r/travel Region of the Week: 'Basque Country'

[u/AutoModerator]

Hey travellers!

In this new series of weekly threads we want to focus on regions that have a lot to offer to travellers: the towns, nature, and other interesting places whether they are lesser or more known. If more known provide more in depth suggestions like tours, things to do, places to eat, etc.

Please contribute all and any questions / thoughts / suggestions / ideas / stories / highlights about this travel destination, whether it be places you want to see or experiences you have had.

This post will be archived on our wiki destinations page and linked in the sidebar for future reference, so please direct any of the more repetitive questions there. Please click here for list and dates of future destinations. If you notice an area of a region is not listed it is likely it will be a future topic or it may have been a prior topic as a country or city. Please focus on the specific regions in the submission unless it was not a prior or future topic.

Only guideline: If you link to an external site, make sure it's relevant to helping someone travel to this city. Please include adequate text with the link explaining what it is about and describing the content from a helpful travel perspective.

Example: We really enjoyed the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. It was $35 each, but there's enough to keep you entertained for whole day. Bear in mind that parking on site is quite pricey, but if you go up the hill about 200m there are three $15/all day car parks. Monterey Aquarium

Unhelpful: Read my blog here!!!

Helpful: My favourite part of driving down the PCH was the wayside parks. I wrote a blog post about some of the best places to stop, including Battle Rock, Newport and the Tillamook Valley Cheese Factory (try the fudge and ice cream!).

Unhelpful: Eat all the curry! [picture of a curry].

Helpful: The best food we tried in Myanmar was at the Karawek Cafe in Mandalay, a street-side restaurant outside the City Hotel. The surprisingly young kids that run the place stew the pork curry[curry pic] for 8 hours before serving [menu pic]. They'll also do your laundry in 3 hours, and much cheaper than the hotel.

Undescriptive I went to Mandalay. Here's my photos/video.

As the purpose of these is to create a reference guide to answer some of the most repetitive questions, please do keep the content on topic. If comments are off-topic any particularly long and irrelevant comment threads may need to be removed to keep the guide tidy - start a new post instead. Please report content that is:

• Completely off topic

• Unhelpful, wrong or possibly harmful advice

• Against the rules in the sidebar (blogspam/memes/referrals/sales links etc)

[u/GordonBombaye]

This area is known for incredible food, but we didn't realize until we got there that it is also known for their cider houses.

We visited San Sebastian for 4 days and were lucky enough to be with someone who was from the area and spoke Basque, so he recommended Ipintza Sagardotegia and set us up with a reservation.

For 25-35 Euros per person you get a ton of food (apps, cod, steak, cheeses) and all the cider you can drink. If you are there while the cider is still being tapped, you can pour straight from the enormous barrels, which is really fun. And the cider was fantastic.

Very fun experience. Definitely check out a cider house while you are there.

[u/Trees_WI → u/GordonBombaye]

Used to live in Donostia. Favorite place in the world.

[u/brazillion → u/GordonBombaye]

Nice! Thanks for the tip. I'm going to Basque Country for 4 days (Staying in San Sebastian) next year and will have a rental car. I'll def check out this cider house. Also gonna go into the Pyrenees foothills on the French side and check out some wineries.

[u/rocketfromrussia → u/GordonBombaye]

Thanks for this recommendation!

[u/ice1133]

Spent 5 days here in March road tripping through the region and it surpassed the already high expectations I had. There are quite a few sample itineraries out there, so I will keep our 5 day itinerary short. Food is amazing just about wherever you go, so do some pintxo bar-hopping and ask the locals where the best ones are.

• Flew into Bilbao and spent two days exploring the city. It's quite walk-able if you stay somewhere central. There are a couple free walking tours to get you acquainted with old town and new town.
• Grabbed a rental car in the morning and spent the day taking the coastal route to San Sebastian. We stopped in a couple towns to soak in the cliff views and local culture and got to SS by nightfall. Highlights include
  • Barrika for peaceful coastal views
  • Butron - a castle all to yourself
  • Bermeo - local fisherman village
  • Gaztelugatxe - famous GoT location
  • Lekeitio - beautiful quiet beach
• We left our car at Parking Loiola for free, as parking rates are very high in SS. Again, we stayed central and enjoyed exploring old town and new town. Would recommend the Basque museum and Funicular Monte Igueldo. Also Chutney was fantastic. We ended up trying everything on the menu.
• After two days here, we took off for Vitoria. We didn't stop on the way, but it's a beautiful drive. In general we didn't face any challenges driving here.
• Vitoria was a cute medieval town to explore for a day, but ultimately we did get a bit bored and ended up detouring to wine-country after lunch. The landscape transformation from the greenery of Basque to the desert mountains of Rioja are a sight to behold.
• We happened upon a bodega that was hosting an event and enjoyed the atmosphere, nibbles, wine tastings, live music, and scenery. Then it was time to head back to the airport.

Overall I would recommend Basque country to anyone with a love for food, scenery, and history of this nation within a nation.

[u/Pyreneanexperience]

There is an area of the Basque Country which lies way off the usual tourist trail because although it is very traditionally Basque it lies in the glorious Pyrenean foothills of Navarra. For anyone who loves walking, stunning scenery, medieval farming landscapes, tiny Basque villages full of pagan festivals then have a look at the villages of Ituren and Zubieta and Elizondo in the area of the Baztan and Bidasoa valleys. They only lie an hour from San Sebastian or Pamplona and are connected by friendly local buses. For more information see: https://www.pyreneanexperience.com/ituren-basque-pyrenees/

[u/cparrett]

One of the highlights of the Basque Country for me is Hondarribia, located both on the coast and at the mouth of the Bidasoa river. France is easily visible just across the river and you can take a boat for a euro or two across.

There's a beautiful old town, a beach, and an amazing concentration of delicious restaurants in a small area. Go tapas-hopping on the main drag (with a mandatory stop at Gran Sol) or go to Michelin-starred Alameda.

It's small, but well worth a day trip from San Sebastian. It's also an outdoors paradise with great surfing a stone's throw from the city center and amazing road cycling, mountain biking and hiking in the nearby hills, beginning straight out of town on the emblematic Jaizkibel mountain.

[u/Milo_12]

I stayed in San Sebastian and asked the concierge at my hotel where I could watch a jai alai game. He found a location for me and I took a bus to a village somewhere nearby.