barefootbeach

Hello,
Thanks to many of you for already providing valuable insights and links to more resources for our mid-September trip (pre-cruise from Barcelona). I've booked my flights today…so on to the next step…accommodations and length of time per stop. I'd love to hear your comments about both of these…especially if you think I should spend more time somewhere and less time somewhere else. I'm particularly unclear of how to best handle French Basque area.
Here's what I'm planning to do unless convinced otherwise.

Day 1 (Thursday): Arrive Bilbao airport 1500; Hotel Miro (we're arriving after 3 flights and 19hr. 20 min total flight time so might just have enough energy for pintxos nearby)

Day 2 (Friday): see Guggenheim, maybe Art Museum, then get bus to
San Sebastian; Sercotel Codina hotel.

Day 3 (Saturday): San Sebastian; Sercotel Codina hotel; get rental car at SS airport and tour Hondaribbia in afternoon

Day 4 (Sunday) drive to St. Jean de Luz, France; La Reserve Hotel

Day 5 (Monday) St. Jean de Luz; La Reserve Hotel (visit Biarritz)

Day 6 (Tuesday) St. Jean de Luz: La Reserve Hotel (visit mountain towns) OR Ainhoa; Ithurria Hotel OR spend another night at Hotel Arche in St. Etienne de Baigorry

Day 7 (Wednesday) St. Etienne de Baigorry; Hotel Arche

Day 8 (Thursday) drive to Ainsa, Spain; Los Siete Reyes

Day 9-12 (Friday-Monday) Return car in Barcelona; Condes de Barcelona

Day 12: Depart Barcelona on a 10 day Mediterranean cruise

Thanking you in advance for taking the time to respond during this busy holiday season!

f1racegirl

When are you going to see San Sebastain? And why are you going to the very inconvenient airport to rent a car?

This seems like way too much getting there, and not much being there.

JulieVikmanis

I think you will enjoy St. Jean de Luz and your day trips from there. We did this last summer and loved it. Enjoy.

barefootbeach

f1racegirl, we'd see SS Friday afternoon and night, and Saturday morning and night (visiting Hondarribia as a day trip)….I haven't checked out the car rentals yet, but I read somewhere on this site that it's much cheaper to rent the car from the SS airport rather than in town. However, if that's not true…we'll get it from town. Even if it is true, we may still get it in town for convenience.

I originally wanted to add that Bilbao night to SS, taking the bus right from the airport, but I feel that a bus ride right after that long flight experience might be the straw that breaks our back!

Thanks JulieVikmanis…think it may be easier to stay in one hotel longer (St. Jean) than checking in and out of mountain inns.

StuDudley

Many (maybe most) non-food shops will be closed in St Jean & Biarritz on Sunday. Many will be closed on Monday morning also. Sunday & Monday morning are good days for visiting the countryside, mountains, or for coastal drive. I would stay Sun & Mon nights in St. Etienne de Baigorry & visit St Jean Pied du Port and the mountains. Then spend Tu & Wed in St Jean de Luz.

I hope you realize that it is a 4 1/2 hr mountain drive to Ainsa, and the next day a 4 hr drive to Barcelona. That's a lot of time in the car.

Here is part of my Pays Basque itinerary that I wrote for a friend.

This itinerary assumes that you are staying in a "central" spot like Sare - where we stayed for 2 weeks in 2012. We've also stayed in Osses for 2 weeks in about 2001.

The stars in the following text refers to the star ratings given by the Michelin Green Guide.

Things to do & see
1. La Rhune rack railway ***. Do this on a clear sunny day, and get there as early in the morning as possible so the sun will not be in your face for the view of Bayonne, Biarritz, & St Jean de Luz. It is just outside of Sare on the way to Ascain. Plan on 2 ½ hrs: 45 mins up & back, & 1 hr on top.

2. Espelette*, and Ainhoa* are our two favorite small villages in the immediate region (they really capture the Basque "look"). You can drive through Ainhoa, but you will need to park just outside of Espelette to visit it. Espelette is a great place for lunch. They have a nice Wednesday & Saturday morning market. Sare* is an appealing village - but we like Espelette & Ainhoa much more. Ascain* and Itxassou* are starred in the Michelin Green Guide - but we didn't think they deserved the stars. The D20 between Ainhoa and Espelette is a very scenic road. Take a tour of a typical historic Basque house http://www.ortillopitz.com/

La Rhune in the morning, Espelette for lunch & visit, followed by Ainoa would be a great day - but don't do it on a Sunday or Monday morning when shops are closed.

