Three city beaches, a pintxo bar on every corner and a fishing town down the coast for txakoli. Three days in Donostia, planned properly.
Photo: Kent Wang, CC BY-SA 4.0
San Sebastián and Donostia are the same name twice, Spanish and Basque, both meaning Saint Sebastian, and you'll see both on every sign. The city has fewer than 190,000 people and a story that nearly ended in 1813, when British and Portuguese troops who had come to drive out the French stormed it, burned it down and left one street standing. The walls came down in 1863, the new town went up in a Parisian grid, and from 1885 the widowed Queen María Cristina spent every summer here.
What you get today is a compact city around a bay with three beaches inside the urban area, a Parte Vieja where bar counters are covered in food, and green hills at both ends. Three days is the right length: two to see the city on foot, without rushing between a swim, a museum and the next pintxo, and one to leave for the coast. A fourth and fifth day add cider houses, Hondarribia and Pasaia, listed at the end.
Day one is the Parte Vieja, Monte Urgull and Gros, day two the bay from La Concha to Ondarreta and the top of Monte Igueldo, day three Getaria and Zarautz down the coast. Start on a Wednesday: San Telmo Museoa is closed Mondays, the markets Sundays, the Balenciaga Museum on Mondays for most of the year (and Tuesdays from November to March) and Elkano in Getaria on Sundays and Mondays. For the bigger picture, see Spain.
Every stop from the plan below, colored by day. Pick a day to see its route.
The market, the old town and its churches, San Telmo, a pintxo lunch, the hill over the harbor, Tabakalera and an evening on the surf beach.
The bay from end to end: La Concha and Ondarreta beaches, Miramar, Chillida's Peine del Viento, the old funicular and a cheesecake dinner.
A train down the coast to the longest beach in the Basque Country, then Getaria for grilled fish, the Balenciaga Museum and txakoli.
The old town is small, so this day is about order. Go to the market before it closes, see San Telmo on a day it's open (never Monday), and save Monte Urgull for the second half of the afternoon. The clocks go back on the last Sunday of October (25 October 2026), after which sunset drops from about 19:10 to about 18:10.
Begin where the pintxo kitchens shop. San Martín is the covered market in Centro, with fish, meat, vegetable and pastry stalls on two floors. La Bretxa sits at the edge of the old town and is being renovated (market-floor works were planned until autumn 2026), with the city tendering works on the fish market building in late 2025, so what's open changes.
Buy a piece of Idiazabal, a Gipuzkoa sheep's cheese traditionally eaten with quince paste, and you have breakfast.
Two minutes from the market is the Parte Vieja (Alde Zaharra in Basque), and nearly all of it is younger than it looks. After the fire of 31 August 1813 only the street at the foot of the hill survived, now called Calle 31 de Agosto, and the rest was rebuilt in the 19th century. The arcaded Plaza de la Constitución was the town hall square until 1947 and is where the flag goes up at midnight on 20 January for the Tamborrada.
Two churches mark the old parish divide. Santa María del Coro is baroque, finished in 1774, with a doorway between two towers carrying the martyred saint. San Vicente is Gothic, 16th century, one of the few buildings that came through 1813.
At the foot of Monte Urgull, the San Telmo Museum fills a 16th-century Dominican convent plus a modern extension added in 2011. It's the one museum in town that explains where you are: Basque society, everyday objects, art and history, in a former church and cloister. The collection includes the big canvases Josep Maria Sert painted for the church.
Pintxos (the Basque answer to Spanish tapas) are the point of the city, and there's a method. Don't come starving: you'll treat the counter like a buffet and overbuy. Order a drink first, a txakoli or a small beer, then take one or two cold pintxos from the counter. Hot ones are ordered from the barman off the board on the wall. Eat, pay, move to the next bar. At payment you tell the barman what you ate, and he trusts you.
On Calle 31 de Agosto, Gandarias is an easy first stop and La Cuchara de San Telmo cooks everything to order. Nearby, Ganbara serves mushrooms in autumn, Txepetxa is known for anchovies and Borda Berri has a changing chalkboard menu. A bar that asks to see your plate before you eat is aimed at tourists.
