San Sebastian in Northern Spain has been on our wish list for a long time. It’s a place we’d heard such good things about and finally we booked a trip in early April 2025!
We decided to fly because it was a) quicker and b) more cost effective. We flew from Valencia to Madrid (less than an hour in the air) then a quick turnaround in Madrid got us to San Sebastian airport after another short flight. San Sebastian’s small airport is actually in Hondarribia, about a half hour’s drive away and we’d read some good things about it too, so decided to spend the first night there.
We stayed in a lovely hotel in the old town, a converted palace, Palacio Pampinot. It was in a great location and the room was really nice with a super-comfy bed and lovely soft sheet. There isn’t a Reception and we didn’t see any staff, but they give you a code which you enter at the front door of the hotel and the door of your room. It worked well. We’d stay at Palacio Pampinot again without hesitation. Breakfast isn’t served at the hotel, but there was a nice cafe just 2 minutes walk away. Click here to reserve a room at Palacio Pampinot. We enjoyed our night in Hondarribia. It was really busy there during the day because lots of people visit on a day trip from San Sebastian, but we were surprised how much quieter it was at night, although that was partly because it was a Sunday and several places were closed.
In the morning, we caught the bus E21 to San Sebastian. We were glad we had travelled light as the bus was full and we had to stand the whole way. It cost just 2.80 euros each.
Our first impressions of San Sebastian were good – lots of beautiful flowers around and the city seemed very clean. We checked into our hotel, Hotel Okako in the Gros district, another nice hotel with friendly staff who gave us some good tips on places to eat nearby. We didn’t waste any time in trying out their recommendation for tortilla, Bar Zabaleta where we had possibly the best tortilla we have ever eaten, for just 2.80 euros.
San Sebastian has a wonderful setting – the city is situated along an impressive bay of golden sand between the Urgull and Igeldo mountains. You can climb both mountains for amazing views. There is a funicular railway which takes you up to Mount Igueldo for a few euros. You can either get a return ticket, or, like us, you can take the funicular up and walk down. The view on the path down aren’t particularly great, so unless you really feel like the walk it’s probably best just to get the funicular back down. It was a bit overcast the day we went up, but the views were still spectacular. It’s worth paying a few euros to go to the museum in the tower, as you get an even better view from the top of the tower.
The following day was our last full day so we wanted to climb up Mount Urgull. We delayed it till the afternoon as the morning was a bit cloudy and luckily we had just started to climb up towards the castle when it brightened up. It’s quite a climb, but the path is good and it should be easy for anyone with a reasonable level of fitness. Great views again
(“mayWe had some great food on our last day. We had to go to La Vina for their famous Burnt Basque Cheesecake and it didn’t disappoint. So delicious!! We’d read that the best way to eat this cheesecake is with a glass of PX Pedro Ximenez sweet wine, so we got a cup of coffee, a glass of PX and a portion of cheesecake (the portions are huge and more than enough for 2). It was perfect!
We decided to stay in the Gros area for our last night and had some of the nicest food we’ve had on our trip. We went first to Bar Bergara which is a Michelin Star winning bar with some amazing pinchos. Although pretty small, the Txulepa was mushrooms and prawns in puff pastry and was really delicious as was the amazing duck with apple and calvados. The mini burger and the crispy prawns were also really tasty. We then went to Bar Rafael just round the corner where we had a delicious tuna salad with chilli and some of the nicest tomatoes we’ve ever had, and a couple of other tasty pintxos to finish off the night. The staff there were really friendly too.
One more place worth a mention is Maiatza where we had a couple of delicious breakfasts. Gareth loved the tostado with tomato, bacon and fried egg on delicious seedy bread (“maybe the best breakfast I’ve had since we came to Spain”). My tomato and avocado was also very nice, but even better was the crispy bacon, avocado, scrambled egg, feta cheese, chlili and lime on toast!
And if you’re visiting this part of the world be sure to try the txakoli. It’s a very light, refreshing, slightly sparkling white wine that was perfect to drink and very good value.
