I would really appreciate some help with planning our next trip. A little about us...we are adventurous independent seasoned travelers in our sixties. We do not do crowds and big cities well, and prefer to get to know a country by staying in the countryside and making day trips to the more traditional sites. We are most interested in food, wine and meeting people. We rent a car and like to explore the more hidden, under appreciated gems. We generally stay in gites, agriturismos, and airbnb type places.
We have been to southern France but not to Basque Country. We want to combine that with Spanish Basque country. We are looking to go for three weeks next Aug. or Sept.
I am wondering about two things, primarily. Is it too much to include the Bordeaux area, say Saint Emilion? We stayed in Meursault for five days and absolutely loved it. We are looking for a similar small village experience in the Bordeaux area but not sure if that would fit with a Basque Country. Thoughts on a similar village?
What about northern Portugal? Would that be doable in place of France? I know both are too much.
I have not nailed down villages for home bases and would appreciate input on that.. thinking maybe Getaria for part of Spain. .we like to be able to walk to dinner and enjoy local shops and markets. Generally speaking we do not like to move more often than every three or four nights. That would give us 5-6 different stops....
Does it make more sense to Fly into Barcelona or Madrid?
Any thought would be appreciated...

My wife & I have vacationed in the French Pays Basque region for 4 weeks over 2 trips. We've also stayed in the Pyrenees for 4 weeks. We always stay in Gites. I developed a Pays Basque itinerary that describes our favorite villages, scenic drives, restaurants, sites, etc. I have itineraries for other regions also, and have sent them to over 6,000 people on Fodors. If you would like a copy, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach a one to the reply e-mail.


We stayed for 3 nights in the Sauternes region just south of Bordeaux & explored the city of Arcachon, the wine countryside, several castles, and a few small villages. We stayed near Langon/St Macair in a now-closed B&B.


We fly into Bordeaux when visiting the Pays Basque, but friends are flying into Toulouse next week to visit the Pays Basque because there were better flights from where they live (San Diego).



Stu Dudley

With the exception of Bordeaux itself and the Bassin d'Arcachon area, I find very little appealing about "the Bordeaux area." I have been completely turned off by Saint-Emilion the last two times I've been there and don't ever plan to return, even though it's an easy hop from our home. I wouldn't advise anyone to touch it with a barge pole in August. If you dislike crowds, you'd be horrified.

Moving down the coast from the Bassin d'Arcachon, though, there are plenty of interesting spots between there and the Spanish border, starting around Hossegor. Bayonne is an interesting city, Biarritz not so much (to us, anyway), but we really love St-Jean-de-Luz. Hendaye has its charms, too. Or you can go inland.

With 3 weeks you could certainly do a nice stretch from Bordeaux down into Spanish Basque country. I wouldn't overlook Bordeaux itself, either. It has been transformed in the last 10 years by Alain Juppé into a marvelous city.

I've only visited the area around San Sebastián and Bilbao for about 8 days, so am hardly an expert on Spanish Basque country, but I certainly loved everything I saw.

I would go in September, and book open-jaw flights, probably into Bordeaux or Toulouse and out of Madrid. There are also lots of possible fly-train-drive possibilities. Bilbao and Biarritz both have airports.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsjvsgfDP covers the French area that you plan to visit south of Bordeaux. I suspect that the Arcachon area is crowded in the summer. As for the Spanish side, the Elizondo area (the beginning of this album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjvsgfDP) does not have many tourists and is very pleasant.

StCirq... Thanks for that info. We just came back from Sicily and had really mixed feelings about Ortigia. Beautiful and chock full of culture, but a victim of its own reputation. The place was a zoo, as were all of the other Baroque towns.

We stayed in a lovely B&B, Iparra, located in Arcangues, which is inland from St. Jean de Luz, in mid July this summer. It was in a sort of suburban area surrounding a golf course development - not a village with shops or restaurants in walking distance - but we found it easy driving throughout the surrounding Basque area, as well as to the coast, and even down into Spain.

For Pays Basque why not fly into Bayonne?

We spent a few nights in an inn just outside Getaria on our most recent of several trips to Spanish Basque region. We loved it. From there we moved to a city hotel in San Sebastian. There are many, many great-looking inns/rentals in the Spanish Basque country.

The best airport in the Franch Basque country is Biarritz, for the País Vasco it's Bilbao.

You might be interested in reading Maribel's Guides to the Pays Basque (updated March 2018) and País Vasco (updated Aug. 2018). You should find them useful.

www.maribelsguides.com/mg_pays_basque.pdf
www.maribelsguides.com/mg_pais_vasco.pdf

Given the innumerable choices of accommodations in the area, most of them with plenty of choices of shops and cafés and restaurants, I'm not sure how a "sort of suburban area surrounding a golf course development" would hold any appeal whatsoever. There are no issues with driving around, or otherwise transporting yourself, through this area at all, so that shouldn't be a consideration.

Yes, Bayonne/Biarritz. Same airport.

I spent five weeks in the region July 2017. Here's a link to my trip report and also to my blog posts about it and photos. Perhaps you'll find something useful.



Criss-crossing the Camino: 5 weeks in Northern Spain (and a bit of France)


https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/blog


We only did a small part of France (Bayonne to the Spanish border) not Bordeau, and Spapin (not Portugal) and had five weeks and I still didn't see everything I wanted to.

I visited on the Spanish Basque region, as part of a longer trip. Here's my report:
Four Awesome Weeks in the North of Spain and Catalunya

Thanks, Robert2016, for Maeibel’s updated links to these two special areas. Her guides were incredibly helpful to us when we visited these areas. We offen say while feaveling in other countries that we wish we had Maribel’s Guides for them.