SAN SEBASTIAN · BASQUE COUNTRY
Pintxos, the bay, and a Basque country waiting beyond it.
The bar crawl through Parte Vieja, the half-moon of La Concha, the day trips into Bilbao, Rioja and the French coast. A guide to the city and everything you can reach inside an hour of it.
Only In The Basque Country
Three things that only really happen here.
Beach days, museums and walking tours exist in every Spanish city. These three don’t. The Parte Vieja pintxos crawl, a kitchen with Michelin DNA, and a cider house that still works the way it has since the Romans. Build the trip around them.
In Parte Vieja
The Pintxos Crawl
A few cobbled streets of Old Town hold the densest concentration of bars on the planet, and the rule is to have one bite at each before moving on. Gilda, anchovies in vinegar, txangurro, foie on toast, slow-cooked carrillera. You stand, you eat, you pay, you walk to the next door. The format does not exist anywhere else in Spain.
- 1 San Sebastian Old Town Pintxos & Wine Tour Small Group Tour
- 2 San Sebastian Pintxo Food, Wine & Market Foodie Tour(Small Group)
- 3 Discover San Sebastián’s Best Pintxos on a Unique Culinary Tour
In a local kitchen
Cooking Like A Basque
San Sebastian holds more Michelin stars per head than any city on earth, and the cooking culture filters down to small group classes in private kitchens and old society clubs. A morning at La Bretxa market, an afternoon shaping pintxos, rolling tortilla and finishing with the lunch you cooked. You leave with the recipes that built the city.
- 1 Basque Cooking Experience: Market Tour & Hands-On Class English
- 2 Authentic Basque Cooking Class in San Sebastian Old Town
- 3 San Sebastian: Authentic Basque Cooking Class
Old Basque ritual
The Sagardotegi Txotx
Out in the hills behind town, the cider houses tap straight from giant chestnut barrels. Someone calls Txotx, you queue with your glass under a wooden spout, the cider arcs out and you walk it back to a long shared table. Cod omelette, chuleta steak, walnuts and Idiazabal cheese. A two-thousand-year-old Basque ritual run by working farmers.
- 1 San Sebastián: Traditional Cider House Tour with Lunch
- 2 “Basque Cider House” guided tour + meal from San Sebastian
- 3 Cider House Experience From San Sebastian
The evening San Sebastian is famous for
Start where every trip here starts.
If you only book one thing, make it the Old Town pintxos walk. It is the introduction every traveller writes home about.
The classics
San Sebastian’s Most Popular Experiences
Pintxos walks, La Concha boat trips, Bilbao day runs and Rioja wineries. The shortlist most travellers leave with.
The Basque map
San Sebastian is the base. The Basque country opens out from it.
The Old Town for pintxos and the beach curve. Bilbao for the Guggenheim and an hour-west pintxo lunch. Rioja for the bodegas. The French side for Biarritz, the Belle Époque seafront and surf beaches. Hondarribia and Getaria for the slower fishing-village days.
By the way you travel
Or pick how you want to eat, drink and walk.
Pintxos if you want the city ritual. Cooking classes if you want to learn the recipes. Wineries for Txakoli and Rioja. Walking and cycling for the bay and Monte Igueldo. Boats for La Concha. The cider house for the txotx.
If you came for the food
The pintxos and wine walk.
Gilda first. Then anchovy on bread. Then something hot off the bar. A glass of Txakoli, a glass of Rioja, a small bill at each stop and on to the next. If three nights had to be picked, these are the walks worth queueing for.
An hour west by road
A day in Bilbao.
The Guggenheim is the headline. The Casco Viejo, the Mercado de la Ribera and a stop for lunch in a Bilbao pintxo bar are the rest of the day. Three day trips that fold all of it into one ride.
Over the Cantabrian range
A long day in Rioja.
Two hours south through the mountains and the climate changes. Laguardia, Haro, Elciego: walled wine villages, two or three bodega visits, a winemaker’s lunch and the slow drive home. Picked three runs that get the timing right.
The Basque pour
Three drinks San Sebastian is built around.
Every Basque table has them in some order. Cider from the orchards above town. Txakoli from the vineyards on the coastal hills. Rioja from over the range. Pick one for the trip; the other two will follow.
Across the border
A day on the French Basque coast.
Twenty minutes to the border and another forty to Biarritz. The Belle Époque seafront, the surf beaches at Hossegor, lunch in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the chocolate quarter in Bayonne. The Pyrenees and Lourdes sit at the long end of the same road.
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