Three Days in San,
Sebastian.
San Sebastian, Spain
pintxos, beaches, Basque coast, viewpoints
Itinerary
3 chaptersLa Concha, Monte Urgull and a pintxos crawl
Parte Vieja, San Sebastian
The shape of the day
Start gently. Coffee and a slice of pantxineta at Pastelería Otaegui, warm puff pastry with cream inside and almonds on top, does more for your bearings than a map will. From there it is a flat ten minutes to La Concha, where the promenade runs about 1.5 km behind the white ironwork railing that has become the city's logo in all but name. Late morning goes uphill into Monte Urgull, the wooded rock between the old town and the sea, with the Mota castle and the big statue of Christ at the top. Lunch is at La Cuchara de San Telmo, where the counter is bare and everything comes hot from the kitchen. The afternoon belongs to the Parte Vieja and Plaza de la Constitución. Then the evening, which is the real point of a first night here.
Practical notes
Wear shoes you can climb in. The paths up Urgull are packed earth and stone and uneven in places, and the wind at the top is stronger than it looks from the beach, so take a light layer. La Cuchara has no reservations and fills at 13:30, so turn up on the hour or accept a wait on the lane outside. Carry some cash for the crawl, since the smaller bars still prefer it. And do not book a table for dinner. The crawl is dinner.
Getting between the stops
All of it is on foot and nothing today is more than a twenty minute walk from the last thing. The only real effort is Urgull, and there are three or four ways up from the old town, all steeper than they look. Take the one from behind the aquarium for the gentler gradient, and use the benches. Inside the Parte Vieja the lanes are pedestrian and short, so put the phone away and follow the noise.
Local know-how
Keep your cocktail sticks on the plate. That is how the bar works out what you owe when you leave, and quietly binning them is the one thing that marks you out. Kitchens in the old town stop serving lunch around 15:30, which is why the afternoon here is for walking rather than eating. And if a bar looks dead at eight, that is not a verdict on the bar. The crowd arrives closer to nine, and by ten you will be shoulder to shoulder.
- 0109:00 · 45m
Pasteleria Otaegui
Go early, before the morning queue of locals collecting boxed cakes. Ask for pantxineta by the slice with a cortado, and eat it standing at the counter while it is still warm. Twenty minutes is plenty unless you want to sit down. Their Basque cheesecake is the other thing worth ordering.About this place↗ Open in MapsA long-established pastry shop and café in San Sebastián, with the day's cakes and pastries laid out under glass along the counter.
HistoryOtaegui is a family pastelería of the sort that anchors most Basque neighbourhoods, baking fresh each morning for regulars rather than for visitors. Its name is tied locally to pantxineta, a puff pastry filled with warm crème pâtissière and scattered with toasted almonds, which is one of the sweets the city is known for.Why it's famousIt is valued for the classics rather than for anything novel. Pantxineta above all, alongside Basque cheesecake and the seasonal cakes people order for family occasions. San Sebastián's baking reputation rests on shops like this one.Did you knowBasque pastelerías will normally sell you a single slice rather than a whole cake, priced by the piece or by weight, so you can try something without committing to a box of it. - 0210:00 · 90m
La Concha Beach
Walk it westward, from the old town end towards Ondarreta, so the bay opens up in front of you. The full curve is about 1.5 km and takes half an hour at a stroll. The railing photographs better from the promenade than from the sand. Showers and lockers sit underneath the promenade if you fancy a swim.About this place↗ Open in MapsLa Concha is the shell-shaped bay and city beach at the centre of San Sebastián, backed by a long promenade and a white wrought-iron railing.
