SPAIN travel advice

I'd love that and I wish I was, Quincie, but I'm back home again... It's been three weeks since my return and I've still not re-adjusted to life at home. I cannot get back into my rhythm here. Never thought it would affect me so severely, but still long for that city and life every day.

From Bilbao airport it's just one hour by comfy coach to San Sebastian. When it comes to time efficiency you can't beat that, really.

Also you must be La Femme's biggest fan in the whole world to fly over for their concert there! :)

Well La Femme is an excuse, also I have two vacation days that I have to use between now and Sept 30; the world is a big place and it is hard to decide where to go when, so sometimes I have to just create tight boundaries and work within them!

Any hotel/pension/airbnb recs for San Sebastian? I am trying to pull of trip for 4 nights to see La Femme at Dabadaba.

i've stayed in a few of the pensiones in the old town - they vary from v basic and cheap to quite fancy for a little more cash. i wouldn't distrust any of them, if you're in the old town you're surrounded by pintxo bars.

I’m reviving all he Spain threads because we’ll be there for two weeks starting Friday. We’re going to Barcelona for the end of the Bowie exhibition and then???

You'll be there at a truly historic moment. So jealous.

Are you planning on staying in and around Barcelona or will you be able to travel around more (rental car?)?

barcelona is the best. can drop a few restaurant recs in if that appeals. how far are you willing to travel in your two weeks? i am not so familiar with the places in the immediate vicinity of barcelona, more with the north or south. depending on what you're into, i would try to see madrid as well, personally. barcelona gets all the hype but madrid imo is not to be missed. many spanish cities have a very distinct character and culture though - that is what makes it such a great country in which to travel.

Our habit is to just rent a car and take off somewhere... Definitely would like to go to San Sebastian and then loop around through Portugal and Andalucía and back up into Barcelona but really we're just letting ourselves wander around for a couple of weeks.

i've travelled that route before, i'd recommend it. vigo is v nice. a coruna too and gijon. it's quite a big gap from barcelona to san sebastien so you might want to think of stops along the way. never been to zaragoza but i'd be curious enough. same with pamplona. i dunno, i've ended up really enjoying some places others say are more backwatery, in spain.

biarritz across the border might be worth a day after san sebastien. it's a bit glitzy but it has its charms. bilbao is nice and v close to san seb. guggenheim etc. santander kind of boring imo but you would be passing through if you go along the north coast.

possibly not great weather this time of year, the north coast can be kind of rural and green, reminds me of ireland a little. there are some beautiful and affordable hotels on the cliffs outside gijon, with amazing views and nice paths along the sea into the town. (maybe a few miles' walk)

if you make it to porto the douro valley wine tours can be really good, a boat up the river and a lot of nice little stops along the way.

the pamplona old town is lovely to walk about and impressive with the citadel and cathedral, definitely worth a stop, and bilbao is obviously classic

Yeah, Pamplona, Bilbao (Guggenheim) and obv San Sebastian are great. Popping over to Biarritz is a good idea. Following the north coast from San Seb to Bilbao/Bermeo is a delight, wonderful scenery.

Ronan otm, it does look like Ireland at times. The climate makes it one of the greenest areas of Spain. In stark contrast with the heartland around Madrid.

Not to contradict any of the above, because it's all good advice, but Seville is one of my favourite places in the world and I will never stop recommending it.

i love the south as well - can't disagree with that. and prob good weather in seville at the moment. malaga is underrated also, lovely little city.

Seville is beautiful. And so is Cordoba. And Ronda. Man, two weeks just isn't enough.

Absolutely love Bilbao. Santander is not too exciting from the little I've seen. My partner's family live nearby but we never go there. Smaller interesting places in that coastal vicinity that I'd personally recommend, moving east to west from Bilbao through Cantabria to Asturias... Castro, Santillana del Mar, San Vicente de la Barquera, Llanes, Ribadesella.

The “no” demonstration outside our hotel right now isn’t nearly as big as it looks on EuroNews. Probably should have read more Graham Greene books...

Not to contradict any of the above, because it's all good advice, but Seville is one of my favourite places in the world and I will never stop recommending it.

