Barcelona or San sebastian
 

We are 3 adults heading to Spain. We will def. be going to Barcelona for a week, we were thinking of going to San Sebastian for a week as well but a friend of ours mentioned they are both very similar. Should we head to San Sebastian for a week as well or not? What are your opinions?
MS

I did not visit yet San Sebastian, but from what I know, these two cities can not be similar. Barcelona for me means first of all Gaudi, and you can not find his works at San Sebastian.

The only similarity i've seen in a few visits to both is that they both are in Spain

But...Barcelona speaks Catalan and Spanish... Donostia (the official name of the town in the local lingua franca - Basque, which supposedly is really not related to any European language) and Spanish is frowned upon. Spanish on street signs is routinely are blotted out

Barcelona is a wondrous town you can easily spend several days in

Donostia is small and not much to do though some nice short excursions

But there are nearly no similarities i can think of. I liked Donostia a lot but a few days there was enough.

Good grief. San Sebastian is one of the mot charming and beautiful harbors in Europe, and has some of the best food in Europe, hands down. I would live in San Sebastian in a flash, wheras Barcelona only moderately interests me for its architecture, but the noise, grime and crime put a big dent in its appeal.

Transportation in and around San Sebastian is not good, so my recommendation would be to plan to spend 3 days or so in San Sebastian, then rent a car to either explore more of the Basque coast (in France or Spain) or else head into the Pyrenees.

Both two are at the sea and both are in Spain. Those are the only similar things I can think of. Oh , well..both are beautiful :) I love Barcelona but...I love much more San Sebastian so I cannot help very much to decide :)

See the big difference between Barcelona and San Sebastian at:
www.todopintxos.com

I agree with fall06. I visited both Barcelona and SS last fall and didn't find many similarities between the two. My husband and I were in SS for two nights, and that was just the right amount of time. There isn't a whole lot for a traveler to "do" there; we mostly explored on foot, relaxed on the beach, and ate our weight in tapas, yum! I still dream of those bar counters loaded with pintxos.

Our 11-day Spain itinerary (with rental car) was Barcelona, the Costa Brava, Ainsa (in the Pyrenees), and SS. I'd consider shortening your time in SS and exploring the Pyrenees, or heading west to Bilbao, etc.