Spain · 2 tours
Pintxos counters in San Sebastián’s old town, cider poured from the barrel in Astigarraga, turbot over charcoal in Getaria and salt cod in Bilbao. A three-hour evening walk or six days from the coast to the city.
Old town, San Sebastián
Overview
The Basque Country is small, green and wet, and it takes food more seriously than almost anywhere in Spain. The sea gives anchovies, hake, bonito and turbot; the hills give sheep cheese, apples for cider and the beef for a rib steak cooked over coals. Cooking clubs, bar counters and cider houses are part of ordinary life, not special occasions.
Our tours start in San Sebastián, with its market and the pintxos bars of the Parte Vieja, then go inland to the cider houses of Astigarraga, west along the coast to Getaria for txakoli and grilled fish, and finish in Bilbao. Ane Etxeberria, born in San Sebastián, hosts.
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2 tours · prices per person
San Sebastián · Astigarraga · Getaria · Bilbao
SpiritsSeafoodBBQ & grill
From$3,890per person, double room, most meals
View tour
Parte Vieja · Calle 31 de Agosto · Plaza de la Constitución · La Bretxa market
Food walksMarketsSpirits
From$165per person, all tastings included
View tour4 places
01
San Sebastián sits on a shell-shaped bay, La Concha, with the old town packed between the harbor and the river. The Parte Vieja is where the pintxos are: dozens of bars on a few streets, counters loaded at lunch and again from about seven in the evening, and a blackboard of hot pintxos cooked to order. La Bretxa market, at the edge of the old town, has a fish hall downstairs and farm women selling peppers, beans and cheese. Across the river, the Gros neighborhood has a surf beach and its own bars. Our walk and our six-day tour both start here.
Best monthsMay, June, September and October
Tours that visit San Sebastián
02
Astigarraga is a village of orchards fifteen minutes inland from San Sebastián, with more cider houses than any other town in the Basque Country. The sagardotegi is a big room of long tables and huge chestnut barrels. In txotx season, roughly mid-January to late April, the cidermaker opens a tap in a barrel, shouts txotx, and guests catch the thin stream of new cider in their glasses, a finger at a time. The menu never changes: salt cod omelette, cod with green peppers, a bone-in rib steak, then Idiazabal cheese with quince paste and walnuts. Outside the season, some cider houses stay open with the same menu and bottled cider.
Best monthsFebruary to April, txotx season
Tours that visit Astigarraga cider houses
03
Getaria is a fishing town on a headland half an hour west of San Sebastián, with vineyards on the slopes behind it running down to the sea. It is the home of Getariako Txakolina, a light, slightly sparkling white wine from the Hondarrabi Zuri grape, poured from a height into a flat glass. Down by the harbor, grill restaurants cook whole turbot, hake and sea bream in wire baskets over charcoal on the street, and baste them with garlic, vinegar and oil. The town also has the Balenciaga museum and a statue of Elcano, who finished Magellan’s voyage around the world. Our six-day tour stops for a winery visit and lunch.
Best monthsMay, June, September and October
Tours that visit Getaria
04
Bilbao is the larger, plainer sister of San Sebastián, an industrial river city remade around the Guggenheim since the late 1990s. For food, the place to start is the Casco Viejo, the Seven Streets of the old town, where Plaza Nueva is lined with pintxos bars under its arcades. La Ribera market, an Art Deco hall on the river from 1929, is among the largest covered markets in Europe. Bilbao’s own dishes are built on salt cod: bacalao al pil-pil, where the cook swirls cod in garlic oil until the gelatin turns it into a thick sauce, and bacalao a la vizcaína in red pepper sauce. Our six-day tour ends here with two nights.
Best monthsApril to June, September and October
Tours that visit Bilbao
Ways to go
01
The San Sebastián Pintxos Walk is three hours and six bars in the Parte Vieja, every evening, all year. It teaches you how to order, what to drink and when to move on, so the rest of your stay is easy.
02
Arrive a day early for the six-day tour and the pintxos walk is on the house. You meet Ane, learn the rules of the counter, and start day 1 already knowing your way around the old town.
03
The Basque Country food tour spends three nights in San Sebastián with a market morning and a cooking class, has dinner at an Astigarraga cider house and lunch in Getaria, and ends with two nights in Bilbao.
What’s included
The six-day tour includes central hotels in San Sebastián and Bilbao with breakfast, the class, the cider house dinner, the Getaria lunch and the other meals listed day by day, txakoli, cider and wine for guests 18 and over, the van, airport transfers at group times and Ane or another local host. The walk includes every pintxo, the cheesecake and three drinks.
Not included: flights to the start city, travel insurance, the meals not listed, tips. Alcohol only for guests 18 and over, the legal drinking age in Spain. Full list
When to go
The Basque coast is green because it rains, in every month. The cider houses pour txotx from about mid-January to late April, which is why our tour starts in January. May, June, September and October bring the best fish and warm days in the vineyards. July and August are busy and expensive in San Sebastián, and the film festival fills the city in late September. Winter is mild and quiet, good for the pintxos walk, and the bars never close for the season.
Before you book
Ask Lena directly
Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day, Monday to Friday.
A pintxo is a small bite, often on bread and held with a stick, chosen from the counter or ordered hot. Tapas are small plates, more common in the south. Our San Sebastián Pintxos Walk covers both kinds.
Txotx runs from about mid-January to late April. The six-day tour departs from January, and later departures eat the same menu at a cider house open all year.
Txokos are private clubs where members cook for friends. We do not sell visits; our class is in a cooking school, with the same home dishes.
In the bars, yes: mushrooms, peppers, potato omelette and cheese pintxos are everywhere. Cider houses and grills are harder, and we plan around you.
Bilbao has the most international flights and is about an hour and a quarter from San Sebastián. San Sebastián airport has mainly flights from Madrid and Barcelona.
Three drinks on the walk and txakoli, cider and wine with included meals on the six-day tour, for guests 18 and over. Every stop has a non-alcoholic choice.
Yes, Bilbao has direct flights to Seville. The Andalusia Food Tour starts there.
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