― Tim, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 11:07 (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes

Video of La Femme at Dabadaba for mom tossed in kimchee:

https://vimeo.com/234219516

^^^god I would have loved to have seen that show! Alas, I could not make San Sebastian logistics work out :( Did a long weekend in Montreal instead, so no La Femme but at least *some* french!

Not to contradict any of the above, because it's all good advice, but Seville is one of my favourite places in the world and I will never stop recommending it.

― Tim, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 11:07 (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes

Went to Cuchara de San Telmo today. I had been dreaming of pulpo all week while in Spain and hadn't had the chance to get it. They delivered. I realize that I have never really been in Europe in July (at least not in a while). Throbbing with tourists. It kind of ruins it when people are shouting in english everywhere. We took the train from Barcelona (coming from Toulouse) and did a stopover in Haro/Rioja. Which was kind of oddly a ghost town.

I will go to Figueres next month, for Dalí but also for the vibe (we’ll be nearby in the south of France for a few week).

We thought about Figueres but already were side stepping train strikes in France for the previous two weeks and totally got our train from Toulouse to Barcelona canceled the night before. Luckily, I guess you just get on whatever train and stand or hang out in the dining cart when this happens. Instead of going to Bilbao though to go back to Paris we are being tired and just doing the bus/train route through Hendaye.

The buses between Bilbao and Irun are lovely fwiw

We're going to be in that neck of the woods in a couple of months (Santander - Bilao - San Sebastian), I haven't been for the longest time and I'm really looking forward to it.

I went to Santander once maybe over a decade ago? I keep thinking it's not worth a revisit but I can't really remember much? We drove from Madrid and I got carsick.

We drove from Bilbao to Santiago a few years ago but skipped Santander for the Picos de Europa and Oviedo, both terrific.

This was my second time in Barcelona and it is seriously one of the most pleasant cities to get around. Walkable, easy/quick transport, abundance of small streets with residents out and about. I kept saying, "why can't more spanish speaking cities be more like this?" Prolly me being annoyed that I live somewhere that is too sprawling and far from swimmable water.

glad to hear cuchara was good but yeah can imagine san seb would be p oppressive with other tourists in july. bad enough any other time.

I will go to Figueres next month, for Dalí but also for the vibe (we’ll be nearby in the south of France for a few week).

i was in figueres earlier this month, tho only on the way from girona to roses. i liked roses a lot btw - a tiny bit trashy but a beautiful compact seafront and a good beach. spent a night in portes-vendres across the border also, i had been in collioure up the road which is prettier but i enjoyed the working port feeling of vendres. a thing i noticed for the second time in these parts is how beautiful the train journey from spain into france on the east side is, you go through some lovely marshland, then fields on the other side. different strike but similar to yerac my flight home from toulouse got cancelled and i ended up getting a train to bordeaux and then paris, and then paris to london, but that was actually a nice way to spend a day in a weird way. another earlier fuck-up meant an afternoon in narbonne watching france beat argentina. narbonne was a bit non-descript but i still enjoyed arriving there and walking around. i love the feeling of disembarking the train, the place doesn't have to be too nice. even getting off the eurostar in london i felt like i was visiting my own city and stayed around bloomsbury for a bit.

xpost santander is boring imo. gijon or a coruna much nicer.

xxxpost i was also in barcelona before girona - each time i visit there i like it more, from a low base of my late teens visits when i never saw daylight cos we went to razzmatazz all night doing drugs and stayed in hostels on larambla with people walking dogs on strings and offering you more drugs.

i stayed in el born this time and i loved everything about it - i love how it combines such a cavernous old town with a gridded metropolis. and the food is obv completely amazing.

we could go to Barcelona this summer too but I don’t really feel like dealing with another giant European city, we live in on already and that’s enough, Europe’s real charms are in smaller charms imo

Narbonne is actually where we’ll spend most of our time next month, close to the sea with good Gascogne cuisine. Plus we’ve found a house with a pool...

i presume the city itself isn't the point of narbonne.

tho that was all i had time to see.

No not really, it’s more its location and house availability (for nine people without a car but who want to get about)

what was strange was how few people were watching the football. i mean i know that is deep into rugby country but i still would have expected it to be say, shown in bars, or to even notice it was on. had to actively seek it out.

