Lauren1979

So, thanks for the help---we got our night train tickets to arrive in San Sebastián (no galicia on this trip) on 9/16.

Last piece is how to spend the two nights that we have in Basque Country after we arrive on the train and await my sister to meet us in SS on 9/18. We are thinking of renting a car when we arrive Saturday morning, heading along the coast to leikitio (or maybe Getara) and spending a quiet day and night there, then Sunday morning heading to San Juan de gaztelugate follwed by late lunch in Bilbao and the Guggenheim. We can either return our car as soon as we get to Bilbao so we don't have to mess with parking (and take a bus back to San Sebastián), or we can drive back to SS, return the car and check into our pension the 17th. This way we will do less checking in and out of hotels, with one night in the fishing villlage and three in SS.
Does anyone have a suggestion re: returning the car in Bilbao (we'd have our suitcases to deal with, by maybe they have lockers at the bus station) vs parking, doing the museum and then driving back to SS to return the car?

We will leave the French side for a day trip Tuesday when my sister is there because she wants to see it as well.

Thanks a million!!

PalenQ

Curious as to what you paid for sleeper to S Sebastian and what kind of compartment you got - from www.renfe.com -it worked?

kja

If your goal is to visit places near San Sebastian from San Sebastian, I'm not sure that you need a car -- many locations are accessible by public transportation. And if you can get to them by bus, bonus!! You can sip wines to your hearts' delight! Please check rome2rio.com for your options, and then check the links it provides for transit companies so that you can find time-sensitive schedules.

Lauren1979

PalenQ, Well..as it turns out the renfe site sucks, like really really terribly. I thought my husband had purchased the tickets that I had brought up on the site but apparently, once he put the credit card info in the site said that the purchase could not be made, or something like that.
Since yesterday, I have tried over and over and every time, at some point during the process, a message in Spanish comes up saying the website is temporarily down, try back in a few minutes. We also tried several times on raileurope and the same thing happens. Well, it says there is no itinerary matching my search parameters. I'm assuming raileurope just links directly with renfe.com.
So, we will continue trying this over and over until renfe fixes their stupid site.

Kja,
Thanks! I looked at the bus times but I think with our very limited time we'd better get a car (i.e. getting from San Sebastián to leikitio via bus takes 2 hours, then to San Juan de Gaztelugate takes another 4, whereas driving takes half that time). If we were only visiting Bilbao we would prefer a bus for sure! San Juan de G looks like a do not miss though!
Have you been to leikitio? Is it worth an overnight? Is Getara perhaps better? We'd though about whether to just stay the whole 4 nights in SS, but we don't want to be spending the whole trip in cities. We would like a night of small town/countryside quiet, somewhere scenic where we can relax over a nice meal. It will have to be pretty special though to take a night away from what looks to be a foodie paradise in San Sebastián! (Bilbao food scene looks amazing too, but then that would be staying another city).

kja

I didn't stay in Lekeitio, but -- based on a very short visit -- thought it utterly delightful! I didn't visit Getara at all; I defer to others.

While in the area, you might consider visiting the Forest of Oma....

kimhe

Getaria is a wonderful little place. A Basque friend of mine met a German girl in the 1990's, and she agreed to move to the Basque Country with him if she got to decide where they would settle down. Of course she chose Getaria: http://www.euskoguide.com/places-bas...taria-tourism/

The two of them took me to the lunch of my life. Tiny Getraia is famous for out of this world fish and seafood restaurants. It was very much like this, and this is the way they still do it: https://www.thepauperedchef.com/arti...ado-en-mi-vida

A great intro to Getaria from 7 mins 40 secs in this very fun and informative documentary about the Basque Country: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqdjeGqnVKc&t=117s

A couple of very charming hotels in Getaria, for example Itxas Gain and Saiaz.

kimhe

... and here's info with raving guest reviews of Hotel Itxas Gain: https://www.booking.com/hotel/es/itx...ria.en-gb.html
http://www.hotelitxasgain.com/index_eng.html

Or perhaps even better, the Hotel Saiaz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrDp5q3EyTw
https://www.booking.com/hotel/es/sai...ela.en-gb.html

PalenQ

Lauren - scores here have had similar troubles with renfe.com - did you try www.thetrainline.com? Or alternative sites mentioned on www.seat61.com?

Should not be so darn hard!

Let me know please how it turns out.

Lauren1979

PalenQ
After many, many attempts on the renfe site it finally went through and we were able to book our sleeper car (though the seats were listed as 41 and 45 so I'm hoping my hubby and I are in the same compartment!), we were able to print off our tickets to take with us.

I had tried several times as well on raileurope and even spoke with Byron at the agency and he said that sometimes the renfe site is just down and if I can't get through on the renfe site, he wouldnt be able to either because all third party agencies and sites have to go through renfe.
It ended up being like 298 euros total for the double grand clase (which was about $40 more for the two of us but had its own toilet and I liked the idea of not having to share one on a train).

Kimhe I will check on those hotels in Getaria. As of now we have a room at a cute place in leikitio booked for Saturday night but if we could stay in Getaria the food there does seem amazing!

Thanks all!!!!