Bordeaux/French Basque/Spanish Basque Trip

Bayonne has an interesting Basque museum, so you may want to put it on your definite list.

Since you will be in Bordeaux, I recommend a visit to Arcachon. We did a walking tour there, organized through the TI office. The architecture of the many 19th century mansions is quite something. Also, the Dune de Pilat is an amazing sight. Lots of good seafood available in that area.
There are many very nice, inexpensive inns in the towns just inland from Bayonne, like Sare, and Ainhoa. Look on booking.com for a sampling of what is available. Finding good, inexpensive food will be no problem. Tha Basques are known for good eating.
From Ascain, you can take the Petit Train de la Rhune up to the top of that Basque holy mountain to see some Neolithic monuments and to view the pottoks, a native breed of wild pony.
One of the towns - - sorry, can’t remember which - - has a traditional Basque farmhouse fitted out to display the pre-modern way of life. I think I remember correctly that there was an English-language guided tour.

There was an outstanding trip report in this earlier this year. Search the archives for it. I found it helpful.

I have no experience in the French Basque Country, but I think you're going to need every bit of your maximum 13 days.

I am not interested in wine and--though I like good food--do not focus a lot of my travel time on eating. So it will perhaps not be a surprise that I preferred the less-touristy Bilbao to San Sebastian. Bilbao has a larger historic district that has not been converted almost totally to tapas bars, as San Sebastian's seems to have been. Plus Bilbao has better museums, with the Guggenheim seeming to monopolize the attention of most of the tourists who find their way tot he city. I recommend making at least a day-trip to Bilbao. A bus will get you there much faster than the train. I suspect it might be a lot more expensive, but you might explore the possibility of a multi-city flight into Paris and out of Bilbao so you don't have to spend so long traveling overland to Madrid or Barcelona for a flight home, thereby losing a large chunk of your next-to-last day.

If flying out of Bilbao doesn't work, you'll probably find that there's not a great deal of time difference between going from San Sebastian to Madrid and to Barcelona, so choose the airport where you find the best flight options and prices.

I also enjoyed Hondarribia, which is near the French border and the San Sebastian airport. It has a fishermen's district (restaurants) along the waterfront and an historic district up on the hill. Frequent buses from San Sebastian. I think it's at least a half-day stop. I visited Hondarribia on a summer Monday, and there weren't very many restaurants open, so you might want to choose a different day of the week.

There are three picturesque coastal villages (former fishing villages, now developed from tourism) west of San Sebastian: Zarautz, Getaria and Zumaia. All can be visited in one day via train and bus.

The inland Basque capital of Vitoria-Gasteiz has a very impressive hilltop medieval district and some worthwhile museums. The cathedral was undergoing major reconstruction when I visited in 2016, and it was possible to get an English-language tour. V-G is accessible from both Bilbao and San Sebastian. It seems to get very few foreign tourists.

Vitoria-Gasteiz is relatively close to the La Rioja wine country. I saw some wine bars in the very atmospheric hill town of Laguardia, which is on the bus route between V-G and Logrono, but public transportation in that area is infrequent, and with the limited time you have available, I think you'll do better to concentrate on wine activities you can uncover in the major cities.

We toured Spain last year & loved it, especially the Basque area. They don't have tapas, their small plates are called Pintxos. More on top of the bread, held in place by a longer tooth pick. We preferred these.
Bilbao is a lovely place on both sides of the river. Very walkable, nice tram, great bars & the Guggenheim is beautiful. Seems very safe. It would be a shame to miss it.

This is our dream itinerary as well! Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I’ll be following to see what else people suggest as we make our plans.

It would be the first time we ever went to the car in France. Any suggestions about that would be greatly appreciated .

Laurie

A couple of years ago we did a bike trip in the Dordogne which ended in Bordeaux in mid September. From there we took a train to the end of the line in France and then grabbed a taxi to the San Sebastian airport where we rented a car and drove to Bilbao because you can't rent a car in one country and drop it in another. We skipped San Sebastian because we happened to coincide with the Film Festival and it was mobbed so I can't comment on it. We loved our experience in Bilbao and highly recommend it as it wasn't overrun with tourists. There is lots to see in the city and in the surrounding area. The food is fabulous as you can eat tapas-style (or as someone else pointed out, pintxos) at every meal. The Guggenheim museum, alone, is worth the visit. We did a Bilbao Greeters tour which lasted almost 6 hours and was terrific. If you aren't familiar with the Greeters, it's a volunteer organization in numerous cities that provide walking tours led by people who live in the city. You must book in advance and while it is free, a donation to the organization is encouraged. We've done several and each has been different and very informative and we have been the only people on the tour each time.
If you are travelling to the Basque area of Spain, I highly recommend you read The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky. It will give you context and insight into this very different part of Spain.
After leaving Bilbao we toured several Basque towns, including Guernica on our way to Logrono for the Rioja wine festival. We stayed in Logrono for 3 nights during the festival, eating and drinking with the locals into the wee hours of the night. The pintxos in Logrono were absolutely fabulous - there are several streets with nothing but pintxos bars, and of course, they serve local Rioja.
There are many wineries in the area but you must make reservations to tour the wineries. We decided to forgo the tours as we weren't sure of our schedule. From Logrono we headed to Salamanca where we dropped the car. We stayed there for 2 nights and then took the train to Madrid. The area close to Atocha Station has quite a few hotels - we were there for a week so stayed in an AirBnB.

