Barb19

My husband and I are planning a trip to the Basque country, Spain and France, in May. So far these are our plans:

Fly into Madrid and drive to Segovia for 2 nights.

Drive to San Sebastian and spend 4 nights.

Drive to French Basque country and spend 3 – 4 nights.

After this we’re undecided. We will have another week and a half to spend in France and then we thought we’d fly home from Paris. I was thinking of the Dordogne for a few nights, (we’ve been there many times) possibly staying in or near Perigeaux. La Rochelle was a thought as well.

My questions:

Any suggestions for towns between Basque country and Paris?

Does anyone have any hotel recs for San Sebastian, preferably fairly upscale and in the center of things?

A good town to stay in on the French side (Basque Country)

Interesting towns for day trips?

What is the weather like in early to mid May?

I’m sure I’ll have lots more questions as my planning continues, but any help or advice you can give me now will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Barb

HappyTrvlr

St-Jean de Luz in a nice small oceanside city in the Pays Basque. For a day trip from San Sebastian, visit Hondarribia.

Robert2533

You might want to download copies of Maribel's Guides to the Pays Basque and País Vasco (www.maribelsguides.com). You should find them useful in planning your stay. As far as exploring the Basque country, you could easily spend two weeks and just scratch the surface.

There are dozens of interesting villages in France on the way to Paris. The entire coast north of Bordeaux is filled with places to explore. It's the same if you head inland.

You might also want to note that if you pick up you car in Spain and plan on dropping if off in Paris, you'll end up with a steep drop off fee. It would be best to have one car for Spain and another one for France if you plan on driving to Paris.

kimhe

For upscale/fairly upscale hotels in the center of things in San Sebastián, I suggest you check out Maria Cristina, Londres (there might still be construction work close by) and Niza:
http://www.booking.com/searchresults...=0;order=class

The more modest Hostal Alemana is also a good option. Ideal location. My parents stayed there while visiting me in 2005 and were perfectly happy:
http://www.hostalalemana.com/ingles/index.html

In San Sebastían you can expect quite unstable weather in early May, but day temperatures will often be a cut above 20°C/about 70F and you will also see a lot of sun. Great time of year to visit; not to crowded and the abruptly changing weather is fascinating.

For day/lunch trips from San Sebastián, I would recommend (apart from Hondarribia) the nearby fishing village of Getaria (20/30 mins by car/bus) and Bilbao with the Guggenheim museum and great atmosphere (50/75 mins by car/bus). Had the meal of my life in one of the restaurants in the harbour of Getaria in 1996.

These sites give you an idea:
http://thepauperedchef.com/2007/12/elkano-in-getar.html
http://www.guggenheim.org/bilbao

Michael

The La Rochelle-Ile de Ré area is definitely worth a visit, and I would choose it over the Dordogne since you've been there before. When some acquaintances rented a car in Spain, they dropped it off on the Spanish side of the border, took a bus to St. jean de Luz or Bayonne to rent the car in France to avoid the hefty cross-border drop-off fee.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...7622845839973/

Barb19

Thanks, all, for great ideas.

HappyTrvlr - I think we will stay in St. Jean de Luz. Do you know of any nice (about $200-250) hotels? Restaurants?

Robert2533 - Maribel's Guides look to be really helpful. I will definitely download them. When we went from Barcelona to France we dropped off the car in Perpignan (just over the border) and picked up another without a dropoff fee. I wonder if there's a town just over the French border where we can do that.

Kimhe - How can I check if there's still construction near the Londres? The Niza looks nice, but there's no a/c in the seaview rooms and they don't guarantee you'll get a seaview room. Will I need a/c in May? Do you remember the name of the restaurant in Getaria?

Michael - Your pictures are wonderful and are causing me to strongly consider La Rochelle and the surrounding area for a few days. Are there any hotels/restaurants that you would recommend?

Thanks again. I love the planning, but the decisions are so hard.

jubilada

May is quite cool in San Se. It is unlikely you will need AC.

Egbert

Maribelsguides is the bible. I could spend a month in San Sebastian easily.

Michael

From my trip report:

We decided to break our stay in the Dordogne with a trip to La Rochelle. The weather broke for us on that trip, we had no rain. We stayed in one of the 2-star hotels by the harbor with a back room, hence quiet. We spent a day visiting the city and one of its museums. It is essentially a walking town with what appears to be as many arcades as Bologna. The central market is fantastic. If we had a similar market within reasonable driving distance of our house, we would install a stove (our house is limited to two gas burners since it was built). The butchers present ready-oven meats as I have never seen before. The seafood choice is of course exceptional including fresh scallops in the shell the size of a half-dollar which begged for a quick toss in a pan with garlic and parsley. The outdoor vegetable stands are paintings. On the way to the market we walked through the clock tower and then took an immediate right and then veered left toward the Hôtel de Ville where the walking street diverge. Close to that point there is on the left an amazing artisanale sweets shop for those who are amateurs of sweets. We really liked La Rochelle.

The Saintonge-Charente east of La Rochelle is interesting for two reasons: 1. it is the cognac area and it is possible to stop at local wineries to sample their cognac and pineau des Charentes. There are signs all along the road indicating the existence of such wineries. For those interested in cognac, it might be interesting to taste something that is not produced by the big companies (Rémy Martin, Hennessey, etc.) 2. The area has quite a few Romanesque churches that somehow missed being renovated through the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque period. The church carvings, especially on the outside, are worth a visit. To the west of La Rochelle is the Île de Ré, well worth a day's outing. St. Martin (buy your fleur de sel there) is a lovely town right next to a major penitentiary that used to be the shipping point to Devil's Island. We had lunch on one side of the prison and walked through its outer walls to get to St. Martin. We found some salt flats, but they no longer are what they used to be. Instead of breaking the dike and let high tide fill the flat, the water is pumped in. A roadside store offered oysters for sale, but we were not allowed to eat them there. They opened them up for us, we walked across the road (the major road going along the spine of the island) and sat on the sea wall overlooking the Atlantic while slurping them down (better than the oysters offered by the stand in the La Rochelle harbor). Our meals in La Rochelle were OK, but I would not feel that the restaurants need to be recommended; they're the type that is chosen by wandering around and looking at the posted menus--si ça vous chante.... There are no lack of restaurants near the harbor.

kimhe

Regarding Hotel Londres, I would send a mail ([email protected]) to check out whether there still are noisy works close by.
http://www.hlondres.com/i-index.htm

No need for A/C in May.

The restaurant in Getaria might have been Kaia Kaipe, but all of the three or four fish and seafood places in the harbour area are high quality and fairly expensive.
http://www.pbase.com/cyracuse/image/2718845
http://www.inpraiseofsardines.com/bl...bstin_hay.html

Elkano (named after Getaria's most famous son, the 16th century explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano) and Kaia Kaipe are the most highly reputed.
http://www.kaia-kaipe.com/
http://www.restauranteelkano.com/

Egbert

They say the whole grilled Rodaballo in Elkano or Kaia is the best fish dish in the world.

HappyTrvlr

We did St-Jean de Luz as a day trip from Hondarribia and would like to go back and stay there. Sorry I don't remeber the hotel we checked out but it was on the beach.