Help with Spain Itinerary for a Bachelorette (September)

Millionmiles, Logroño is a popular place for bachelor/bachelorette parties (Despedidas de Soltero in Spanish). There are several companies that have prepared packs. The activities rage from visiting wineries to picnics and paintball. Most include a visit to the tapa bars.

They're in Spanish, but you can get the general idea, "No solo despedidas" and "Despedidas"

Do you already have your flights? If possible, it would make more sense, and save your limited time, for you to arrive in one city and depart from another.

Also, regardless of which itinerary option you choose, having a rental car while you're in San Sebastian will be a bit of a hassle. Can you do all of the driving portion of your trip first, then end up in San Sebastian, and drop off the rental car as you enter the city. For example, you could drive the Flysch route-Getaria-Zarautz, then go on into the French Basque Country and spend the night there, then drive back to San Sebastian. Actually, depending on where you're staying in Bilbao, driving in and out of Bilbao may be a hassle too. Consider planning your route so that you can visit Flysch route-Getaria-Zarautz on your way from Bilbao to San Sebastian or the French Basque Country, instead of as a day trip from Bilbao.

I think you are trying to go to way too many places in the number of days you have. You are not accounting for the time you will spend moving from place to place. Your group will only move around as fast as the slowest person. It takes time to get settled in a new place. If you fly from Bilbao to one of the Balearic Islands in the morning, you will not have a full day at the destination--more like a half a day, and you may have had to get up quite early in the AM.

There is absolutely no guarantee of go-into-the-water weather in late September in the Basque Country on any particular day. It can be cool and rainy in mid-July; I was there in June 2016 and saw very few people in the water, many of whom were wearing wetsuits. I recommend keeping your beach-time plans very flexible.

Santander is one of Spain's least physically interesting cities because of a catastrophic fire in the 1940s. It has a magnificent beach (see above comment about weather), but so does San Sebastian. I liked Vitoria-Gasteiz but would instead spend that time in Bilbao, which has a lot to see.

@acraven
Do you think itinerary 1 is too rushed as well? Is 6 days not enough to explore basque? Any recommendations on how we can change up our itinerary? Thank you!!!

@lexma Thanks! Great suggestions! We do already have our flights booked unfortunately.

@dlindstrom Thanks!

For me, Itinerary 1 is too rushed as well. You're never anywhere long enough to feel settled. I'd think you'd want to take advantage of being in the Basque Country to go pintxo-hopping, which means more non-sightseeing time on top of all the time spent driving from place to place. Is your entire group going to be getting up early so you can hit the road quickly every morning?

@acraven Unfortunately that’s the only time we have and we can’t change our dates. We’re considering going directly to Bilbao as soon as we arrive in Madrid but since we’re flying in from the US, that might be too tiring.