When you live in Hendaye, you have two Basque Countries one bridge apart. On one side of the Bidasoa river is the French Basque Country with its chocolate, pepper and striped linen; on the other, the Spanish Basque Country with its txakoli, cider and pintxos. And every time someone visits or I fly home to Estonia, the same question comes up: what do I take with me?
I always bring friends in Estonia two things: Basque cake (gâteau basque) and Basque pâtés. The pâtés I always buy at the market, from local sellers.
Here is my list of real producers and shops, with prices, and a note on each about whether they ship abroad. I checked the prices on 1 November 2026.
Espelette pepper (AOP)
The easiest and lightest gift. Piment d’Espelette is the only spice in France with an AOP label, and it may only be grown in ten communes around Espelette, including Ainhoa, Cambo-les-Bains and Itxassou. The protected designation dates from 2000. The flavour is fruity and warm rather than hot, so it works even for people who “don’t eat spicy food”.
- Price: a 40 g jar costs about 6 to 9 € from producers and spice shops. Bipertegia (Espelette, 164 Route Torreseneko Bidea), for example, charges 7.20 € and adds a shaker lid.
- Where to buy: straight from the producers in Espelette village or at Atelier du Piment, which also sells gift boxes from 14 to 65 €.
- Shipping: Atelier du Piment only ships online orders to mainland France; customers abroad have to email them. Check before you order.
- For whom: anyone who cooks. It also fits in hand luggage.
Tip: look for the AOP logo on the jar. Without it, it is just “piment”, not the Espelette one.
If you cannot make it to the Basque Country, Amazon sells AOP Espelette pepper too: see Espelette pepper on Amazon. Check the logo there as well; “Espelette style” is not the same thing.
I buy my own pepper from one shop in Hendaye.
If you want to see the pepper where it grows, go in autumn: see my guide to the Espelette pepper festival.
Gâteau basque
A cake with an almond crust, filled with either vanilla cream or black cherry jam. Two classic houses:
- Maison Pariès (founded 1895): shops in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (9 rue Gambetta), Bayonne (14 rue du Port-Neuf) and Biarritz (1 place Bellevue). A six-portion cream cake (700 g) costs 22 €. Best within 8 days.
- Maison Adam (Saint-Jean-de-Luz, since 1660): cream cake 18.50 €, and the same price for black cherry jam and for apricot and walnut. It keeps for 4 to 5 days at room temperature. Free shipping within Europe from 90 €. While you are at Adam, take some of their famous almond macarons too.
Honestly: gâteau basque is a good gift if you carry it home on the plane yourself. Posting it abroad is a lottery, because the cake has to arrive within a few days.
Cream or cherry? For me the cherry one wins.
If you would rather gift a skill than a cake: the Musée du Gâteau Basque in Sare runs baking workshops (36 € from age 8, the full workshop 56 €). They are in French and only in season, April to October in 2026, so as a gift it works for a trip next spring.
Bayonne chocolate
Bayonne is called the chocolate capital of France and rue du Port-Neuf is still full of chocolate shops. Three addresses:
- Chocolat Cazenave (since 1854), 19 rue Port Neuf. Everything in the online shop is organic. Bars from about 8.50 €, Kanougas caramels 36 €. There is also a tea room serving their famous frothed hot chocolate.
- Daranatz (since 1890), 15 rue Port Neuf, plus two shops in Biarritz. Free shipping in France from 100 €; ask about shipping abroad.
- Puyodebat, Cambo-les-Bains (31 avenue de Navarre). This is also home to the Basque chocolate museum: adult ticket 8 €, ages 7 to 18 4 €, and a visit with tasting takes about an hour. Book ahead by phone.
Chocolate is the safest gift to post and also to take into the UK.
Bayonne ham and Basque cheese
Pierre Ibaialde (41 rue des Cordeliers, Bayonne) is the last ham curing room still working in town. 200 g of sliced ham costs 12.10 €, a quarter ham (at least 1.5 kg) 60 €. It is vacuum-packed and their online shop ships to other European countries too: shipping to Estonia costs 20 € more than within France. You can also do a 45-minute visit with tasting on site, 5 € for adults and 2.50 € for ages 8 to 14, in French only.
Ossau-Iraty is the sheep’s cheese (AOP) of the French Basque Country and Béarn. Fromagerie Agour in Hélette sells a 500 g piece for 21 € and ships outside France and Spain for 9.90 €. A whole cheese keeps for 2 to 3 months, so it travels by post far better than cake.
The Spanish side’s equivalent is Idiazabal. In San Sebastián the place for it is the Aitor Lasa cheese shop (Aldamar 12), where cheeses age in their own cellar and the online shop ships by courier.
Basque linen
Striped Basque linen, linge basque, is a gift that lasts for years. Makers:
- Lartigue 1910: the last Basque linen weaver on the coast, with fabric woven in Ascain and Bidos. Shops in Biarritz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz (7 rue Léon Gambetta), Bayonne, Espelette and Ascain. Free shipping from 95 €.
- Tissage Moutet (Orthez): tea towel 17.90 €, napkin 13 €, tablecloths from 145 €. They ship within the EU, free from 100 €. No shipping to the UK or Switzerland.
- Artiga: napkins 14.90 €, tablecloths 99 to 119 €.
- Maison Jean-Vier: a brand from Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle, with a concept store at Ferme Berrain near Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
A tea towel is a sensible small gift (it fits in an envelope); a tablecloth is a big one.
Makhila: the gift you have to wait for
The makhila is a Basque walking stick with a hidden point, made to the owner’s height and weight. The Ainciart Bergara workshop in Larressore (75 plazako bidea) has made them in the family for generations. Prices start at 410 € (with a horn handle) and 530 € for the makhila d’honneur, with a 30 % deposit when you order. The wait is months, according to some sources over a year. It will not arrive for Christmas, but it will for a 50th birthday. You can visit the workshop for free Monday to Friday.