Could you hear the drums Fernando?

on our last trip there we rented a small villa on a vineyard about 45 mins out of barcelona in the Penedès region , it was super affordable and awesome . A nice break from the city or our usual Costa Brava excursions .

you were in Catalonia they dont care much about the spanish national team or the world cup in gerneral xp

xpost Ha! I had to spend an afternoon in Narbonne too.

This time around in Barcelona we stayed between Gracia and Diagonal (have stayed before right across from Casa Mila). The best place that we went to was Bodega Lo Pinyol. Super lowkey wine bar and I had the most amazing dry beef tube things with foie mousse inside. I think the only touristy thing we did was walk up to Montjuic. Oh, and I guess using the bathroom at the Joan Miro museum should count. After Haro we stayed in a weird town called Miranda de Ebro.

Yeah, we didn't even mean to go to Paris this trip except to fly out but we got tired and just decided to do something easy at the end (meaning we have been enough times to not need to do anything besides eat and loiter).

you were in Catalonia they dont care much about the spanish national team or the world cup in gerneral xp

i mean in narbonne! that said there were plenty of people watching spain when i was in barcelona.

I think we are trying Borda Berri tonight and then trying to catch the game at Bar Sport. I have a bunch of rioja I have been lugging in my bag so we have to drink two bottles while here.

We took the train from Barcelona (coming from Toulouse) and did a stopover in Haro/Rioja. Which was kind of oddly a ghost town.

About 5 in the afternoon? I have had this experience. It gets a bit more lively on Sunday mornings.

iirc most (all?) Spanish towns are dead from 3-6

We were there almost all day. Ghost town. We were the only people to get out at that stop and even most of the big wineries were pretty empty. Except the Muga tasting room. Party going on in there.

I will be going to Bilbao and San Sebastian for about a week in March. I have time to go to a third place, and was thinking of going to Logrono, but that might be boring? What about Pamplona? Is it best to split my time between Bilbao and San Sebastian and take day trips?

We visited SS, Rioja, and Bilbao in about ten days in 2017. One of my favorite trips. You can definitely spend a week between SS and Bilbao alone, so I am not sure you need to add a third location, depending on your preferences for running around versus relaxing. But if you want to, a visit to the Rioja area is incredible.

If you have a car, I highly recommend staying in LaGuardia, a very small hill town west of Logrono. You can walk from one end to the other in ten minutes, but it is very handsome with amazing views in all directions. Very cool painted wood portico (one of only a couple in Europe) with the original paint intact).

Another amazing town is San Vicente de la Sonsierra, which has a fortress and church with commanding views. 1100 people in the commune and 21 wineries; my kind of ratio.

Let me know and I can dig out some restaurant reservations. Lunch in Rioja starts around 2pm. We finished one lunch about 5pm.

Day trips from SS: Getaria is an old fishing village 20 minutes away. Definitely worth a half day. Great restaurant for whole roasted turbot is Elkano; one of my favorite meals anywhere ever.

^^ quite possibly my favourite thing about Basque country, the 2-5pm lunches.

There's loads of recommendations itt already. I didn't really rate Logroño. Pamplona is nice, but personally I like to stay closer to the coast. Bilbao and SS will keep you busy for a week, no trouble. Beautiful places in between are Zarautz, and further west Bermeo (with the San Juan de Gaztelugatxe rock out in the sea, that you can climb up to), Mundaka (a surfer's haven), Getaria, Guernica, Zumaia etc etc

logrono has a nice little old town but pamplona is much better, fantastic square and fortress, feels very basque. it's an incredible part of the world though and you will find loads of great places.

Spent a month in andalucia a couple years ago. Completely awesome. Never even made it to the Alhambra! The Sierra directly south of Ronda are big mountains with trail systems great for running and hiking from town to town. Same goals for the hills/mts between Aracena and the PT border. Jamon is a big deal there.

Spent about 2.5 weeks in the Alameda de Hercules neighborhood in Seville. Full of hipsters and killer food and an easy walk to the touristy stuff. Highly recommended but I think any of the cities in that corner of Spain have a lot to offer. Just be careful about the heat. We were there in September and it was barely bearable.

Do we have any more general threads for Spain or any discussion of today's election that I'm missing elsewhere?