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San Sebastian/Donostia

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Hello — my husband and I will be traveling to Spain the first week of June 2026. We’ll spend three days in Madrid, then take the train to San Sebastián, which will be our home base for 17 days, before returning to Madrid to fly home. We’ve traveled extensively around Europe and usually rent a car, but this trip we’d like to rely only on trains and buses.

We like busy, active vacations with a plan for each day — walking or bike tours, museums, hiking, fly fishing, kayaking, boat trips, and other sightseeing. From San Sebastián we’re planning day trips to Bilbao, Pamplona, Gernika, Hondarribia, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Bayonne, Biarritz, La Rhune, Getaria, and Aiako Harria Natural Park.

A couple of questions for locals or experienced visitors:

Any other recommended places (must-see spots) within 1–2 hours of San Sebastián?

Is 17 days too long to base ourselves in San Sebastián, or would you recommend spending a few days somewhere between San Sebastián and Madrid (reachable by train) before returning to Madrid to fly home?

This is our first time visiting northern Spain — we’ve explored everywhere south of Madrid and Barcelona before — so we’d welcome any suggestions.
Thank you,
Ann Marie

Posted by
29785 posts

I would not spend 17 nights in San Sebastian. It will prove logistically inconvenient with your list of sightseeing targets, and it's a very touristy place with comparatively high lodging costs. I'd split the time between multiple bases.

I preferred Bilbao to San Sebastian for its larger historic center, fewer tourists and the Guggenheim. YMMV. Gernika and the coastal town of Lekeitio (which I haven't seen, but it's recommended in guidebooks) are more easily reached from Bilbao.

I liked Vitoria-Gasteiz, to which I day-tripped. That's a lot faster from San Sebastian than from Bilbao but still takes about 2 hours. Pamplona didn't impress me and looks like a rather long day trip from San Sebastian. It's about an hour by train from Vitoria-Gasteiz. Also reasonably near Vitoria-Gasteiz (requiring a bus) is the atmospheric hill town of Laguardia.

The French Basque towns of Bayonne, Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz are roughly 2 hours each way from San Sebastian. Bayonne could about fill a day, so rather than making multiple trips to that area, I'd tend to stay there for perhaps three nights.

You'll need buses for some of your destinations, I think. Between Bilbao and San Sebastian the frequent buses are a lot faster than the train, though the train route is scenic and worth taking in one direction if you have time.

The train route from Madrid to San Sebastian makes several stops. The ones I've been to and can recommend are the pilgrimage destination of Burgos and the aforementioned Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Posted by
8111 posts

Taking day trips for that many days would get old very quickly and you’d be spending a lot of time just traveling to/from places. To reduce the amount of travel time I too recommend a few bases for that length of time.

Since I always get a rental car I can’t speak to the public transportation aspect of your trip. There are plenty of very small villages and sites in that area. Acraven mentioned Laguardia, but it’s just one of many. For example, within 13 miles of Laguardia are Briones and San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Unfortunately, without a vehicle it would probably be impossible to see all in the same day.

I enjoyed Pamplona, but to me, there are more interesting towns.

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