Txakoli, Irouléguy and sidra
- Irouléguy is the only wine region in the French Basque Country. The Cave d’Irouléguy cooperative (Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry) sells wines at about 7 to 30 € a bottle and gift boxes at 31 to 62 €, with free tastings in the shop.
- Txakoli: a sharp, lightly sparkling white wine from Getaria. Txomin Etxaniz is the classic, about 10 to 13 € a bottle in Spain.
- Sidra: the Petritegi cider house in Astigarraga sells a 75 cl bottle for 3 to 6 €. Their online shop ships free only within mainland Spain.
If you carry bottles yourself within the EU, you pay nothing extra at home as long as they are for personal use (the guideline is up to 90 litres of wine). Posting wine to another EU country is harder, because excise duty is due in the recipient’s country, and many small producers will not do it.
A book as a gift
If they love to cook, Marti Buckley’s “Basque Country: A Culinary Journey Through a Food Lover’s Paradise” (Artisan, 2018, 100 recipes) was written by an American cook who lives in San Sebastián. It won an IACP award in 2019.
See Marti Buckley’s book on Amazon. For a Bourdain fan, put his “Kitchen Confidential” next to it: see it on Amazon.
Experience gifts
My readers book tickets and experiences more than anything else, so here are four tours you can give.
Pintxos tour in San Sebastián. Three hours in the old town, eight pintxos and five drinks. Rated 4.8 (846 reviews), from 139 € per person (as of 4 November 2026).
Basque cooking class in San Sebastián. 2.5 hours, up to 10 people; you learn pintxos, tortilla and burnt cheesecake. From 139 €.
Bayonne food tour. 3.5 hours on foot: chocolate, cheese, gâteau basque, ham and cider. From 99 €.
Cider house with lunch. Four hours, transport from San Sebastián, the txotx ritual and the classic cider house menu. From 83 €. Txotx season starts in mid-January (on 14 January in 2026).
If you want to choose yourself, see all Basque Country food tours. For places to eat, read my San Sebastián restaurant guide too.
A weekend as a gift
The biggest gift is the trip itself. Three hotels that work for two:
- Biarritz: Hôtel Le Café de Paris, on Place Bellevue, sea views from every room.
- San Sebastián: Hotel de Londres y de Inglaterra, a 19th-century building right on La Concha bay.
- Saint-Jean-de-Luz: La Devinière, a small hotel with only six rooms, two minutes from the beach.
For a spa weekend see the best spa hotels in the Basque Country, and if there is time, my 7-day Basque Country route.
Getting there: the nearest airports are Biarritz, Bilbao and San Sebastián; search flights on Kiwi. Trains and buses run between Bayonne, Biarritz, Hendaye and San Sebastián, and you can find tickets on Omio. If you are gifting a trip, travel insurance is available from Heymondo with 5 % off (not for US residents).
The villages of Espelette, Sare, Larressore and Hélette are deep in the countryside and buses barely reach them. A car makes sense here and you can find one on DiscoverCars.
If you order online
- Within the EU there are no customs. But many small Basque shops only ship within France themselves, so write to them before you order. Tissage Moutet, Maison Adam and Agour definitely ship within the EU.
- What to post: chocolate, pepper, linen and hard cheese. Gâteau basque only by express and only to somewhere close.
- To the UK: since April 2025 you may not bring pork, ham or cheese from EU countries for personal use. Chocolate and baked goods are allowed.
- To the US: gifts up to 100 dollars are duty-free. French or Spanish cured ham may not be brought in or posted; hard cheese is allowed.
- Christmas: on 4 November the Maison Adam online shop showed a delivery window of 6 to 25 November for express shipping in France. You see the time for shipping abroad in the basket. Order by mid-November.
By budget
- Under 20 €: Espelette pepper (about 7 €), a Cazenave chocolate bar, a Basque tea towel (17.90 €), a bottle of txakoli.
- 20 to 60 €: gâteau basque (18.50 to 22 €), Ossau-Iraty 500 g (21 €), a box of Kanougas caramels (36 €), an Irouléguy gift box.
- 60 to 150 €: a quarter Bayonne ham (60 €), cider house tour (83 €), Bayonne food tour (99 €), a tablecloth, a pintxos tour or a cooking class.
- Over 150 €: a weekend in Biarritz or San Sebastián, a made-to-measure makhila (from 410 €).
If you are here in person, you do not have to hunt for everything in one place: every Basque town has its own shops with local produce.
If you are gifting a trip for set dates, check my calendar Zerdago before you fix them. It has events from Iparralde and Hegoalde in one place, from village fiestas to concerts in San Sebastián. The Basque Country lives by its fiestas and half of them never make it onto a tourist website.
Frequently asked questions
The most popular gifts are Espelette pepper, gâteau basque, Bayonne chocolate, striped Basque linen, Ossau-Iraty or Idiazabal cheese and txakoli.
Some producers only ship within France, so ask first. It is easier to buy on the spot. A 40 g jar costs about 6 to 9 €.
Maison Adam’s cake keeps for 4 to 5 days at room temperature; Pariès recommends eating it within 8 days.
No. Since April 2025 the UK has banned personal imports of meat and dairy products from the EU, and the US does not allow travellers to bring French or Spanish cured ham.
A Basque walking stick made to the owner’s measurements. At the Ainciart Bergara workshop prices start at 410 € and the wait is several months, sometimes over a year.
Txotx season starts in mid-January. In 2026 it opened on 14 January.
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