San Sebastián, the best of so many worlds

We spent 10 days in San Sebastián (called Donostia in Basque), one of my absolute favourite cities. It’s located in the Basque Country, in northern Spain, not far from the border with France, on the Bay of Biscay. I have been here several times before, and every time, I’m struck by how beautiful it is. There is something about the mix of the raw, natural landscape and coastline, mixed with the elegance, culture and history of the city that is so unique and appealing. It offers such a great mix of city and nature. The views are stunning and the food is to die for.

The city is divided in two by a river that meets the ocean. On one side is the main, huge, white sandy beach called Playa de Las Conchas, as well as the old city.

On the other side is a smaller beach that’s great for surfing, called Zurriola. We stayed in an apartment two blocks from this beach, in an area called Gros.

At our doorstep were a grocery store, a fruit store, a fish market, a bakery and plenty of other amenities. There is no need for a car. The city is big and vibrant, full of people and kids. The word must have gotten about how amazing it is, because there are also a lot of tourists. We also heard a lot more English here than anywhere else. The city is along the Northern Route of the Camino de Santiago, and we saw a lot of pilgrims walking through the city. We did so many things here, most of which I had never done before on previous visits. We hiked up the main mountain, Urgull, all the way to the fortress and statue at the very top.

We visited the Aquarium, which is half Maritime history museum, half aquarium. It was amazing. We found Dory and Nemo! Plus stingrays, an octopus, and sharks.

We hiked 7.5km to an area called Pasaia, which includes several small towns. The hike was lovely, in and out of the shaded forest with glimpses of the coastline and cliffs below.

When we reached the end, we went down to the town of San Pedro and took a small boat across to Donibane, where we had a bite to eat. Looking into Pasaia:

Donibane as seen from San Pedro:

Hopping on the little ferry boat:

Ceviche!

Here is what the hike looks like on a map:

The best part was that we took a city bus back to San Sebastián, which took 15 minutes, rather than doing the hike again in reverse!

We had a really cool opportunity to experience an annual local boat racing event, called Bandera de la Concha. It involves big long row boats, with teams competing from the main beach (Las Conchas) and heading out to sea and back. There are men’s and women’s teams, and the competition dates back more than a hundred years. Apparently it was inspired by fishermen who would race out and back to be the first ones to sell their catches (we learned this at the Aquarium!). The teams represent different nearby towns. Here is the green team (town unknown) getting ready while their boat is hoisted into the water.

The fans dress in their corresponding colours and they are very enthusiastic.The pink team (representing San Pedro, which we hiked to) even brought pink smoke.

The boats race four by four.

It was pretty cool to watch and be among the huge crowd of fans.

We also ate some incredible food here, including tapas and steak.

The kids found some fun playgrounds.

And we did some surfing. The waves can be pretty big on some days, so we had to pick and choose our days based on the waves. I had a hard time but the kids did great. They also had a blast playing in the water.

San Sebastián is a very popular surf destination. Zuriola was often packed with surfers, there are surf shops everywhere in the Gros, and it’s common to see people walking down the street carrying a board, wearing a wetsuit and nothing else (not even shoes!).

And while we were here we all got matching t-shirts!

I’m pretty sad to be leaving, since this marks the beginning of the end of our time in Spain. But we’re going to countries that are new to all of us next, which is pretty exciting!