Notes on San Sebastián, Basque Country

San Sebastián felt to me like a city-sized buffet by the sea (a pay-per item buffet, but still!) Every bar/café you go to has a display of the most delicious pintxos, there are beaches with proper sand and people surfing, beautiful buildings and stunning views.

We were in San Sebastián in Basque Country as part of a week-long trip, so all my notes are based around my experiences at that time. Please do check any dates/opening times/locations etc. if you’re planning your own trip – things change! Links are to websites if I can find useful ones, or Google Maps locations if not, so you can see where they are. Please also note this post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!

Contents

Pictures, please!

If you’d prefer just to look through my photos for now I’ve made a gallery of the photographs in this post here, but if you’d like to read my notes you can find them all below.

Top recommendations in San Sebastián, Basque Country

You can read my notes on what we got up to below, but if you are short on time here are my top recommendations on what to do in Bilbao, plus you can take a look at my more general Notes on travelling in Basque Country: Bilbao, San Sebastián and Pamplona, too:

Top recommendations on a map

You can expand the section above to read about all these places, or keep reading below for my more detailed notes.

Full notes on San Sebastián: how we spent 3ish days in San Sebastián

I say 3ish because we spent 4 nights there but went on a day trip to Pamplona, too.

Travelling to San Sebastián

We came to San Sebastián by bus from Bilbao, which was really straightforward. The bus was clean and comfortable and we enjoyed a scenic drive through the hills to San Sebastián. The bus station was underground (as was the one in Bilbao) and we emerged to energetic music from a busker and wide clean streets for the walk to our hotel in the Old Town. We stopped on a bench overlooking the river to eat our homemade sarnies and perfect apples before walking on, marvelling at the huge waves where the river and the sea met.

Terminology: a few key words

I won’t provide a full list of translations as I’m not an expert in Spanish or Basque but there are a few words I’ll keep using throughout this blog so I thought it might be helpful to explain them!

Donostia-San Sebastián: Donostia is the Basque name for San Sebastián and is what is written as the destination for the bus.
Pintxos: (pinchos) small snacks usually eaten in bars, often displayed on the counter for you to point at to order.
Txikiteo: the Basque word for hopping from bar to bar enjoying pintxos and drinks.
Kalimotxo: red wine and coke (surprisingly delicious!)
Txakoli: effervescent white wine
Vino tinto: red wine

First afternoon: a gorgeous hotel, huge Jesus and food

The old town looked beautiful but seemed very quiet! We found our hotel, Hotel SANSEBay* and it was really lovely! They gave us each a welcome drink of our choice (we chose coffee, which was lovely), a guide to their recommended restaurants and we were talked through the map of the town, which was very helpful.

We got settled into our (upgraded!) room, which was gorgeous – really nicely decorated, with a view of the sea from a little balcony and a comfy bed and seating area.

We headed straight out and up Mount Urgull, right next to the hotel, to see the views from under a large statue of Jesus. It was quite a steep climb up, with a soundtrack of children playing musical instruments in the cliff side school (more pleasant than that might be interpreted), and great views across the bay when we reached it. There was a really nice little museum at the top, the Casa de la Historia de Urgull in the Castillo de la Mota, with some interesting things on display. We hurried to the terrace to see the best view before the rain came, which was definitely the right choice as it really started to pour down when we left the museum. We pretty much ran all the way back down to the hotel to dry off and make a plan for dinner.

Although we were excited about pintxos, we thought sitting in one place might be a good idea for tonight. We headed to the new town, Gros, to Bodega Donostiarra. It was full inside so we sat under the gazebo at the front and enjoyed a pan full of pulled beef in tomato sauce with chunks of crunchy baguette and eggs with ratatouille and potatoes – delicious and warming.

We decided to head back for an early night via the supermarket for breakfast yogurts, berries and juice and got tempted into a chocolate shop giving free samples. It totally worked as a marketing exercise as we bought a bar of delicious praline chocolate that we enjoyed back at the hotel, though I’m sorry I can’t seem to find it online to link to!

First full day: a funicular, old town walk and Txikiteo

After an excellent night’s sleep and equally excellent shower, we ate our yogurts and berries and headed out for the day.

We were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t raining and decided that we’d head straight over to the Funicular Monte Igueldo to have more chance of seeing the views before the weather turned. We walked around the edge of La Concha, a beautiful picturesque beach and marvelled at the people braving the sea to swim or surf. One man was even in completely naked, splashing about at a depth just shallow enough for us all to have full view of his bits the entire time, which his wife didn’t seem thrilled about.