Urgull is the 123-meter hill that closes the east end of La Concha bay, and it's the city's old fortress. Paved paths start by the Paseo Nuevo and climb through trees past cannons, walls and viewpoints to the Castillo de la Mota, a 12th-century castle that guarded the town through every siege. A statue of the Sacred Heart, over 12 meters tall, has stood on top since 1950.
The best view is the postcard one over the Parte Vieja and the bay, with Monte Igueldo at the far end.
Walk back along the river to Tabakalera, the former tobacco factory in the Egia district, now a contemporary culture center. It holds exhibitions, a cinema and audiovisual lab, a creative library and lab called Medialab, a shop and a hotel.
Go for what's on: an exhibition, a film, the café. There's a rooftop terrace (the Prisma) with a view over the city, so ask at the info point whether it's open.
Cross the river and you're in Gros, where the locals go out. The Kursaal, the congress center and auditorium by Rafael Moneo that opened in 1999 and hosts the film festival, sits where the river meets the sea, and beside it is Zurriola, the city's surf beach. It's about 800 meters long, the most open beach in the city with the strongest waves, reshaped in 1994 with a breakwater after it was nearly unusable.
Watch the surfers, or join them: Zurriola Surf Eskola and Pukas give lessons and rent boards and wetsuits, and you will want the wetsuit. Then eat in Gros. Bar Bergara on Calle General Artetxe is the classic pintxo stop.
This is the beach day, and it's mostly a walk west along a promenade. The Igueldo funicular runs daily in low season, but the rides at the top open mostly on weekends, so check the calendar if you want them.
Concha means shell, and the beach is named for its almost perfect crescent. It's one of the best-known city beaches in Europe, it appears in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (the narrator swims here), and it has a promenade with the famous railing. The bay is sheltered, with the small Santa Clara island in the middle.
The tide matters: at low tide the sand is very wide, at high tide narrow. Swimming is a June-September thing for most people, so out of season this is a walk along the promenade, past the Cafe de la Concha, to the far end. In summer small boats go out to Santa Clara island, which a landing party from a British naval squadron captured during the 1813 siege.
The Miramar Palace stands on the hill between La Concha and Ondarreta, and it exists because of the queen. María Cristina of Austria, widow of Alfonso XII, had the English architect Selden Wornum design it as the royal family's summer house, finished in 1893.
It's not a museum. The city bought the estate in 1972 and the palace now hosts university summer courses, with guided tours of the rooms at set times (ask locally). The easy visit is the garden: a big sloping park above the bay with one of the best views of the shoreline, open until 19:30 in winter.
Ondarreta is the western half of the same bay, split from La Concha by the Miramar hill. It's shorter than La Concha but wider on average, because it's less exposed to the tide, and it's the calmer, more family beach, with villas along the promenade and a statue of the queen in the gardens. It has changing rooms, showers, toilets and a café.
If you swim once in San Sebastián, do it here, from late spring to early autumn: shallow water, small waves.
At the end of Ondarreta, where the promenade runs out against the rocks, Eduardo Chillida's Peine del Viento (Haizearen orrazia, the Wind Comb) is three steel sculptures, about ten tonnes each, wedged into the rocks facing the sea. The Basque architect Luis Peña Ganchegui designed the platform around them, finished in 1976, with air vents that let waves breaking on the rocks blow spray and sound up through holes in the ground.
Go on a day with swell and stay on the platform near the sculptures. It's the best free artwork in the city, and wild in a storm.
Just past the Peine del Viento is the lower station of the Igueldo funicular, a 312-meter track with two cars that climbs 151 meters from Ondarreta to the top of the hill in a few minutes. At the top is the amusement park, which dates from 1912: with a roller coaster, a carousel and bumper cars, most rides 1-3 EUR.
