San Sebastián Travel Guide

San Sebastián occupies a curve of the Cantabrian coast that most people, when they first see it, assume must have been designed. The bay of La Concha — symmetrical, sheltered, framed by two hills — is almost impossibly photogenic. The city knows this, and has built its identity around it: a resort town since the 19th century, when the Spanish royal family chose Donostia as their summer residence and the Belle Époque Ensanche was built to receive them.

What the postcard doesn't communicate is the food. San Sebastián has more Michelin-starred restaurants per capita than almost any city in the world. But the more important number is the one on the street: the bars of the Parte Vieja, the pintxos on the counter, the txotx call in the cider houses of Astigarraga. The city's obsession with food runs from three-star kitchens to the standing-room-only bar at 7pm.

The old town is compact, walkable, and dense. Two Gothic churches, the former bullfighting plaza at the Plaza de la Constitución, the covered market of La Bretxa, and hundreds of pintxos bars — all within a ten-minute walk of each other. A local guide turns what would otherwise be a pleasant wander into a structured understanding of the city's history, architecture, and food logic.

East of San Sebastián, the coast changes character. Hondarribia sits on the French border with its medieval walls intact. The Bay of Pasaia holds two villages — San Juan and San Pedro — facing each other across the narrowest of estuaries. The hills above are apple orchards, and in the farmhouses below them, Basque cider has been made and drunk in the same way for five centuries.