Basque Tour Bayonne

How much extra time?
We flew in 3 days early and stayed in St. jean du luz on the beach.

But you can do it as a day trip.
It's an easy train ride from Bayonne.
Lots of good seafood restaurants there.

I have 2.5 free days. I just booked my flight.

Yes, looking for a day out of town.

I can’t speak to getting to the following by public transportation, but Pamplona, Lourdes, or Hondarrbia are each within about 1.75 hours of Bayonne.

There are lots of nice, small restaurants in Bayonne, just wander round till you see one that takes your fancy.
A wonderful visit near Bayone is the rebuilt frigate Hermione. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a bus, but you could take a taxi.
https://fregate-hermione.com/en/lhermione/

We did a self guided tour of the area in the summer of 2023. We spent 3 nights in Bayonne itself and thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you are taking the Rick Steve's Basque Country Tour you will have an opportunity to see some of the nearish towns such as San Sebastián, Biarritz, and St-Jean-de-Luz as part of the tour. Of those, I found the food options in San Sebastián the most appealing, but there is great food throughout. We took FlixBus from Bayonne to San Sebastián since the timing was a little better for us than the train options at the time.

For things that are not included in the tour itinerary:

We rented a car for the day and did the French Basque town drive from Rick's Basque Country Book (La Rhune, Sare, Ainhoa). Easy driving and not crowded. Beautiful countryside and small towns with local food options.

Maybe a crazy idea, but Bordeaux is only a little over 2 hours by train from Bayonne. Lots of good food and wine tasting opportunities there. From Bordeaux we enjoyed a day trip to Saint Émilion for wine tasting and biking through the vineyards.

When we did this tour in 2024, Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz were not included in the tour itinerary. We arrived a couple of days ahead and went to Biarritz on our own. It was very easy to do with public transportation. Others did one of them in the afternoon of the first full tour day. We also went to the chocolate museum in town using public transportation and it was fun. We found it to be an easy area to navigate with public transportation.

I did this tour in May 2026, and Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz were not included. I went to both on my own in the days before the tour started.