The reason to come late is the view over the whole bay, the old town and Monte Urgull, with the lights coming on. Time it for sunset (about 18:10 in late October, 17:35 in December) and check the last funicular down.
End the day at the bar that gave the world the Basque cheesecake. At La Viña on Calle 31 de Agosto, the chef Santiago Rivera created the crustless cake with a burnt, caramelized top and a soft center in 1990, by the bar's own account. Copies now exist on every continent, but the bar sells the original only at its counter and through its website.
Have a slice with coffee or a glass of sweet wine, after a pintxo or two at the counter. The bar has served traditional Basque cooking since 1959, and its pintxo bar is a classic.
Day three is a ride down the coast and the best use of a third day. Getaria has no train stop. Euskotren runs from Amara station to Zarautz, about every 30 minutes on weekdays and hourly at weekends. From Zarautz, walk the 3 km coast path to Getaria or hop on a bus. Or skip the train: Lurraldebus line UK10 goes straight from Donostia to Getaria via Zarautz (times at lurraldebus.eus). Book Elkano weeks ahead, check the last train or bus home, and start early: the Balenciaga Museum closes at 18:00 in October and 17:00 from November to February.
Zarautz is a resort town 15 km west of San Sebastián, with the longest beach in the Basque Country, 2.8 km of sand facing the open Bay of Biscay. It's known as the Queen of Beaches and it's a serious surf beach. Queen Isabella II summered at the Narros Palace beside it, and the seafront still has the grand villas to show for it.
Walk the promenade, watch the surfers, have a coffee. Zarautz is a pleasant seaside town, not a destination; an hour or two is plenty. Then go on to Getaria, the reason for the trip.
Getaria is a fishing town of under 3,000 people, built on a narrow strip between the mainland and a rocky hill called the Ratón (the mouse, Mount San Antón), which was an island until the 16th century. Two famous men were born here: Juan Sebastián Elcano, who completed the first voyage around the world after Magellan died, and the couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga.
Walk down the main street, Kale Nagusia, to the harbor, where you can smell the grills from afar, and stop at the Elcano statue. The hills behind are vineyards, almost all txakoli.
Getaria is famous for its parrilla restaurants, where fish is grilled over charcoal and served almost bare. The signature is turbot (rodaballo), grilled whole, and the place that made it famous is Elkano, which calls itself a world reference for it. It's a serious restaurant, open Tuesday to Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday, and you need to book well ahead.
For something simpler, the harbor streets have grill houses such as Kaia-Kaipe and Mayflower, where you can order grilled fish, a salad and a glass of txakoli. Share a fish: portions are big.
Balenciaga was born in Getaria and became one of the great couturiers of the 20th century, and the museum opened here in June 2011. It occupies the Aldamar Palace, once the home of the Marquises of Casa Torres, with a new building beside it. The permanent exhibition shows around a hundred pieces from a collection of more than 1,200, including donations from the American collector Bunny Mellon, and a show called Technique, Material and Form runs until 2028.
It's a museum about how clothes are made: cut, fabric, volume. Capacity is limited per time slot: book online at least four hours ahead, or buy at the desk if there's room.
Txakoli is the Basque white wine: young, dry, high in acidity and sometimes slightly sparkling, traditionally poured from a height into the glass. The Getariako Txakolina denomination, from 1989, is the oldest of the Basque txakoli ones, and the vines grow on the slopes between the coast and Mount Garate. The grape is Hondarrabi.
Txomin Etxaniz, a family winery whose roots go back to 1649, offers visits with a vineyard and cellar tour and a tasting with local anchovies and albacore, if you book. It's just over a kilometer from the old town.
A day or half a day from the city, ordered by distance.
A working port in a narrow bay, split into villages, the best known being Pasai San Pedro and Pasai Donibane, at the foot of Monte Ulia and the Jaizkibel massif. Birthplace of the admiral Blas de Lezo and the designer Paco Rabanne.
