We will be driving in the Basque Country in May. I’m not looking forward to the driving, parking and navigation. Looking for your suggestions and what you’ve learned when you’ve driven recently.
I haven’t been back to Basque Country for 35 years. We will be staying in Bergara hoping to reestablish family connections (grand father ). Ea (grandmother), Lekeitio, Zumaia. Will Fly into Bilbao and drop car in San Sebastián to catch bus to Bayonne.
What are your concerns?
We explored the area without a car, but in hindsight, we would rent a car next time.
Make your partners the navigators and parking researchers.
Hey Jim, it would help if you could mention some of the places you'd like to go.
Like most places there are very good roads, and there are mountain roads that you probably wouldn't want to take unless you are going somewhere specific.
Like the others said it would help to know where you are going.
In Hondaribbia, we had no issue parking. We first parked by the gate to the old walled city. Then we moved the car and easily parked in the beach area.
For San Sebastian, we stayed in the center center, close to the San Telmo museum. Our hotel gave us the name of a less expensive parking lot in the newer, more commercial part of town, and we left the car in a ramp for 3 days.
For Bilbao, we stayed above the city, close to the funnicular that goes down to the city. There is ample parking by the funnicular.
We did drive along the coast to Guernica. It was challenging to find parking in some of the smaller coastal towns. There was ample parking in Guernica.
As a local Basque and a driver: this is a mountainous area, so expect winding roads, but also motorways (highways, freeways), some of them with tolls. Roads are in excellent conditions and very well signed. Metered parking will not be in force in May in some of the most touristy towns, but parking is not always easy. For Bilbao (my hometown) you will need to park in an underground park (the funicular parking lot is no longer there, or at least is gone by 60% of its former size...there´s a war against combustion vehicles in both Bilbao and Donostia-San Sebastian). Speed limit in many towns is 30km/h, controlled by radars, and in both above mentioned cities. Drivers are not aggressive, no honking at all, and normally courteous and patient (there are exception to this, of course). Have some coins or download apps for street metered parking, just in case. Beautiful scenery, great roads, excellent food...you have it all to enjoy your driving! (by the way, alcohol limit is 0,25gr/liter in breath, and will probably be much lower this year (but not in May).
I haven’t been back to Basque Country for 35 years. We will be staying in Bergara hoping to reestablish family connections (grand father ). Ea (grandmother), Lekeitio, Zumaia. Will Fly into Bilbao and drop car in San Sebastián to catch bus to Bayonne.
May is not high season, but Ea, Lekeitio (this town has drastically reduced parking places in town for visitors) and Zumaia may have some restrictions on parking, just be aware of this when getting there. Beautiful area you´ll be visiting!
We went recently, and enjoyed driving in the area, but it's true, there are some places where it was difficult to find parking. The car enabled us to see quite a bit that we would not have seen if we only relied on public transportation. That said, there were a few towns where parking was difficult. We stayed in Bilbao, and of course there was no need for the car when touring the city, but we enjoyed having the use of the car to venture out of the city a few days. When we stayed in Hondarribia, we used the car to visit Bayonne and some outlying towns in Spain, but left the car in the lot and took the bus when visiting San Sebastian. That was a smart move, I think. Navigation was very easy, as were the tolls once we learned how to use them. When returning, we will definitely rent a car again.
