San Sebastian, Spain – Finding La Gilda

The Basque city of San Sebastian, or Donostia as it is known in the Basque language, has been on the list of world’s best food destination for ages. With Michelin Starred restaurants galore, including some with three Michelin stars.

San Sebastian has in particular a reputation for producing some of the best pinchos (or pinxtos as they are called in Basque language) bars in this region at a very affordable price. From the very traditional rustic pinchos to the more elaborate, high end gourmet little morsels of delight. All made with top quality ingredients.

We were so excited at the prospect of eating our way around these pinchos bars, so just imagine our surprise and delight when we hear of “La Gilda” the quintessentially Basque pincho first created 60 years ago in the Bar Casa Vallés, an old wine bar located in the Reyes Catolicos street of San Sebastian.

The “la Gilda” consists of olives, green chillies and anchovies

The “la Gilda” unfortunately, not named after me…oh well never mind.

This classic pinchos was named after Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth’s character on the film Gilda.

The first genuine pinchos of San Sebastian, just chilli, anchovies and olives, bearing my name…how cool is that?

Apparently, it was created in homage to her curves, and when you see one in the flesh with the long leggy chillies and a couple of big curvy olives, you can see the connection to the gorgeous Hollywood Diva!

I have to say, it was a laugh out loud moment of delight for me. Finding “La Gilda” became our mission during our first night out pincho-bar crawling our way around the old town. A mission filled with endless choices of these bar snacks that have became almost like a pilgrimage for anyone visiting this city.

Saying au revoir to France

To reach San Sebastian we first had to cross the border from France into Spain, which was reasonably straight forward but not without some stress.

We chose to travel on the Motorway toll roads, called peage, since it would have saved us going through the endless roundabouts and spaghetti junctions of the non-paid roads.

Since our motorhome is right hand drive I was in charge of payment when approaching the motorway toll booths, something that I did find a little stressful. Particularly the machine swallowed up my 20 Euro note and started chucking the change back at me with many one-euro coins. I could not get them out fast enough before the barrier was up and we had to move.

From St-Jean-Pied-De-Port  to San Sebastian we encountered three paying booths and altogether it cost us about 10 euros to use this faster route into San Sebastian. We felt it was definitely worth it.

Getting out of the motorway we easily found the San Sebastian Aire (GPS N 43.3079 W 2.01433)which was situated at a very convenient location near the University and within a 40 minutes’ walk/10 minutes bus ride into San Sebastian’s old town.

The Aire cost us about 3.30 Euro per night and we decided to stay for 3 nights. Besides being situated at a great location it had all water and waste services, but no electric hook up which was ok for us since we have extra leisure batteries, solar panels and gas as alternative sources of energy.

Eating our way around the old town

There was a lot of fun to be had around all the pinchos bars, the atmosphere was lively, but also quite chilled in a very classy way.

No rowdy people getting drunk, in fact there were lots of families with their children in tow. It appears that strolling around, eating delicious Basque food it is a favourite past time for all generations…young and old. We can see the appeal.

A quick look on the internet, searching for the best pinchos bars in San Sebastian left us a little overwhelmed with the choice.

We even thought about doing a food tour, which would have been a fun way to enjoy the local food scene and get advice from the local experts learning all about the cultural aspects of it. But all tours were fully booked for the rest of the week. Something to do next time we visit.

But a food tour is not necessary and it can be expensive. So my suggestion is just wander around the old town and go into the bars that you like the look of it, some are busier than others.

We visited too many to remember all the names, some we enjoyed more than others, but we found that it was difficult to choose our absolute favourite.

Chef creating his master piece

Pinchos for every taste

We tried many different pinchos bars

The system involves walking up to the bar, ordering a drink (such as the refreshing typical wine drink Txacoli, pronounced Chakoli) and asking for a plate. Help yourself to the selection of pinchos on the bar…show the waiter what you put on your plate (who has the memory of an elephant it seems), and then pay for everything now/ or pay later…they don’t mind which.