HistoryThe bay became fashionable in the nineteenth century, when Spanish royalty began taking the summer here, Queen Isabel II first and later the Regent María Cristina. The town rebuilt itself around them as a belle époque resort, and the railing, the ornate lamps and the Paseo de la Concha all date from that period.Why it's famousA clean crescent of sand inside a sheltered bay, with a wooded island in the middle of it and hills at either end. It is one of the most photographed city beaches in Europe, and the ironwork railing does a fair amount of the work.Did you knowThe railing has become shorthand for the city itself. Its outline turns up on local jewellery, on souvenirs and in the city's own branding. - 0312:00 · 75m
Monte Urgull
Allow an hour and a quarter, more if you stop on the way up. The route from behind the aquarium is the gentler of the climbs. The Mota castle at the top holds a small free museum on the city's history, and the terrace below the statue is the best spot for the bay. Little shade on the last stretch, so take water.About this place↗ Open in MapsA wooded hill of around 120 m between the old town and the open sea, topped by the Castillo de la Mota and a large statue of the Sacred Heart.
HistoryUrgull was San Sebastián's defence for centuries, fortified and refortified as the town changed hands. It was fought over in 1813, when the town was stormed and most of it burned. The military eventually left, the slopes were planted and the whole hill was opened as a public park.Why it's famousIt is the quickest way to see the full shell of La Concha from above, and the statue on the summit is visible from most of the city below.Did you knowThere is a small British cemetery on the slopes, holding soldiers of the British Auxiliary Legion who died here during the Carlist Wars. - 0413:30 · 90m
La Cuchara de San Telmo
Nothing sits on the counter, so read the chalkboard, order at the bar and carry it yourself. The cheek braised in red wine is what people come for. Arrive at 13:30 on the dot or wait outside. Standing room only, so keep it to a handful of plates and a couple of glasses rather than a long sit-down lunch.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small standing-room pintxo bar on a lane behind the San Telmo museum, cooking everything to order instead of laying it out on the counter.
HistoryIt opened in the early 2000s, run by cooks who had come out of serious restaurant kitchens, and it helped push the Basque pintxo away from cold display food towards small hot plates written up on a chalkboard and made fresh.Why it's famousIt turned the pintxo into something closer to a restaurant dish. The slow-braised cheek in red wine is the plate that made its name and it is still the first thing most people order.Did you knowBecause the counter is bare, first-timers regularly walk straight past looking for the usual spread of food and have to double back. - 0515:30 · 90m
Parte Vieja
Start at Plaza de la Constitución and look up at the numbered balconies, then work the lanes off 31 de Agosto and Fermín Calbetón. Mid afternoon is the quiet window, with the lunch bars closing and the evening ones not yet going. San Telmo museum, in an old convent at the edge of the quarter, fills an hour if it rains.About this place↗ Open in MapsParte Vieja is San Sebastián's old town, a dense grid of narrow streets under Monte Urgull, packed with churches and pintxo bars.
HistoryMost of the quarter was rebuilt after the fire of 1813, which is why it looks early nineteenth century rather than medieval. Plaza de la Constitución was finished in 1817 and worked as a bullring, with the buildings around it serving as viewing boxes. The neighbourhood is still where the city eats and meets.Why it's famousIt holds one of the densest concentrations of pintxo bars anywhere in the Basque Country, inside a few hundred metres of walkable lanes and squares.Did you knowThe balconies around Plaza de la Constitución still carry their painted numbers, left from the days when each one was let out as a numbered seat for the bullfights. - 0620:00 · 120m
Pintxos crawl
Three bars makes a proper evening, four is ambitious. One pintxo and one small glass at each, standing, then move on. Gandarias for the sirloin, Bar Néstor for the tortilla and the tomato salad, Txepetxa for anchovies dressed a dozen ways. Keep the cocktail sticks on the plate so the bar can total up your bill.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe evening circuit of pintxo bars through the Parte Vieja, where you stand, eat one thing, drink one small glass and move to the next place.
