St Jean de Luz or Biarritz

I am probably the exception among the responses you are going to get, but I really prefer the vibe in St Jean de Luz.

I guess the good thing is that you can't go wrong with either one !

Thanks Kim. I was leaning that way but wanted to see what most people prefer.

@Kim, you are not the only one. San Juan de Luz is really charming. If you can try to be there on Friday so you can go to the market.

Kwinnick, you don't really need to take the bus. From San Sebastian you can take the Euskotren (or el Topo) to Hendaye. The Euskotren stops at the SNCF station and from there you can get a train to SJdL or Biarritz and/or Beordeaux.

I liked Bayonne best but preferred St-Jean-de-Luz to Biarritz. It didn't help that I hit Biarritz on a very rainy day, though.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. We are doing the Rick Steves Basque tour so will be visiting Bayonne, San Sebastian on that tour. We end in Bilbao and are planning to go to Bordeaux after that tour and don't want a long drive on a bus or a lot of connections so our plan is to spend it in either St Jean de Luz or Biarritz. I read that Rick prefers St jean de Luz and doesn't particularly like Biarritz. I wanted to see what others thought if they have been to these towns.

For a quick visit, I would say either Saint Jean de Luz or Bayonne. I really like Biarritz, but more as a resort town where you stay a few days than as a place to visit, if it makes sense?

balco: Yes I understand what you are saying about a resort town. Since we will have already visited Bayonne, I think we'll go to St. Jean de Luz. Thanks to everyone who responded.

Another idea, why not just spend your extra day and night in Bordeaux? We've been there four times and keep going back--for the food, the wine, the city....

We also spent 4 nights in St. Jean de Luz last October and loved it. For a day trip, I don't know, I think a few days is needed to really get the vibe there. The market was open every morning but to truly experience it you need to be there on a Tuesday, it's amazing. We took BlahBlahBus from St. Jean de Luz to Bilbao, that was easy, so you'd do it the other way to come in. The bus stop is right across from the train station, both an easy walk from the center of the little town.

Regarding Biarritz, I think of it as the place to fly in, then a bus to Bayonne, which I think has more to offer. We took this route on the RS Basque tour we did many years ago as our intro to this area.
Hope this is helpful.

phannoh: Thank you for your suggestion. We are planning to stay in Bordeaux for 4 nights. We were only considering St. Jean de Luz or Biarritz as a stopover because we didn't want to spend all day on a bus to Bordeaux or have multiple train connections. Since we will have a free afternoon in Bayonne, we would consider making a quick train trip to Biarritz (or St. Jean de Luz), depending on which town we stayed in after Bilbao.

We loved our stay in St-Jean de Luz, absolutely perfect!