But as much as we wanted to spend a lot of our time enjoying the food scene, San Sebastian is not just about eating pinchos.

Enjoy the Playa del La Concha

Walk around the promenade enjoying the gorgeous shell shaped Concha Bay surrounded by mountains. Often described as one of the most beautiful urban beaches in Europe, it is difficult to argue with that.

Playa De La Concha

The long promenade is framed by elegant white railings that skirt the entire beach front. Great place to enjoy on foot, by bicycle, by roller skates or just sit in one of the many benches to enjoy the gorgeous bay and people watch.

We were surprised of the difference between low and high tide. During low tide the beach is huge and artists write messages and drawings on the sand.

Messages on the sand

When the high tide comes all is erased to be started again the following day.

San Sebastian is a very walkable city, with lots of pedestrianized areas. In fact, I have not yet visited another city that is more pedestrian friendly.

Walking around at night felt very safe. All the twinkling city lights, the promenade and the glowing old building looked lovely at night time.

A long promenade, perfect for a night stroll

Plaza Constitución, lies at the heart of the old town

San Sebastian city hall

Cycling is also great, with lots of safe cycling lanes to use. We could have easily cycled from our Aire, but chose to walk most places, since we love walking and it felt very pleasant to do it here.

Funicular Monte Igueldo

Get yourself somewhere high to look at this great city from above.

The views from up there are gorgeous.

We loved going up on the old fashion funicular. It consists of two carriages carrying passengers up and down a single track, with a passing loop at mid-point.

Old fashion funicular was great fun

Alternatively, you can walk up to Monte Igueldo, apparently it takes about half an hour. We took the funicular both ways. It was about 3 euros for a return trip.

Monte Urgull

For a different perspective get yourself up here to get another birds eye view of San Sebastian.

View of surfing beach from Mount Urgull

It is a bit of a trek, but nevertheless we puffed our way up to enjoy the views from the other side of the bay. From one side on the mount can see another lovely beach, used by the surfing enthusiasts.

From the La Concha beach side of Monte Urgull there is a great view of Monte Igueldo with the funicular…where we visited the previous day, in the far distance and Santa Clara Island in the foreground.

Me at Monte Urgull

The walk starts from the old town and takes you up an easy to moderate track to the top of the hill.

There is also a 12 meters statue of the “Sacred Heart” watching over the city.

Sacred Heart statue

Mount Urgull was an important site of defence, there are many remnants of its past such as La Mota Castle ruins with its remaining fortification walls and cannons. It is an important site of historic heritage for this area.

We really enjoyed our walk up to the top taking in the stunning views over the city. It is free to visit and well worth the effort.

San Telmo Museum

Located in the heart of the old town.
The museum is the largest centre dedicated to disseminating and interpreting Basque society and culture. We spent about 2 hours looking at the exhibits but there is a lot to see and we did not do it justice.

I would recommend a visit, but leave it for a rainy day. We felt our time was best spent enjoying the sunshine and the outdoors.

Adios San Sebastian

San Sebastian got hold of our hearts in a way that we felt we could easily live there. It is a very liveable city. Elegant, clean, easy going it has such a great vibe.

It is actually difficult to pin point exactly why we loved it so much. Perhaps all of the above and another secret ingredient…

Our 72 hours in San Sebastian were over far too soon.

If you are visiting with a motorhome we do recommend the Aire we stayed. But it can get busy, particular at weekends. Also during the summer it might be hard to find a space there.

We visited the city in February, when we arrived on a Wednesday lunch time there was lots of spaces left on the motorhome Aire. By the evening there were no spaces left and by the time we left on Saturday morning there have been many disappointed customers who did not find a space to stay from Friday onwards.

My advice is arriving early to avoid disappointment. I believe there are other motorhome Aires there, but can’t comment since we have not used them.