HistoryThe pintxo began as a slice of bread with something pinned to it, handed over with a drink. From the 1990s the bars around 31 de Agosto and Fermín Calbetón started cooking to order and competing in pintxo contests, and the crawl settled into the standard way of eating an evening meal in this city.Why it's famousEach bar keeps one or two things it is known for and locals move between them accordingly, which is why nobody sits down for a full dinner in the old town.Did you knowBar Néstor makes only two potato tortillas a day, one at lunch and one in the evening, and you have to put your name down for a slice before it comes out of the kitchen.
Igueldo, the Comb of the Wind and Gros
Monte Igueldo, San Sebastian
The shape of the day
Today works west to east across the city. Ondarreta first, the quieter end of the bay under Monte Igueldo, good for an hour before the sand fills up. Then up the funicular, running since 1912 and rattling accordingly, to the small hilltop park where the postcard view of La Concha comes from. Back down to sea level for the Peine del Viento, Chillida's three steel combs bolted into the rocks where the city runs out, and lunch at Branka a few steps away with the water under the windows. In the afternoon you cross the river to Gros, which is the other San Sebastián. Zurriola faces the open Bay of Biscay, so there are waves, boards and a younger crowd, and the pintxos there are less of a scrum than in the old town.
Practical notes
Check the tide before you fix the sculptures in place. The combs are worth seeing at any hour, but the vents in the paving only perform with a swell running and the tide high, so shift things by an hour if you can. Branka is small and the window tables go first, so book. The funicular sells a return that costs less than two singles, and the queue builds on warm afternoons, which is another reason to go up early. If anyone fancies a surf, the Zurriola schools take walk-ins, though the hire boards run out by mid morning in August.
Getting between the stops
Ondarreta to the funicular station is five minutes on foot, and the sculptures are ten minutes back along the front. Buses run the length of the bay if legs are flagging, and the same ticket carries you across to Gros. The walk from Ondarreta to Zurriola, along the promenade and over the Zurriola bridge, takes about forty minutes and is flat the whole way, which is the nicer option if the weather holds.
Local know-how
Gros eats later and drinks longer than the Parte Vieja, and its bars built their name on composed pintxos rather than bread and topping. Ask what the house pintxo is and order that first. Txakoli is the local white, low in alcohol and faintly sparkling, poured from a height to give it some life. You get two fingers at a time on purpose, so drink it while it is still fizzing.
- 0109:30 · 60m
Ondarreta Beach
Quieter and shallower than La Concha, which is why local families use it. An hour is enough unless you are swimming. Come down through the Miramar gardens from the road for the best approach. Loungers and parasols are hired by the day near the steps, and the water is calmest at the western end.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe western of San Sebastián's two bay beaches, sitting under Monte Igueldo and separated from La Concha by the rocky outcrop of Pico del Loro.
HistoryThis was the aristocratic end of the bay. Queen María Cristina's summer residence, the Miramar Palace, was built on the rise above it in the 1890s to designs by a British architect, and its gardens still divide the two beaches. Where the palace grounds stop, the sand starts.Why it's famousIt is the calmer, more local half of the bay, with Chillida's Comb of the Wind anchored into the rocks at its far end.Did you knowThe Miramar gardens are open to the public even though the city uses the palace itself, so you can walk down through them from the road straight onto the beach. - 0210:45 · 90m
Monte Igueldo
Buy a return on the funicular, it costs less than two singles, and go up in the morning before the queue builds. Entry to the hilltop is charged separately from the rides. The viewing terrace by the old tower is free once you are up there. Ninety minutes covers the trip, the view and one turn on the mountain train.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe headland closing the western side of the bay, about 180 m up, with an old-fashioned amusement park and a viewing terrace at the top.
