San Sebastian or Bilbao?
 

Will have six nights at the end of June in the Basque region. San Sebastian or Bilbao - or another city? Would prefer one spot for all six nights. Which is the best base?

Not planning on renting a car. We're foodies, want to visit some beaches, also visit French Basque town(s). Would love to rent scooters to travel around, if possible (we have motorcycle licenses and drive 300cc Vespas all over California and also have done so in the Algarve).

Have found some great Basque blogs. It all seems wonderful.

Recommendations welcome!

I've never made it to Bilbao, but San Sebastian is one of my favorite places I've been in Europe. The food is excellent. You can spend the day at the beach, hiking, and then go to one of the many Michelin star restaurants at night or just do a pintxo crawl (which we did most nights). My husband and I also did a San Sebastian food tour which was amazing, and a great way to meet some people to hang out with. The guide was fabulous and well worth the cost. http://www.sansebastianfood.com/en/f...ng-tour-dinner

We arrived to San Sebastian by train from Paris, but you could easily do the opposite and take the train up towards some smaller French Basque towns (you will need to swap trains at the Spain/France border, the tracks are different sizes!).

Thanks so much, Alliesun10! Really appreciate the thumbs up on the tour - I've been looking into taking a class with the same group. Sounds like we'll have to do a tour as well. Would you recommend the hotel you stayed in, or other lodging? Interesting about the train track size difference! We'll be flying in from Lyon.

San Sebastian is Cultural Capital of Europe this year so you can expect a lot of special activities going on.

Overall, it's a difficult choice, but having spent the last dozen years or so in the area, we prefer Bilbao. But Donostia is only an hour away by bus, so it's an easy day trip.
http://www.maribelsguides.com/menu-g...-donostia.html

This is from our last adventure in San Sebastián-Donostia - https://youtu.be/wOYLR4_cpa8

Two fantastic and very different sister cities, but they at least have the amazing food in common.

Belle Epoque San Sebastian (visited almost every year since 1987): http://www.euskoguide.com/places-bas...stian-tourism/
Vibrant Bilbao: http://www.euskoguide.com/places-bas...ilbao-tourism/

Intro to the food culture up here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwmBAvqa_0U

I always recommend to split the stay between both cities. I live in Bilbao, but love SS too. Both are so different, yet so charming and full of lively atmosphere. SS is famed for its pintxos, but they all over the Basque Country and those in Bilbao are faboulous too. I´d spend two nights in Bilbao (and Rioja wine region is just one hour away from Bilbao) and the rest in SS, visiting also the coastal towns in between.

I vastly preferred SS, but I think you should base your decision based on what other places you will visit--and since you mentioned beaches and the French basque region, I think SS will be much preferable without a car. You can always do a day trip to Bilbao via bus. Or do as mikelg recommended, especially if you want to make your way along the coast. It's hard to go wrong.

While I thoroughly enjoyed a few days in San Sebastian / Donostia, I was not enamored of it and was glad I spent time in Bilbao as well. But then, I'm not a beach person. To each his / her own.

Budget might play a part here. We found rooms in San Sebastián very expensive, while Bilbao was more reasonable. San Sebastián in September is one of my fave places in Spain.

Thank you all very much! Indeed this will be a tough decision!