KAS, I'm interested in how you did the car portion. Was there any trouble getting the car in one city and dropping off at the border? Was there a huge fee to do that? Where specifically did you drop the car off? How long was the train trip to San Sebastian? We're trying to figure out that part of the trip right now, and our travel agent is doubtful we can take a train on that route to San Sebastian without going back to Barcelona. I've never been to the Basque region, but it sure looks like we should be able to follow your lead. Thanks for any further details you can share!

We have about a week in Spain, so we are trying to decide how to balance the San Sebastian/Bilbao times. I appreciate your insights about the Greeters program.

Thanks!
Laurie

We only took the train to the last stop in France, Hendaye, and from there we took a taxi to the San Sebastian airport. I can't recall exactly how much it was but I'm guessing about €20 and probably less than 15 minutes. We always hire a car in one city and drop it off somewhere else and have never had a problem as long as it is in the same country. In this instance, we picked up the car in San Sebastian and dropped it off in Salamanca. It is possible to take the train from San Sebastian to Bilbao but you need to change lines part way which is why we rented a car as it seemed a lot easier as we were travelling in the late afternoon/early evening. Generally, the easiest way to go from San Sebastian to Bilbo is via bus. Use the website Rome2Rio.com for all the various options on how to get from one place to another. Much more reliable than many travel agents. The drive to Bilbao from San Sebastian was about 2 hours on the toll road. If you are staying in Madrid and you like art there are lots of wonderful museums. Our favourites are the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. And if you want a survey course on Spanish art and cultural history you can't beat the Prado but the other two museums are more our cup of tea. We love to walk in Madrid - there are many beautiful boulevards, gardens and neighbourhoods - and it's not as touristy as Barcelona or Seville. I would want to spend at least 4 days in Madrid but many people I know are surprised we've been to Madrid several times - they were bored after a day. As the old saying goes "your mileage may vary". Good luck with your planning!

My experience in the Basque areas is limited to the San Sebastian and nearby Rioja wine areas. Here are some thoughts.

San Sebastian is a really nice town (looks a lot like Cannes, France) but it depends a lot on the weather, which isn't nearly as reliable on the Atlantic coast as on the Riviera.

If you're ending in Madrid, you will likely go either South through Pamplona from San Sebastian or circle through the Rioja wine area. If you go through Pamplona. You can drop your car in Zaragosa and take the high speed train into Madrid.

Pamplona is nothing special. The famous San Fermin festival makes it interesting. Otherwise it's a pretty standard Spanish town plus some remains of old walls and green areas. Not far from Pamplona is St. Jean Pied de Port, which you might enjoy. It's a small town, one of the jumping off points for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Campostela. I also really enjoyed the castle at Olite (not far south of Pamplona). One of my favorites in Europe. It's the right mix of restored and ruin, which means you can wander, climb stairs and towers without ropes or barriers to entry.

If you go through Rioja, the bodegas aren't generally open to the public. You need to call one or two days ahead and reserve a tour. I'm sure they're more than happy to host you, and the visits are likely much nicer than visiting a winery in the U.S. They just don't get a regular flow of people to justify keeping a wine tasting room open. One alternative is to visit a wine museum. They have regular hours but it's not unusual to stop in the TI and they call ahead to have someone open the place for you. Museums are normally situated in old bodegas with lots of historical and wine related displays. At the end they have a wine bar where you can try all the local wines. Prices in Spain are cheap. We usually spent one to two euro per glass of wine in a restaurant and maybe six euros for a good bottle of wine at a grocery store. I personally prefer the Tempranillo wine from the Valdepanas area. Rioja reminds me a lot of Bordeaux wines (I prefer Burgundy).

The Spanish call the area and Language Vasco, but the local language is completely different, Euskadi (spelling? pronounced You-ska-dee). I saw many Basque flags, sort of a red white and green union jack, in the region.

Your circuit might work better in reverse. Fly into Bilbao to start. It will almost certainly require changing planes at a bigger airport. Enjoy Bilbao (I always do) and work your way back to Paris. That way, your flight home should depart Paris at a reasonable time of day. Bus to San Sebastian, and then across the border to Biarritz; train to Bordeaux. There is high speed service now back to Paris, and I have read about a new wine museum in the city of Bordeaux.

These are fantastic suggestions! Thank you so much for sharing thoughts.
I hope this isn't a rather dim question. I have been told several times to search archives for specific topics. I am not finding any kind of search feature in RS travel forum, other than choosing specific countries. Is there a feature that would allow me to search for Pays Basque or Bordeaux or Dordogne? I believe there are something like 200 pages for France.
Thanks!

Jules, there's a little magnifying glass and search box at the top of the page for word searches.

Robert,
Thanks! It's actually quite large isn't it?! Not sure why I would miss that!
J

"Thanks! It's actually quite large isn't it?! Not sure why I would miss that!"

Yes it's large, but it's also very faint shades that barely contrast, right next to the dark blue main logo, so it's "hiding in plain sight" and thus very easy to miss. You aren't the first poster here to have difficulty finding it!

hi jules
sent you a private message (PM) for info about french basque region. best friend from there. enjoy
aloha