Is There A Recovery Code?

Yesterday I was experimenting with another password manager (didn’t care for it), when I created my account it gave me a long code, it had letters, numbers, and dashes. This was for the unlikely event that I should forget my password I could use this code to open my account. I was wondering if Bitwarden has this feature or if the password is the only way to open the vault. Thanks in advance.

There is a recovery code for 2FA (*) but not for the Master Password. So you will absolutely have to make sure to store your Master Password in a safe place. Also make sure not to forget the eMail-address you used for Bitwarden.

(*) Recovery Codes | Bitwarden Help & Support

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You should already have created a full “vault” backup as recommended protecting against several types of loss. With a full json backup you also can delete your account and then restore it again using the backup file. Essentially you are starting from scratch but with the file to quickly import back to your newly created vault.

Things worth mentioning regarding vault backups:

Vault Exports will not include file attachments or Items in the Trash.

Exporting your personal data from your [vault] will not export any data owned by an Organization that you belong to.

Source: Export Vault Data | Bitwarden Help & Support

Just a quick follow-up to @Peter_H 's and @OpSec 's good advice:

If you must restore to a new account, you must use an UNENCRYPTED JSON backup. The encrypted JSON export format can only be opened by generating an encryption key derived from your master password, so if you have to create a new account because you forgot the password, the encrypted export format will not help.

That is great add on advice. Some here may not have known that. Good job!

Also, I do backup all my attachments to a VeraCrypt Vault before attaching them to my BW data. At some point in the future attachments being backed up would make for a bit more convenience. In my case its not a big deal since I would back them up anyway. LOL!!