3. St Jean Pied de Port* is one of the most popular destinations in the Pays Basque. We stayed near there in Osses for 2 weeks in 2002. St Jean is a major stop on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Campestela. You'll see lots of "shell" signs (symbolic of the pilgrimage) everywhere. St Jean is a tad touristy. It has one of our favorite restaurants in France. It's quite an interesting village, particularily if you explore outside the touristy center. It takes 1 hr to drive to St Jean from Sare.

4. Visit the Bidasoa Valley in Spain. From Sare, take the D406/NA4410 to Bera (which we did not find to be very interesting), then the N121A to Lesaka, Etxalar, Sunbilla, then the N121B back to Ainhoa. We took the N121A north into the Honarribia and the San Sebastian area several times.

Cities to visit

5. Bayonne** is the most interesting "old" city in the Pays Basque area and stradles the river (the "old" and the "older" towns on either side). We parked at the Place General de Gaulle (see the Michelin Red guide) at the north end of town. Follow the walking itinerary in the green guide. Shops close up tight for lunch, and the city is rather "dead" at night. Visiting Bayonne might consume most of a morning or afternoon. We thought the Musee Basque** was only mildly interesting.

6. Biarritz** is a very interesting resort town. Old mixing with the new!!! Just wander in town. Make sure you walk the western peninsula to the Rocher de la Vierge* and walk La Perspective for the views**. We spent most of a day in Biarritz - we sat in several grassy areas and just admired "things".

7. St Jean de Luz** is a great beach city. Lots of shops & a long beach. If you want to have a "beach day" - this is where to go. They have a nice Les Halles food market, and several well-stocked shops that sell Basque fabric which is unique (mainly stripes) & entirely different from the Provencal patterns. We purchased several "runners" that we use on our dining room. The Maison Louis XIV* was interesting to visit. We visited St Jean several times and parked near the train station.

8. San Sebastian** is one of the most popular destinations in Spain. We had dinner there one night and wandered around for about 1 hr before dinner. However, we were entirely un-prepared to drive into San Sebastian. We had a GPS - but we really didn't know how to use it. We did not have good maps. We got lost!! We never went back for a thorough visit because of the trouble we had getting there. You should go and plan to spend most of an entire day there. The restaurant where we dined was OK - not one of our favorites in the Pays Basque.

9. Hondarribia* in Spain was the real "surprise" of our trip to the Pays Basque. It is a fortified medieval "upper" town, with an interesting "fisherman's quarter" below. The latter would be a good place for a lunch; there are many choices. Our second favorite restaurant in the Pays Basque was Restaurant Alameda, just outside the fortified walls in Hondarribia. We visited the city several days before we dined at Alhambra - and actually parked near Alhambra to visit the city.

10. Bilbao and the Museo Guggenheim*** is a popular destination with museum folks. Friends really enjoyed the museum - but we are not museum fans & have not visited Bilbao

11 . Pau** (pg 247) is a "perplexing" city. It gets 2 stars from Michelin and the few people on Fodors who have visited Pau, have liked it. We've visited it twice and found it to be a "not very lively" city. We were there for the first time on a Saturday (market day) in about 2002 and the market was quite active - but there wasn't the "life" in the city that you would expect on market day. We were back in 2012, and the city had made many civic improvements. But on this "sunny day" (after a week of gloomy/rainy weather), there was still not much life in the city. We wandered down the main thoroughfare, we visited the chateau, my wife shopped at Galleries Lafayette while I dined at an outside cafe (two-thirds empty) - and there was still little life to this city. We simply didn't "connect" with Pau.

Scenic Drives

Most of the area east of the A63 is quite scenic. In addition to the D20 between Ainhoa and Espelette, the "Route Imperiale des Cimes" (the D22 between the D10 & St Pierre d'Irube) is very pretty. So is the road just to the east of the Imperiale des Cimes - the D76 between the A64 and the D22. At the "col" in this road, there is a very scenic picnic spot.