Getting there: 5 km east, about 15 minutes by car, with buses from the city, or a longer hike over Monte Ulia from Zurriola
The sculptor's open-air museum, with large steel and granite pieces in a park and a farmhouse. Chillida also made the Peine del Viento. Open Monday and Thursday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00, closed Tuesday and Wednesday in 2026.
Getting there: 7 km south in Hernani, about 15 minutes by car, or bus BU05, which stops at the museum
Official website
The sagardotegi around Astigarraga, Hernani and Usurbil serve a fixed menu and cider straight from the barrel: shout txotx and line up with your glass. The season starts in mid-January (14 January in 2026) and runs to about the end of April.
Getting there: 7 km south-east, about 15 minutes by car
A walled fishing town on the Bidasoa estuary, facing France, with a castle of Charles V, a colorful harbor quarter called La Marina and plenty of pintxos. A small boat crosses to Hendaye. The best alternative to Getaria if you want walls and sea over fish and fashion.
Getting there: 23 km east, about 30 minutes by road, with regular buses from the city
Across the border in the French Basque Country: a small fishing town with a beach, and the grand seaside resort of Empress Eugénie, with casinos and a surf culture. Both work as a long day trip.
Getting there: 35 km and 50 km, 30-45 minutes by car; by train, Euskotren to Hendaye, then a French regional train (check times)
Home of the Guggenheim, a bigger and harder city than San Sebastián. It deserves more than a day trip: see 3 Days in Bilbao.
Getting there: 100 km west, about 70 minutes by bus (Pesa) or 75 minutes by car
San Sebastián eats standing up and moves bar to bar. These are the dishes and drinks that tell you you're in the Basque Country and not in Andalusia.
Small bites on bread, held with a toothpick (pintxo means spike), set out cold on the counter or cooked to order. Basque tapas, but better organized: a drink, one or two pintxos, then the next bar. Look for anchovies, cod, mushrooms, prawn skewers and thin slices of Jamon Iberico.
Where to try it: Calle 31 de Agosto, Fermín Calbetón and Gros. Gandarias, Ganbara, Txepetxa and Bar Bergara are long-running names.
An olive, a pickled guindilla pepper and an anchovy on a toothpick: salty, sharp, slightly hot. Most accounts trace it to San Sebastián in the 1940s, usually to Casa Vallés, and say it's named after Rita Hayworth in the film Gilda. Bar Martínez claims it too, so treat the exact origin as folklore.
Where to try it: Any old town bar counter, with a txakoli.
Thick potato omelet, sometimes runny in the middle, served at room temperature as a pintxo or in a bocadillo. It's the simplest way to judge a bar: if the tortilla is good, the rest usually is.
Where to try it: Any traditional counter in the Parte Vieja or Gros, at lunchtime when it's freshly cut.
Spider crab, picked and baked back in its shell. A Basque classic, rich and expensive, and better shared.
Where to try it: Seafood restaurants near the port and in Gros, such as Saltxipi, known for its baked spider crab.
Salt cod runs through everything, from tempura-fried cod with romesco sauce at the pintxo counter to the cod omelet and cod with peppers on a cider house menu. Bacalao al pil-pil, simmered in oil and garlic, is the version to look for.
Where to try it: Pintxo bars with a hot menu, like Borda Berri, and any cider house.
Turbot grilled whole over charcoal, the great dish of Getaria. Subtle, almost sweet, best with nothing else on the plate.
Where to try it: The Getaria grill houses, from Elkano down to the harbor.
Dry, high-acid white wine, slightly sparkling, poured from a height into a wide glass. The default drink with pintxos. Getaria's is the best known.
Where to try it: Every pintxo bar by the glass, or at a Getaria winery.
Basque cider is dry, still and sour, served in a cider house straight from the barrel: at the call of txotx you go to the barrel and catch a stream in your glass. The menu is cod omelet, cod with peppers, a thick steak and Idiazabal with quince and walnuts. Season: mid-January to about the end of April.
Where to try it: Cider houses (sagardotegi) in Astigarraga, Hernani and Usurbil.