HistoryThe funicular opened in 1912, alongside a hotel and the park, part of the building boom that came when San Sebastián was Spain's summer capital. The line still runs wooden carriages up the same track, and the rides at the top have been left deliberately dated.Why it's famousThis is where the standard photograph of San Sebastián is taken, the whole shell of La Concha with the island in the middle and the old town beyond it.Did you knowThe stone tower on the summit was built as a lighthouse in the eighteenth century, long before the funicular, the hotel or the fairground rides arrived around it. - 0312:30 · 45m
Peine del Viento
Best at high tide with a swell running, when the sea forces spray up through the holes cut into the paving. Half an hour is plenty. The lower terrace gets slippery and people standing there do get soaked, so keep phones away from the edge. Sunset from this spot is a local ritual, so expect company.About this place↗ Open in MapsThree steel sculptures by Eduardo Chillida fixed into the rocks at the western end of the bay, where the city stops and the open sea begins.
HistoryChillida worked on the idea for years before the pieces went up in 1977. The terrace they stand on was designed by the architect Luis Peña Ganchegui, who cut vents into the stone paving so that the sea pushes air and spray up through the floor.Why it's famousIt is the best-known sculpture in the Basque Country and the piece most people associate with Chillida. Rough weather improves it, which is unusual for a work of art.Did you knowThe combs are made of Corten steel, which is meant to rust. That orange surface is a protective skin, not neglect, and it stops the salt air eating any further into the metal. - 0413:30 · 90m
Branka
Book a window table, they go first. The kitchen handles grilled fish plainly, and a bottle of txakoli with the surf underneath is the whole idea. The upstairs room is the proper restaurant, the ground floor bar is quicker and cheaper if you only want a plate and a glass after the sculptures.About this place↗ Open in MapsA glass-fronted restaurant and café at the end of the Ondarreta promenade, a few steps from the Comb of the Wind, with the water directly below.
HistoryThe building sits on the last stretch of sea wall before the rocks, and served beach walkers as a café long before it became a restaurant. The kitchen works the way most places on this coast do, taking whole fish and shellfish and doing very little to them.Why it's famousThe position. Almost nothing else in the city puts you this close to open water while you eat, and it is the obvious lunch after Chillida's combs.Did you knowBranka is the Basque word for the bow of a boat, which is roughly the shape the building makes when you look back at it from the promenade. - 0516:00 · 90m
Gros surf beach
Zurriola gets real waves, so it is not the beach for a lazy float. Board and wetsuit hire is on the promenade and the schools take walk-ins, though in August the stock is gone by mid morning. Ninety minutes covers a lesson or a long sit on the sand. The Kursaal blocks behind the beach reward a closer look.About this place↗ Open in MapsZurriola is the beach on the Gros side of the Urumea river, open to the Bay of Biscay and the only one in the city with proper surf.
HistoryGros was built on reclaimed marshland east of the river and spent a long time as the plain end of town. Zurriola itself was reshaped in the 1990s, when the sea wall was extended and sand added, turning a thin strip into a full beach and Gros into a surf district.Why it's famousIt is where the city surfs. Schools, board hire and a promenade crowd that skews younger and later than the one on La Concha.Did you knowThe two glass blocks behind the beach are Rafael Moneo's Kursaal, designed to read as two rocks stranded at the river mouth, and the San Sebastián film festival runs out of them every September. - 0620:00 · 90m
Bar Bergara
Order the Txalupa, a gratinated tartlet of mushroom and prawn, and the Itxaso. Pintxos here are small plated dishes rather than bread and topping, so two or three each makes a meal. Gros fills later than the old town, so eight o'clock is early and comfortable. Point at what you want, the labels are in Basque.About this place↗ Open in MapsA pintxo bar in Gros, well away from the old town circuit, known for small composed dishes rather than the usual bread and topping.
HistoryThe Bergara family bar was one of the places that pushed the idea of miniature cuisine through the 1980s and 90s, treating a pintxo as a tiny plated dish and entering it into competitions. Gros bars competed hard with the Parte Vieja through that period and largely won on technique.Why it's famousThe Txalupa, a gratinated tartlet of mushroom and prawn, is the pintxo the bar is known for, and it has been copied all over the Basque Country.Did you knowTxalupa is the Basque word for a small boat, which is the shape of the pastry case the thing is served in.
