I do enjoy sharing information and pictures about places I have been to, and which others may not have visited… yet! San Sebastian in Spain is definitely one of those places that you should have on your list to get to.
San Sebastián, is in the Basque region. The Basque regioncovers the northern part of Spain, extending into Western France, all fronting on the Bay of Biscay in the Atlantic Ocean. The Spanish portion of this region has had a history of attempting to separate, much like the Catalan region. Unfortunately, the separation movement often used violence to further its cause. This is no longer the case and does not interfere with tourism.
San Sebastián, or Donostia as it is referred to in the Basque language, is the capital of the province of Gipuzkoa. Within Spain itself, it has historically been a major tourist destination. It has beautiful beaches, and I am sure it would be much cooler than the blazing hot Costa del Sol during the summer months.
It also has a number of major cultural events like the San Sebastián Jazz Festival and the International Film Festival. In 2016 it, along with Wroclaw Poland, was named the European Capital of Culture.
If you are into food, San Sebastián is an absolute must visit. The city sports an incredibly high concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants. In fact, it has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city in the world, except for Kyoto, Japan, a much larger city.
For the Love-goddess and I, the high-end restaurants are not a big draw. We can do that anywhere. For us, it is the incredible Tapas scene. Tapas are called Pintxos (pin-chose) in the Basque region. The “old town” part of the city must have well in excess of 100 Pintxos bars and restaurants. And, they serve up pretty much any sort of offering you could think up or want – as you are about to find out and see.
Another great reason to visit Saint Sebastian is that there are a number of other towns in the Basque region that are easy to get to and are great places to see as well. This includes Guernica, of the famous Picasso Guernica painting, and Bilbao home of the amazing Guggenheim art gallery – one of the true architectural wonders of the world. You can also slip across the border quite easily and visit Bayonne and Biarrits in the French Basque area.
The Love-goddess and I visited Saint Sebastián in the first two weeks of October 2015. We were in the south west of France, Carcassonne, etc., and, as we often do, we decided we would whip over and check out the city on a whim. You can do that when you have a Eurail pass. What a good decision this turned out to be. We will definitely return again.
As a bit of a footnote note to all of this, as I was finishing off this piece, I decided I would look for hotels in San Sebastian. The next time we visit we probably won’t be staying there long enough to rent an Airbnb for a week or more.
If you have read some of my previous articles about touring around in Europe, you will know that we occasionally stay at one of the Accor Group hotels like Ibis, or Mercure. When I searched the Accor site, I came up with this hotel. I provide a link here because it looks like it would be an absolutely magnificent place to stay. You would have to take cabs everywhere, but it might be well worth it. Given my “indifference” to heights, when I showed this to the Love-goddess I reminded her that I probably would not be able to stay there. 🙂 Make sure you check out the photos and watch the video to get the full effect. After thinking that the title image for this article would have been taken from a plane or helicopter, I am now fairly certain it was simply shot from the outdoor patio of this hotel. Wow!
Let the visit begin!
There are a couple of video clips from our visit thrown in here amongst the photos for your viewing pleasure. If you are using your phone or tablet to view these photos you should probably do it in horizontal/landscape view.
I did not take this first picture. As you probably have figured out, I cribbed it from the Wikipedia article. I had to share it with you though, because it is the one shot that captures the absolute magnificent geography of the town, its beautiful waterfront, and the Pyrenees mountains in the background. Yes, it is this beautiful.
We ended up going to San Sebastián because we decided during one of our European tours that it was time to take “a vacation from our vacation”, as we often do when we’re on the road for two or three months. We typically pause in the middle of our extended trips, find an apartment for a week, and just settle in and chill. This time we decided we’d like to be in an oceanfront location. This photo is of the apartment we rented on one of the main streets, a short walk from the beach. Every time we stay in an Airbnb place I am struck with the same thought… would Airbnb exist if there were no IKEA? 🙂
One day, well into our stay, I heard music playing out on the street. I went out onto the balcony and videotaped this little parade. Beautiful women, a brass band, and guys on stilts. It had it all. 🙂 I think they were promoting a product.
Needless to say, the beach is pretty magnificent. I believe this was shot during high tide, so the beach goes out even further when the tide is out. This was shot on October 9. Lots of people still sun-bathing and swimming.