When we arrived at the funicular it was closed as it didn’t open until 11am, so we looked for a café to go for coffee, which took us on an interesting walk through more normal-looking residential areas. We had very nice coffees in a little place called Somos Coffee & Bakery where I was intrigued by their sandwich toaster-like egg cooker.

We headed back to the funicular and got our tickets, masked up (masks were still required on public transport at this time) and took seats in the back so we could look out as went up. It was a very old wooden funicular and fun to ride up through the trees!

At the top is a small theme park that was closed for the winter so it was a bit eerie wandering around all the closed rides. The views were spectacular! We got talked into paying €5 each to go up the tower which had even more ‘fantastico’ views and interesting pictures from the past lining the walls on the way up.

As we emerged it started to rain, so we sheltered for a bit by the closed restaurant watching the changing light and clouds before heading back down in the funicular again.

We walked back along the beach, passing an estate agent’s office where we gasped at the high prices of properties, watched Christmas rides start to be installed and decided to have a lunch of French toast with vanilla ice cream at Atari, which we’d seen on Travel Man. We also gave Kalimotxo, red wine and coke, a go and it was surprisingly delicious! A very nice drink for winter.

We popped back to the hotel for a bit, then headed back out again to the Tourist Information office, where they were really helpful and we got a €1 book with several self guided walks in it. We did the old town walk, despite the rain, visiting the underground market, taking in the streets and eventually taking cover in a church as the rain absolutely pelted it down.

We bought some fizzy drinks and headed back to the hotel again to get another layer of clothing and plan a route for doing Txikiteo, the Basque word for hopping from bar to bar enjoying pintxos and drinks.

The TI book had a pintxos guide too, so using that, Rick Steves* and the list from the hotel we plotted out a map of a few places to try.

First we went to Aralar because it looked warm and welcoming. This was a good easy intro as we could have a seat, order a drink and were and given a piece of paper to order our pintxos, which were labelled with numbers on the counter. We went for a couple of meat skewers and a pintxo with red pepper stuffed with crab, which were nice.

Next we went to Cervecerías La Mejillonera, where we had bravas (potatoes with mayo and a spicy sauce) and Tigres (mussels with a spicy tomato sauce). They were both absolutely delicious and it was fun dropping the shells into the trough around the bottom of the bar, too!

A lot of the places we’d noted down to visit were sadly closed, some I suspect after COVID, some maybe just for the winter, so we went back to Atari and timed it perfectly so we managed to get a table and seats. We started with a couple of pintxos topped with leek, cheese and hake and anchovies with red pepper topped with half an olive with a slither of liver, plus cod croquettes that came hot. All were absolutely delicious! The croquettes were so good we ordered another (we’d sort of been following the ‘rule’ of having one thing and moving on until now) and had them with Txakoli, effervescent white wine. So good!

Second day: a day trip to Pamplona and more pintxos

The weather was looking pretty bleak for San Sebastián so we thought we’d take the bus to Pamplona where it looked very slightly more promising. We had our yogurts then headed out, streets wet and deserted but a bit of blue sky and sun visible on our way to the bus station. We got our tickets from the Alsa desk and got some fresh orange for the journey before waiting for our bus at Stand 4. We had seat numbers this time so we took our seats and as the coach pulled away we saw the weather had turned and it was really dark with rain so heavy it streaked across the windows and obscured what I’m sure were spectacular views most of the way.

I’ve written about what we got up to in Pamplona over in a separate post, ‘Notes on Pamplona‘, so head over there if you’d like to read about that, but stay here if you’d like to stay in San Sebastián!

We arrived back in San Sebastián just as the daylight was starting to fade and the streetlights were switching on.

It wasn’t raining but looked like it had been all day as there was a lot of surface water, so I think we made the right choice. We stopped in to Lidl to buy yogurts, blueberries and juice for breakfast, plus bread and cheese for tomorrow’s lunch before heading back to the hotel to grab jumpers.

We tried to plot out another sort of route for pintxos. Haizea wasn’t open yet (the Google opening times weren’t correct) but Zumeltzegi was and we headed in for pintxos with tasty chorizo sausages and one with salmon, cream cheese and possibly a sardine. Really tasty! We then decided not to bother with a plan and just to go into places that looked good so the next stop was Casa Tiburcio Fermín Calbetón where I had bread topped with jamon, half an egg, a leek and cheese mix and a prawn. Very nice though perhaps not as flavourful as others. Then we headed back to one where I’d spotted puff pasty: Loretxu Gastrotaberna, where we both had giant puff pastry cases filled with egg mayonnaise and topped with a large prawn – delicious!!

