Viejo means that all three venues are within five minutes' walk of each other — an unusual concentration for a city of Bilbao's size that reflects the old town's character as a social hub.