The Corniche Basque** is a short but scenic road. There is a nice view of Chateau d'Antoine Abladie** along this road. For some reason - we did not visit this chateau in 2012, but my wife remembered visiting it in 2002.

12. Deeper into the Pyrenees***
The following route is through "free-grazing" areas - so watch out for cows & other animals on the road. They have the right-of-way - and know it!!

From St Jean Pied du Port, take the very pretty D18/D19 southeast over the Col Bagargui*. Continue east on the D19 then the D26. Continue on the D26 to Tardets-Sorholus. At Tardets, return west on the D247/D117/D417/D18 to St Jean. From Sare, this is about 4 1/2 hrs in the car on a very scenic drive. You could visit St Jean Pied de Port at the start or end of this drive.

Stu Dudley

barefootbeach

Stu, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for all the wonderful details…this is going to take awhile to digest. I did know about the closings on Sunday and Monday but had wanted to do the mountains second since we'd be driving from there to Ainsa…which I know is a long trip. But, we can change this and leave from the coast. I will look into your scenic drive recommendations…much appreciated. Also had thought about basing ourselves in the mountains but that perhaps it would be a pain to drive to the coast for some dinners in the dark through the mountains. I don't have time now but I look forward to reading your comments very carefully.

StuDudley

When we stayed in Osses - we got very tired of driving into the Biarritz area for dinners. We dined at Arche and had a great dinner. Our favorite in the immediate Osses area was Les Pyrenees in St Jean Pied du Port.

Here is the restaurants section of the itinerary I did for a friend:

Restaurants
We spend 2 months vacationing in different regions of France every year. We're "foodies", and dine at "nice" restaurants if the menu interests us. We try to find Michelin 1 star restaurants - and we'll occasionally dine at a 2 or 3 star restaurant for a special occasion.

The Pays Basque region in France and Spain had probably the best dining experiences we've encountered. We've spent 4 weeks in this region on two different trips.

Our recommendations - in order of preference:

1. Table et Hostellerie des Freres Ibarbourne in Bidart. We've dined here twice.

2. L’Auberge Basque just outside of St Pee - in the countryside. Dined here twice.
Alameda in Hondarribia Spain
Zuberoa in Oiartzun Spain
the above are all tied for second place

5. Les Rosiers in the outskirts of Biarritz

6. Auberge du Cheval Blanc in Bayonne. Dined here twice

7. Ithurria in Ainhoa. We've dined here twice - but not in 2012
Le Moulin d'Alotz in Arcangues

9. Kokotxa in San Sebastian

All of the above are Michelin 1 star restaurants. Even those at the bottom of our list were better than most 1 star restaurants that we have visited in other regions of France.

Les Pyrenees Restaurant in St Jean Pied de Port would be our #1 or #2 choice - but it is too far away from Sare (1 hr). We've dined there twice - but not in 2012.

Stu Dudley

kja

It seems to me that you are shortchanging both San Sebastian / Donostia and Barcelona -- but maybe I don't understand your interests. You say, "we'd see SS Friday afternoon and night, and Saturday morning and night" -- but many things will be closed at night. And if I'm reading correctly, you are giving Barcelona only 2 days or so? Your call, but that would NOT be enough time for me. Have you plotted what you want to see and do on a calendar, with attention to opening hours, transportation, and other needs?

kimhe

<get rental car at SS airport and tour Hondaribbia in afternoon>

The SS airport is in Hondarribia.

kimhe

And as the San Sebastian airport is in Hondarribia and a short drive from St. Jean de Luz, I would have spent a couple of interrupted days to take in a little more of plain fantastic San Sebastian in peace and quiet. Then you could take a bus/taxi to Hondarribia, have lunch or something there, and then pick up the car and head into France.

I would have cut down on calm and expensive St Jean de Luz, and opened up more time for either San Sebastian, the Pyrenees or Barcelona.

In Barcelona, you stay fairly close to excellent Somodo which serves perhaps the best lunch deal in town. Four course gourmet lunch with excellent wine and coffee included for 20€: http://www.somodo.es/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Catalonia.html

barefootbeach

I'm looking into your above comments….in between baking cookies and packing for a family trip…so I'll have to get back into this in the New Year. I am looking at consolidating the times in and out of hotels….perhaps just one hotel in French Basque area…and two whole days in Donostia.