We thought we’d give Haizea another go and I’m so glad we did! We managed to get a seat at the tiny bar and ordered what we’d been told in the TI book was the specialty: filo pastry stuffed with cod (ordered from the menu on the wall) and oh my goodness it was delicious! Melt in the mouth with a balsamic touch. Yum!! We broke the ‘rule’ again and stayed for another each to share: Buñuelos de bacalao y gamba (cod and shrimp fritters) and Croqueta casera de jamón (ham croquettes) – fried deliciousness. Along with vino tinto we felt warm and extremely happy!

Third day: a ‘romantic’ walk, wave watching, craft beer and burritos

It was nice to have a leisurely start to the day as we were staying in San Sebastián today with no set plans. We ate our lovely yogurts with blueberries and had apple and mango juice, made up some sandwiches to take for our lunch and set out to do the ‘romantic’ city walk from the TI book. It was raining pretty heavily in some parts but it was good to see more of the city: the theatre, the wide expensive shopping areas, the cathedral. Most shops were closed with it being Sunday but the cafés were buzzing! Full of people: some friends meeting for a chat, some people on their own reading the paper with a coffee, a lovely Sunday vibe. The sun even came out for a bit and it was lovely to see La Concha bathed in sunshine, loads of people swimming and surfing and the Ferris wheel and carousel gearing up for all the families out for the day.

We did the Gros walk next, around the other bay, where the waves were huge and surfers patiently awaited the next big swell. We stood for a while watching a guy we were concerned was too close to the rocks. He was fine but must have been exhausted just getting into the right position, let alone actually getting up on the board. We walked around to the Dove of Peace sculpture then headed back to find a loo along the front, thanks to the Flush Toilet Finder app.

We headed to a nearby square to eat our sandwiches, thankfully sheltered from the wind and with dry benches.

We’d hoped to find a bar to watch the F1 in, but unfortunately the one we’d found online was shut. It was still an interesting walk through the university part of town so not a wasted journey and we headed back to the hotel to see if we could watch it on our TV there (sadly not, though I should note we didn’t actually ask about it, they may well have put it on in the bar as they did show football there at other times) and had a bit of a sit down and a coffee.

After a rest we headed out again, this time walking around the port as the sun was shining and there was a lovely winter sun light. It was busy with people doing the same and we enjoyed just wandering, looking at the sea and trying to catch photos of the huge waves.

We headed to Basqueland Izakaia, a cute industrial style craft beer bar with great beers. They were showing the first World Cup match projected onto parcel paper taped to the wall, with music playing instead of commentary, which was an enjoyable approach. It was nice and relaxed so we stayed for a while.

We thought we’d eat nearby and maybe at a restaurant rather than pintxo hopping, but the two nearby burger places were really empty so we walked to a street that was supposed to have good places and caught a waft of Mexican food being prepped at La Diabla Taquería, which smelled delicious. It wasn’t open for another ten minutes so we went for a drink at a nearby bar before coming back for burritos, which were amazing! So tasty, with a nice spicy but not too spicy sauce to drizzle on top – so, so good!!

We headed back to the hotel, via a supermarket for some chocolate coated palmiers.

Final morning in San Sebastián: final walks and taking in the views

We’d woken quite early but had a leisurely start again as we were checking out and heading back to Bilbao today. We packed our things, ate our yogurts and berries and popped out for a walk. The old town was full of vans making deliveries and cleaning up, shops shut and bars closed from the busy night before. We wandered around the streets, squares and walked along the jetty for a last look at the sea before checking out.

Leaving San Sebastián for Bilbao

We’d hoped to get the 11:30 bus but it was fully booked when we tried to buy tickets at 11, so we sat with coffees in the very nice café at the bus station while we waited for the 12:30. Apart from a slightly hairy moment when a Golf driver decided to take the same exit as us much later than it should have and came a bit too close for comfort, it was a very swift journey though the pelting rain and we were soon back in Bilbao.

We loved San Sebastián! I’m not sure we could afford it in the summer as the hotel prices increase dramatically, but in November we were able to stay in a really lovely hotel, there are plenty of city walks to do in a small area with ample cafés to dive into if the weather is temperamental and nipping from bar to bar for vino tinto feels very cosy in the rain!

Next stop: Back to Bilbao

If you’d like to have a look through my photos without all the notes I’ve made gallery of the photographs in this post here.

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Notes on Travel is a blog by photographer Jayne Lloyd, noting the things I found useful to know when I was visiting San Sebastián in the Basque Region as part of a week long trip. I’ve tried to be accurate but please do check for up-to-date information before going as things are always changing! I apologise for any mistakes, please do let me know if you have more recent info.

* This post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!