A crustless cheesecake baked at high heat, with a burnt top and a soft, almost runny middle. It was created at La Viña in 1990 and has conquered the world in versions mostly worse than the original.
Where to try it: La Viña, Calle 31 de Agosto, for the original.
A sloe liqueur drunk in the Basque Country and Navarre, usually as a digestif, chilled or on ice. It's what you're offered after a cider house meal.
Where to try it: Bars and restaurants everywhere.
Book well ahead for Semana Grande in August and the film festival in September.
Best for: First-timers who want pintxo bars outside the door
You can walk to everything and to Urgull in minutes. The catch: it's the loudest area, rooms are small and the streets are full of people until late.
Best for: Couples and anyone who wants calm within walking distance
The Parisian-style grid built after the walls came down in 1863, with elegant buildings and wide streets. It's between the Parte Vieja and La Concha, so you can walk anywhere. The catch: it costs more.
Best for: Surfers and travelers who want a local, relaxed neighborhood
Across the Urumea river, with Zurriola beach on its doorstep and some of the best bars. The catch: it's a 10-15 minute walk to the old town, and the beach is for surfers more than for swimming.
Best for: Families and people who want a beach next to the hotel
Villas, parks and the beach at the west end, near the Igueldo funicular. The catch: it's 25-30 minutes on foot from the old town.
In Map Drop the countries of Europe fall one at a time and you drop each into its place - Spain is one of the pieces.
The practical stuff that makes the first day in San Sebastián easier.
Lunch is around 13:00-15:30 and dinner starts around 20:30, and many kitchens close in between. Pintxo bars open for both rounds. A menú del día (set lunch) is the cheapest sit-down meal, around 13-16 EUR in the old town and Gros.
Walk. Taxis only pick up at stands or by phone. Euskotren leaves from Amara station, a different station from the RENFE one.
The euro is used. Cards work in most places, but carry some cash for small bars and markets. Rounding up is a fine tip.
Spain moves the clocks back on the last Sunday of October (25 October 2026) and forward on the last Sunday of March (28 March 2027). Sunset goes from about 19:10 to 18:10 overnight and is around 17:35 in December, so plan Urgull, Igueldo and Getaria around it.
Tamborrada on 20 January: the whole city drums for 24 hours, starting at midnight in Plaza de la Constitución. Jazzaldia in the last week of July. Semana Grande in mid-August, with a fireworks competition over the bay. The film festival in late September (18-26 September in 2026). Book rooms early.
Spanish and Basque both appear on signs. Say kaixo (hello) and eskerrik asko (thank you). Staff in tourist places usually speak English.
The usual European two-pin type (C and F), 230 V.
Yes, with a coast day. The center is small, so two days cover the old town, the beaches, Urgull and Igueldo, and a third gets you to Getaria. With five days you can add cider houses, Hondarribia and Pasaia.
The Parte Vieja and its pintxo bars, La Concha, Monte Urgull, Monte Igueldo, the Peine del Viento, the San Telmo Museum, Zurriola in Gros and, down the coast, Getaria. This plan covers all of them.
Yes. La Concha and Ondarreta are sheltered bay beaches with lifeguards and facilities in season, and most people swim from late spring to early autumn. Zurriola is an open-sea surf beach, so check the flags.
The cider houses open for txotx in mid-January (14 January in 2026) and run until about the end of April. Outside those months you drink bottled cider in the town's bars.
Getaria and Zarautz, day three here, for fish, txakoli and the Balenciaga Museum. Hondarribia is the best alternative, Pasaia the easiest half day.
No. The city is walkable and Euskotren runs down the coast to Zarautz. A car only helps for the cider houses and Chillida Leku, and parking in the center is costly, roughly 20 EUR a day.
On the expensive side for Spain. A pintxo costs around 3-5 EUR in a traditional bar and more in an elaborate one, and a set lunch is cheaper than ordering à la carte.
Yes, it's a safe, walkable city. Use normal city sense with bags in crowded bars and on beaches. The main danger is the sea: obey the flags.
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