wayfarer

Here is the quick plan
land in Bilbao on July 12 (around 3 pm) night in San Sebastian
July 13 travel to Pamplona - spend night
July 14 - running of the bulls / bull fight / 2nd night in Pamplona
July 15 - open/tbd
July 16 - open/tbd
July 17 - be in Revel France for end of Tour de France stage, night in Revel (near Toulose/Carcasonne)
July 18 - stage start in Revel, stage end in Pyrenees, night in TBD
July 19 - fly out of Girona or Barcelona

We will rent a car

Trip is for me and my wife and our two boys (ages 11&14)

Questions / Help needed -
San Sebastian - would like to do the Tapas stroll - is this something we can do with kids? Start / end earlier than the 'adult' crowd?

Pamplona - since we are pretty much 'last minute' how do we get a hotel room / balcony / bull fight tickets? What will Pamplona be like with kids 11 & 14? Too much partying in town or plenty do anyway?

Open days - we have some driving to do from Pamplona to Revel. Open to any thoughts on what to do across the Pyrenees, Thought about a stop in Andorra (if for no other reason to say we were there), also thought about Carcasonne as it is so close to Revel. We like outdoors stuff - rafting, biking, etc.

Any thoughts on getting a room in Revel, France with the Tour de France in town?
(we saw some of the TDF in 1991 & did it with no room reservations in hand but I think the tour is bigger now than it was almost twenty years ago!)

Thanks for your help

mikelg

Sanfermines end on July 14, so you will arrive just in time. Yes , Pamplona will be a complete party town, but it´s quite safe to walk around in the fiesta atmosphere. Just be aware of the dress code, all in white and a red hanky on your neck.

"Tapas", well, in the BAsque country they are called pintxos and you just get in a bar and start enjoying yourself. Yes, kids are welcome, no particular fixed times for eating pintxos (a bit before lunch, normally, that is, from 12 to 3pm) and a bit before dinner, that is, 7pm to 10pm, the busiest times). But you can have pintxos at any time in most bars. I recommend you take a look at www.maribelsguides.com.

Aduchamp1

Good luck in finding rooms and tickets in Pamplona this late. And there will be many revelers (drunks) in the streets.

Most tapas places are for families. The atmosphere is completely different than a US bar.

Egbert

Maybe if you email Maribel at her website she might know of how to book last minute hotels in Pamplona. You will pay dearly for it. Only one night in the world's finest city (San Sebastian)? Hopefully no one will be killed by the bulls this year. That's something I would not want to experience. I was in Spain last year when it happened and they kept replaying it over and over on TV. Hopefully the Matadors won't get gored in front of you either, also an unsettling experience. They sure love messing with those bulls.

Robert2533

Looks like a very busy schedule...exhausting, depending on where you're flying in from, especially for the children.

The last 4 days of the fiesta coincide with the Bastille Day holidays and Pamplona will be filled with French Basque joining their Navarran and País Vasco cousins to celebrate Sanfermín, so it can get very busy at times. Accommodations, balcony reservations and bullfight tickets are still available if you contact the right people and want to stay somewhere decent. As already mentioned, you might want to contact Maribel for her advice and assistance in this matter.

And don't worry about the children. Pamplona is filled with children enjoying the fiesta.

You biggest problem will be finding someplace to stay close to the TdeF stages. Just about everything along the route in the Pyrenees has been booked for months. We've had to change our plans around those dates in order to spend time in Val d'Aran following the fiesta.