A day on the coast at Getaria
Getaria, Spain
The shape of the day
A day out of the city, west along the coast. Zarautz comes first, a beach town with two and a half kilometres of sand, then Getaria a few kilometres further on, a proper working fishing port and the reason for the trip. The morning is for the town itself, the Gothic church of San Salvador with its sloping floor and the road that runs underneath it, and the Balenciaga museum on the slope above the harbour. Lunch at Elkano is the fixed point of the day, whole turbot over embers, so everything else bends around it. Afterwards there is txakoli up in the vineyards at Txomin Etxaniz with the sea below the vines, and the harbour at the end of the day as the boats come back in around San Antón, the islet everyone calls the mouse.
Practical notes
Book Elkano weeks ahead, more for a summer weekend. It is the one thing here that will not accommodate you on the day. The Balenciaga museum closes on Mondays, so check before you give the morning to it. Take something warmer than the city needs, since Getaria sits on an exposed headland and the wind off the water is a different proposition to the sheltered bay. Driving, park at the edge of town and walk in. The old streets are narrow and largely closed to cars.
Getting between the stops
Getaria is about 25 km west of San Sebastián. The bus is the simple answer, roughly forty minutes from the city centre, dropping you at the top of the town. The Euskotren line reaches Zarautz but no further, so if you take the train, walk the coastal path on from Zarautz, about 3.5 km of cliff route with the sea on your right the whole way, an hour at an easy pace. In Getaria itself everything is within ten minutes on foot, though the museum and the vineyard are both uphill.
Local know-how
The grills in Getaria are set up outdoors, on the street, and the fish cooks in hinged wire baskets over embers rather than flame. That is why the town smells the way it does at one in the afternoon. When the turbot arrives, the parts people fight over are around the head and the fins rather than the fillet, and the waiter will offer to carve. Say yes. Txakoli is drunk young, cold and fast, and nobody swirls it.
- 0109:30 · 90m
Getaria and Zarautz
On the train, get off at Zarautz and walk the cliff path to Getaria, about 3.5 km and an hour. On the bus, stay on to Getaria and pick up Zarautz on the way back. Zarautz is worth a stop for the beach and not much else. Getaria is where the day actually happens, so give it the bulk of your time.About this place↗ Open in MapsTwo towns on the coast west of San Sebastián. Zarautz has the longest beach in Gipuzkoa, and Getaria, a few kilometres on, is a working fishing port.
HistoryBoth started as medieval fishing and whaling ports. Getaria kept its harbour and its fleet, while Zarautz turned towards summer visitors in the nineteenth century and built accordingly. The slopes between the two are planted with the vines that make Getariako Txakolina.Why it's famousZarautz for surfing and its two and a half kilometres of sand, Getaria for grilled fish and txakoli. Juan Sebastián Elcano, who completed the first voyage around the world, was born in Getaria.Did you knowThe coastal footpath linking the two runs along the cliffs above the vineyards and takes about an hour on foot, which is a better introduction to Getaria than arriving by road. - 0211:15 · 45m
San Salvador Church, Getaria
Free to go in and rarely busy. The floor visibly falls away towards the altar, which you feel underfoot more than you see. Walk through the covered passage under the east end on your way down to the harbour. Twenty minutes inside is enough, though the terrace outside is worth a few minutes more.About this place↗ Open in MapsGetaria's Gothic parish church, built into the slope above the harbour, with a public street running underneath it.
HistoryIt went up mostly across the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries on a site with older foundations. The hillside forced the design, so the nave floor drops noticeably towards the altar, and the builders left a covered passage under the east end so the town could still reach the port.Why it's famousThe sloping wooden floor and the tunnel beneath make it one of the more unusual churches in the Basque Country, and it is protected as a national monument.Did you knowThat passage under the church, the Katrapona, is a public right of way, so the road down to the harbour goes straight through the building. - 0312:15 · 75m
Cristobal Balenciaga Museum
Closed on Mondays and quietest in the morning. Allow an hour and a quarter for the permanent rooms plus whatever is in the temporary gallery. The dark glass extension steps down the hillside, so the route runs downhill from the old palace. The cases are lit low on purpose, to protect the fabric.About this place↗ Open in MapsA museum in Getaria devoted to the couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga, built around an old palace with a dark glass extension running down the slope.
