Freshly back from a trip to the Basque Country, Asturias, and Cantabria all I can say is why did it take us this long to get there?! Apart from a single long weekend (Valencia), a short work trip to Barcelona, and a glancing stay at the end of a French roadtrip, we’ve only ever been to Spain for motor racing. The latter trips never afforded enough time to do more than register where we were (in an “if it’s June, we must be in Valencia”), find some good places to eat in the evenings, and then fly out again either late on Sunday or early Monday morning. We could have been anywhere and I have very little memory of most of those visits. September 2026 became the time to fix that.

Initially we considered a road trip, but that would mean stopping for at least one if not two nights on the way down through France. The option of a ferry from Portsmouth, which is a two hour drive away, directly to Bilbao also meant losing two nights but at least it would be relaxing. And so, on Thursday 10th we boarded Brittany Ferries‘ “Galicia” for a 7pm departure that would see us arrive in Bilbao early on Saturday morning. We were travelling with our friends, R, and, A who is also R’s sister-in-law.

The last time we had done the route was 2018, and I don’t remember being especially impressed with the food or accommodation (though I was impressed with sighting a whale in the Bay of Biscay). This time we were booked on a relatively new boat, and I have to say that while I would not have chosen a four-berth cabin, especially as I was on the top bunk being the tallest and fittest member of our group, it was comfortable enough and was all that was available when I made what I thought was quite an early booking. The food has certainly come on in leaps and bounds too, and we had a couple of very good dinner, a decent if not entirely thrilling lunch (the only time we opted for the Brasserie instead of the restaurant Azul), and two excellent continental breakfasts. There were things to do ranging from getting a manicure or a facial, going to the cinema, quizzes, avoiding the musicians, and more whale and dolphin watching with the volunteers from ORCA. Or you could do nothing and just relax. We managed a mix of both and disembarked on Saturday fresh and ready to go and explore the country.

We’d considered a variety of options including a supermarket run for supplies ahead of checking in to our first apartment, but then decided we’d wait till we knew what was available in the way of kit. And thus we found our way to Donostia / San Sebastian where we easily found the car park that we’d been told was closest to where we were staying. The apartment was indeed right next to the car park, but we were too early so we opted instead to find lunch locally. And so we located the Gros branch of Bodega Donostiarra Gros and settled in on the terrace to enjoy some sun and some pinxtos. These consisted of sardines, a Russian salad, chorizo, octopus, and local sausage. It went down a treat with some rosé wine.

Everything was very good, and to an extent took away the pain of our attempts to communicate with the keyholder for the apartment. He was insisting on communicating via WhatsApp, and I couldn’t accept messages from an unknown sender unless I could first get online… Eventually, after a great deal of toing and froing we managed to get the keys and checked in earlier than planned so it was all good.

A certain amount of scurrying around broke out as we tried to get unpacked, and I went off to do a supermarket run (to Aldi) only to run foul of Spanish scheduling, because they were closed for lunch until 16:30. It wouldn’t be the only time we’d trip up over the differences in northern European opening times and Lusitanian ones. I ended up having to go out twice before my mission was accomplished. It was rather more urgent than it would normally have been because we needed to meet our guide for the Culinary Backstreets tour (The Real Basque Way: San Sebastian, Beyond the Stars) we had booked at 17:00 over the other side of the city centre in front of the Hotel de Londres y Inglaterra. It was tight but doable…

We made it to the start with just a minute or two to spare. Panos, our guide, had just rounded up the other two guests and soon we were on our way to our first food stop. Our first stop was Elkano 1, a cheese shop specialising in local cheeses (and some oddly familiar more exotic specimens as well). We tried a number of very good offerings, running the gamut from mild to very squishy and gorgeously blue. The couple with us proved very unadventurous in cheese terms, which meant all the more for the four of us.

From there we moved on, via the market hall, and a fish shop with a stunningly beautiful display in its windows, to a shop, Aitor Lasa, that was packed with all sorts of Basque offerings, where we all peered into the cold cabinets, eyed up the tins and bottles, and considered the fact that we were less than an hour into the tour and would have to carry anything we bought for the rest of the evening. We did get to eat a lot of Serrano ham – and it was as good as any I’ve ever eaten. And I say this as a ham addict!

We clearly next needed a dessert so it was to a bakery Panos took us. This was Otaegui where it was explained to us that, whatever we thought we knew, the traditional baked option is NOT a Basque cheesecake, but rather the pastel Vasco (gateau Basque). Now three of us were already more than familiar with this offering, because we’d regularly eaten them on visits to Pau. After a stupidly early morning start that meant no breakfast, once you’d watched a bunch of over-excitable young racing drivers bouncing off the barriers at Pont Oscar, or overshooting the hairpin at Gare, what you really needed was coffee and a snack, and back in the day the best place for that was at the Station Buffet where you could get a large cappuccino and a slab of almondy goodness that would get you through the rest of the morning. This one was even better is all I can say.

Next up we made our way further down the Boulevard and took a table at Bar Antonio. Here we were finally properly introduced to the Gilda, the iconic pintxos with more origin stories than you could shake a stick at. It’s an olive or two, an anchovy or two, and a guindilla pepper. To go with this, Panos ordered Marianos all round (also known Marianitos). This is a vermut (or vermouth) based drink and very popular in the Basque Country. After a life-time of being convinced I didn’t like vermouth, we all loved it and the search for our favourite vermut was on.

Next we headed to an out of the way place for prawns in a pastry wrapper. They were crisp, crunchy and still perfectly moist. As was the pumpkin parcel that accompanied it and a glass of cider. Unfortunately, this is the one place that I failed to catch the name of. It’s somewhere just outside the old town towards the river is all I can tell you. Which is a shame because it was very good, obviously very popular, and seemed to be very connected with the regatta and all the local rowing clubs (of which more on another day). On the way we passed a beret-wearing mens’ choir merrily serenading all and sundry, and tried not to laugh at the queues waiting to get into the TikTok and Instagram hyped places. I think we got the better deal.

Next we went to Panos’ own wine shop where he got us to try a “beer” made using grapes and raspberries. I’m not sure anyone was going to rush out and buy any, but again more charcuterie was wheeled out and that we were all agreed on. It vanished at speed! We seemed to be gaining momentum.

To prove it we next crossed the river back to Gros, where we stopped off for some fabulous bread and some even more fabulous olive oil at Sua.Muka, located on the side of the Kursaal which was busy prepping for the 2026 San Sebastian Film Festival. There was a canopy over the pavement ready for a red carpet, and massive but empty billboards lined the centre of the road.

We had one last stop after this, at Casa Garcia, which also specialises in natural wines. Here Panos ordered a bottle of wine, and we ate our way through their crab empanada, which is a fine thing and the right answer, unbelievably meaty mushrooms in a blue cheese sauce, and a peach and tomato salad. We finished our tour there and were delighted to be just across the street from our apartment. We retired stuffed full of food and ready to sleep.

Unfortunately, it was also the night that I, as the only non-hearing aid wearing member of the party discovered that the Irish bar on the ground floor of our building stay open till 3am, including the terraced section under our bedroom window…