We have already been to Barcelona and saw ALL the Gaudi, the Palau Musica, boat ride, Ramblas…so don't feel the need to spend a lot of time there. I mostly want to walk through the Born area and visit Montjuic…would like to just walk around Eixample neighborhood shops, but since we'll be there mostly on Sunday and Monday morning, they won't be open. (our ship leaves Monday afternoon) So, I'm thinking of dropping our third night there and keeping it to two nights to concentrate on the French and Spanish basque area which we haven't visited before. I think we'll get our share of great food there to compensate for missing Barcelona's offerings. Frankly, the extremely crowded tourist scene that I've been reading about in Barcelona isn't that appealing….and we don't need the beach as we live a block away from one now.

kja

If you can add a bit of time to San Sebastian / Donostia, I don't think you'll regret it. And if you have time, the San Telmo museum -- devoted to Basque culture -- is well worth seeing IMO.

For your time in Barcelona, I think at least a few of the major museums of Montjuic are open on Sundays. I thought the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya well worth seeing.

barefootbeach

kja, that Catalunya Museum was on my list!….How's the Miro one?

kja

I must admit that Miro is not one of my favorite artists, but even so, I thought the museum well worth visiting. I took advantage of the "shorter" version audio guide, and definitely learned some things that helped me better appreciate his vision. (IIRC, the audio had a "short" and "long" option for each room -- an option I really appreciated!)

Enjoy!

barefootbeach

he's not one of mine either, but since he's "local"….might see the Picasso museum too although we've seen the one in Antibes.

kja

Yes, another worthy museum, also open (I believe) on Sundays. I find Picasso intriguing -- I adore some of his work, and (how shall I say) fail to fully appreciate other pieces, and that very dynamic pulls me in. I've been to a number of museums and exhibitions devoted to his work, and did not consider the one in Barcelona to be the best of those I've seen, but it did have some highlights. For example, I thought his Las Medinas tribute to Velázquez, which is housed at the Museu Picasso, fascinating, as was the collection of his ceramics (which I don't think I'd seen, or at least noticed, elsewhere). JMO.

kimhe

The Miró museum blew my mind away when I visited this March. An important part of my most memorable day in Barcelona ever. Ended with out of this world Rocío Molina 300 meters down the road in the Mercat de les Flors theater and a suberb dinner in next door Xemei. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lvcjtoh0tU

Many people seem to walk the same tourist route in Barcelona, but also plenty of excellent local atmosphere central areas in town.

Go for tapas with the locals in Poble Sec at the foot of Montjuic. http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/...to-bodega.html

Many of the best restaurants in town are close by, in and around Avinguda del Paral·lel, in the so called Barri Adrià (after the Adrià brothers who run the best restaurant in the world the past decade, El Bulli). Here you'll find Tickets, Rias de Galicia, Pakta, Bodegas 1900 etc. etc.
http://www.barcelonabook.com/tickets...estaurant.html
http://www.timeout.com/barcelona/bar...bs/bodega-1900
http://www.barcelonabook.com/pakta-restaurant.html

You should check out the Gracia district just north of your hotel, a different world: http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.c...ia-barrio.html
https://www.airbnb.no/locations/barcelona/gracia

And plenty of fine bars and restaurants and bustling atmosphere in the Barceloneta district, just inland from the beach. You're almost guaranteed to come out of here with a smile on your face: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/20...taurants-spain

And I recommend the medieval and vibrant Born/La Ribera district, a cradle of Catalan identity and culture, fabulous tapas bars and restaurants etc. More tourists here, but well worth a visit. I use to stay here. http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.c...s/el-born.html
http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/...la-ribera.html

barefootbeach

kimhe, thanks again for that wealth of recommendations! Will be printing this all out.
Although I'm not a fan of molecular gastronomy or "foam" foods…which is what I think of when I hear El Bulli, I'll investigate those mentioned…I've read so many good things aboutTickets.

kimhe

Bodega 1900, just across the street from Tickets, is also excellent. Much easier to get a table and more down to earth than the Tickets fantasy world: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Catalonia.html

mariadeuna

I will recommend to you to stop in Sos del Rey Catolico in your way to Ainsa and also visit Alquezar both towns has lots of charm.
I will be in Spain also in September and i am going to travel to a Salt water spa near Alquezar.