The Basque Country isn’t quite Spain and isn’t quite France, and the people here will happily remind you of that. It’s its own thing: a green, rugged stretch of Atlantic coast with its own language, its own flag and, crucially, its own obsession with food. San Sebastián alone has more Michelin stars per head than almost anywhere on earth, but the real joy is standing at a crowded bar, pointing at pintxos and drinking txakoli. Add surf beaches like Hendaye, Hondarribia, sculpted cliffs, and small towns that feel untouched by mass tourism, and you’ve got my favourite corner of Europe to eat your way through. These guides cover both the Spanish and French sides, because the border barely matters here.
I am going to the Espelette pepper festival this year, and I have not been this excited about a village party in a long time. The Espelette pepper festival 2026 happens half an hour from my front door: two days, one small Basque village, around 20,000 people and house fronts hung with drying red peppers […]
Espelette Pepper Festival 2026: Dates, Programme and How to Get There Read more »
This list of spa hotels in the Basque Country started in a pool full of magnesium salt in a forest above San Sebastián. It made me realise that the Basque Country is famous for everything except this. People come for pintxos, surf, Michelin stars and the Guggenheim. Nobody tells you that within about an hour
The 8 Best Spa Hotels in the Basque Country (Spain and France) Read more »
The first thing I did at Arima Hotel & Spa in San Sebastián was swim on the roof with a forest underneath me. Not a view of a forest across a car park. Actual treetops, right there past the edge of the pool, and somewhere behind them a whole city that I could not hear
Arima Hotel & Spa: The Hidden Gem of San Sebastián Sits in a Forest Read more »
The first thing I saw in Guéthary was a group of kids on a big square, playing a game I had never seen in my life. One of them had a long curved scoop strapped to his arm, something between a basket and a pirate’s hook. He caught the ball in it and then hurled
Guéthary: the little Basque village I keep coming back to Read more »
In This Guide The Basque Country is one of those places where it’s genuinely hard to tell where one country ends and another begins. You’ll spend half a day going from Spanish pintxo bars to French surf towns. In the morning, you’re standing in front of Bilbao’s titanium Guggenheim. By evening, you’re at a beachside
Basque Country in 7 Days: The Road Trip I Actually Recommend to Friends Read more »
Nobody warned me before my first trip to San Sebastián: you’ll come back a different person. Not because the beach is beautiful (it is) or because the architecture takes your breath away (it does too). But because you’ve never eaten like this before. This small beach town in Spain’s Basque Country has collected 18 Michelin
Best Restaurants in San Sebastián: A Hungry Traveller’s Tour Read more »
Kui keegi oleks mulle paar aastat tagasi öelnud, et ma ühel veebruarikuu hommikul tõmban kalipso selga ja jooksen Atlandi ookeani lainetesse, oleks ma öelnud, et “ah ära aja pada”. Aga nii see läks. Hendaye, see väike prantsuse kuurortlinn Hispaania piiri ääres, on koht, kus isegi kõige kartlikum algaja saab oma esimesed lained püüda. Ja mina