Same day, looking the other way. The old town lies at the foot of that hill. We spent a lot of time there. San Sebastian sits on two horseshoe-shaped beaches; this is the larger one. I have not shown anywhere near the full extent of the beach area with these two pictures.
This was shot on another day. It shows a large portion of the beautiful boardwalk that runs along the waterfront behind the beach.
An example of some of the beautiful iron-wrought features seen throughout the city. The fence design is frequently used as a symbol for the town.
Lots of beautiful architecture around as well. San Sebastian straddles the River Urumea which flows down from the Pyrenees and empties into the Bay of Biscay.
In town, not too far from the beach, there are a number of pedestrian shopping streets.
San Sebastián is still very much a working fishing port. I wouldn’t see myself going out on to the ocean on a less than ideal day in any of these boats. 🙂 The island that splits the two ends of the horseshoe is on the left in this picture.
This is very typical of the many streets that make up the old town. Lined on both sides with Pintxos bars.
This is the first bar we ate in. It might even have been the day we arrived. I recall we did not stand at the bar and do the Tapas thing, but rather sat at a table and ordered from a menu. Any Spanish restaurant… I’m assuming this is a case, but I might be overly generalizing… where there is a choice between standing at the bar and eating at a table, you will typically pay more for the exact same food sitting at a table. You have been warned. 🙂
It did not take us long to immerse ourselves in the Tapas/Pintxos scene. This is the first one we went to for the “full monty” Tapas experience. And we went there for us special reason. We had to celebrate…
… the Love-godess’ birthday! Sorry about the fuzzy photo dear. And what a fine birthday celebration it was. Please note all the napkins on the floor. Anytime you are doing Tapas in Spain you throw your napkins on the floor. You do not leave them on your plate, or on the counter… that is very shabby behaviour… apparently.
Birthday, round two. The cold meat, blue cheese, anchovy combo on the right was very tasty. Most Pintxos are offered up on a slice of bread.
The staff in these places, and in restaurants in Spain in general, are usually friendly and helpful. They are always willing to help you negotiate any language issues. I still have no idea how they track what you eat. I think it is a combination of a lifetime of remembering what people have, counting the little wooden sticks left on your plate, and maybe a decision based upon whether they liked you or not. We have never felt like we’re being overcharged for anything in any restaurant in Spain.
Most of these places are just an absolutely wonderful assault on the visual senses. Even if you’re not hungry it’s worth going in just to look at the food.
Yet another street, with an endless selection of great places to eat. You get the picture.
This was another fun bar we went to. Everything they served involved anchovies in one form or another. Many of these places specialize in just one thing.
Anchovies immersed in a sauce, and something chopped up with an anchovy on top. People who know me know that I love raw fish and smoked fish, but I generally hate cooked fish. A long explanation would be required for that, from which I will spare you. Regarding pickled fish – I’m not sure I have an opinion one way or the other on it. That said, I loved everything we ate here.
As in Portugal, salted cod is sold in specialty shops.
I love Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. As I write this, there are two small tubs of Cherry Garcia sitting in the freezer. The first time I ever had it was out in front of the big LL Bean store in Freeport, Maine. For a long time the only place you could get it in Canada was at an official Ben & Jerry’s outlet in old Montreal. It is widely available now of course. I got a big kick out of this Creperie in the old town because it was offering up my fave and was named Québec.
There is a lovely little museum in the old town. I am still not sure what this is all about. 🙂
I love this system. In grocery stores in Spain… and probably in other parts of Europe… you do not take your bags of fruit and vegetables up to the front counter to be weighed and priced as you check out. You do that yourself in the produce section. Every product has a number on its identifying sign. To price something you simply put what you want in a bag, put your filled bag on the scale, and enter the product number. The machine then spits out a sticky tag with the weight and the total price, which you use to seal up the bag. It’s a great system. It saves the cashiers doing a lot of extra work. If you make the mistake of taking your bags of fruit and vegetables up to the checkout expecting the cashier to weigh and price them, you will have scorn heaped upon you … I know this from personal experience. Oooops!
The second horseshoe Bay Beach area. We saw some surfing going on on the large bay, but apparently this is the spot that attracts surfers to San Sebastian.
San Sebastián is very easy to get to via rail, and from there to all other points in Spain. All by high-speed train.
Ya gotta love train travel. Heading off to Seville. Cheers everyone!
