Have you visited Basque Country? Situated on the northern Atlantic coast, San Sebastian is a Spanish city offering food, wine and beaches for every budget. We’ll eat, drink and play our way through San Sebastian, Spain with this travel guide. Offering an excellent quality of life, low crime rate and some of the best food on the planet, San Sebastian is the ideal destination for travelers.
San Sebastian world class dining
Often referred to as Donastia-San Sebastian, this culinary mecca offers some of the highest density of Michelin restaurants in Europe. With a pintxos bar on every block in Old Town San Sebastian, holiday-seekers will be well fed during your northern Spain vacation.
Pintxos, similar to tapas, are small bites of food, enjoyed with beer, wine or hard cider. Local Basque speakers, as well as travelers, typically visit 3-5 pintxos bars at lunchtime or late into the evening. There are plenty of food options for vegetarians, as well as fish and meat eaters. Ranging from rich, vegetarian-based mushroom risotto or stuffed red peppers to tuna pie, ham, shrimp, egg dishes or anchovies, there’s something for every taste bud.
We ate pintxos in Old Town San Sebastian, as well as the Gros neighborhood where we were staying for our 10 day trip in Basque Country, Spain. Our personal favorite spots were Gandarias; order the solomillo beef or brocheta de gambas of shrimp. Don’t miss the slow cooked egg at Atari or the trio of anchovies at Txepetxa.
If you prefer to sit down and relax over a plate of perfectly grilled local fish with a salad, walk beyond the pintxos bar and look for a dining room within the restaurant. Depending on your budget, you’ll find the best seafood at Gandarias. We had excellent sea bream and a salad for two at Lanperna restaurant. Be warned, this basic lunch, without alcohol set us back $152. The next night we met friends at Narru, a Michelin restaurant. While we were not able to make dinner reservations, we did reserve a table for four in the bar and it was perfect.
If you find yourself in San Sebastian on a weekend or during high season, I recommend making dinner reservations in advance. You can make reservations for pintxos table, as well.
Drinking in San Sebastian
While I hail from the San Francisco Bay Area and Napa Valley, where wine tasting is considered an occupation, I was surprised at the quality of wines offered in Basque Country, Spain. We tasted txakoli, a local wine with more acid and lower in alcohol due to its location by the Atlantic ocean. Not only did this lovely white wine pair well with pintxos, it was very affordably priced.
As I was in San Sebastian attending the travel blogger conference called TBEX, I had the opportunity to visit a cider house for a tasting of several hard ciders. Our dinner was at Petritegi Cider House and included a multi-course meal, served family style. For the non-drinkers in the group, Mosto is a sweet and refreshing drink that is available at pintxos bars. Finally, San Sebastian has some of the best quality drinking water. The tap water here is safe to drink.
Play time in San Sebastian
San Sebastian and the surrounding coastal villages such as Pasaia, are the land of Basque speakers, Pais Vasco. There are many cultural traditions that take place in Basque Country, including music festivals, folk dancing festivals, maritime festivals and gastronomy festivals. In other words, Basque Country citizens excel at play, with eating and drinking celebrations along for the ride.
We enjoyed watching the Basque people at the Festival Folclorico Gastronomico, held in late May in the historic Plaza de la Constitucion. The plaza is the heart beat of San Sebastian, where many social events take place in Old. Town. Formerly serving as a bullring, for watching bullfighting, you’ll notice all of the apartments surrounding the plaza are numbered. Back in the day, residents loaned out their balconies for wealthy visitors and guests to enjoy the local festivities. Now the plaza is where cultural events take place.
Walking city of San Sebastian
We flew into Barcelona from San Francisco, California. From Barcelona El Prat International Airport, we took a quick one hour flight to Hondarribia Airport in San Sebastian, Spain. After an easy, and inexpensive bus ride into the city, we dropped our backpacks and began a tour of Old Town and Concha Bay. The crescent-shaped beach features a lovely marina. Mount Urgull flanks the city.
Take a walk to Monte Igueldo Funicular and be rewarded with gorgeous views of Donostia-San Sebastian, and the Bay of Biscay. The cog railway has been in existence since 1912. A small amusement park is at the top, as well as a five-star hotel. If the weather is not cooperative, enjoy a drink in the bar, protected from the weather.
Another nice walk is from Zurricola Beach, close to La Concha Beach, along the sea wall. Watch the waves break, admire the surfers and take in the fresh Atlantic sea air. If you walk in Old Town, you’ll find lovely cathedrals, shopping and San Telmo Museum. On our visit, San Telmo Museum was free to visit on Tuesdays.
For people watching, head to the promenade by the gorgeous library and city hall in San Sebastian. Built in 1887, the historic building once housed a casino.
As a former San Francisco resident used to my share of street people, I will say that I felt very safe walking around Old Town and our Gros neighborhood day or night. The Basque coastal city was clean and packed full of history.
I hope this San Sebastian, Spain travel guide showed you where to eat, drink and play in this Basque coastal city. Whether you are walking the Way of St. James, are visiting Donostia for the surfing or beach culture or are enjoying Basque country for the first-time, you’ll be entertained any time of year.
Perhaps you are interested in a day trip to Pasaia, Spain or the historic Tolosa market? If you need additional Basque Country resources, I have several local tour guides to recommend in San Sebastian, Spain. Additionally, Visit Eurkadi is a Basque Country tourism resource for surrounding areas including Bilbao and other coastal villages and cities.
Eat, Drink, Play; San Sebastian, Spain Travel Guide, YouTube video and all photography by travel writer Nancy D. Brown. All views above are, as always, my own.