HistoryBalenciaga was born in Getaria in 1895, the son of a seamstress, and learned to sew here before opening houses in San Sebastián, Madrid and Barcelona, then Paris in 1937. The museum opened in 2011 in the palace of the Marquesa de Casa Torres, one of his earliest patrons.Why it's famousHe cut from the cloth outwards and built shapes that stood away from the body, and other couturiers of his generation treated him as the one they measured themselves against.Did you knowHe almost never gave interviews, and when ready-to-wear took over he closed his house in 1968 rather than adapt to it. - 0414:00 · 120m
Elkano
Book weeks ahead, months for a summer weekend. Order the whole turbot and let them carve at the table, and eat the gelatinous parts around the head and fins rather than going straight for the fillet. Lunch runs two hours and should not be hurried. Go light on starters if you want to do the fish justice.About this place↗ Open in MapsA restaurant in Getaria built around a charcoal grill, best known for whole turbot cooked over embers on the street outside.
HistoryPedro Arregi opened it in the 1960s and worked out how to grill a whole turbot in a hinged wire basket, basting and turning it and using every part of the fish rather than filleting it first. His son Aitor Arregi runs the kitchen now, and it holds a Michelin star.Why it's famousThe turbot. It arrives whole, is carved at the table, and it is the dish people drive across the Basque Country to eat.Did you knowThe best of the fish here is reckoned to be the collar, the cheeks and the gelatinous strips along the fins, not the thick white fillet most menus would sell you. - 0516:30 · 90m
Txomin Etxaniz txakoli tasting
Ring ahead, tastings run by arrangement rather than drop-in. The vines look straight out over the water, which is half the reason for going up. Let them pour from a height and drink it while it still has some fizz, since a couple of fingers at a time is the point. You can buy at the estate and save carrying it from the city.About this place↗ Open in MapsA txakoli estate on the slopes above Getaria and one of the best-known producers in the Getariako Txakolina appellation.
HistoryThe family has grown vines on this hillside for generations. The vines are trained high on wires so the sea wind moves through them and keeps the damp off the fruit, which is what the Atlantic climate here demands. Txakoli was a farmhouse wine until the appellation was set up in 1989 and standards moved on.Why it's famousCrisp, low in alcohol and slightly sparkling, txakoli is the default drink with grilled fish along this coast, and this is the estate most people can name.Did you knowThe high pour knocks a little carbon dioxide out and puts a light foam on the surface. Poured properly you get only a couple of fingers, because it is meant to be drunk straight away. - 0618:30 · 60m
Getaria harbor and El Raton
Come down late in the afternoon, when the boats are landing. You can walk out along the causeway and up San Antón itself, about twenty minutes to the top and back, for the view over the town and the vineyards behind it. The Elcano statue is on the way. It is exposed up there, so mind the wind.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe working port of Getaria, sheltered behind Monte San Antón, the wooded islet everyone calls El Ratón, the mouse.
HistoryThe islet was joined to the town by a causeway and breakwater, which is what made the harbour usable and let Getaria keep a fleet when other Basque ports silted up or lost theirs. Whaling ships worked from here in the Middle Ages, and fish still comes ashore daily.Why it's famousThe shape, mostly. Seen from the coast road the islet reads as a mouse lying in the water, and it is on every photograph of the town. The harbour is also where Getaria remembers Elcano.Did you knowEl Ratón is a hill rather than a rock, so you can walk the causeway and climb it, and from the top you look back down the length of the town.
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