San Sebastian, Spain and where else?!
 

My fiance and I are going on our honeymoon to San Sebastian, Spain. We will have 2 weeks total in July to travel so we were thinking 5-6 days in San Sebastian since we're huge into food and traveling up to Bordeaux, France afterwards...Any suggestions on other amazing places we can visit? We like small villages, culture, beautiful scenery, hiking, and great food...I really wanted to also go to Annecy, France but it was too far out of the way and difficult to reach from San Sebastian. Open to any suggestions!! Thanks! We have also been to Barcelona already.

Nearby, you can´t miss Bilbao and Rioja wine region, as well as the French Basque Country. And the coastal towns on the way to Bilbao, so quaint and unspoilt by tourism.

Second mikelgs suggestions. Plenty of excellent villages Close to San Sebastian, both along the coast and in the beautiful inland, and you have of course vibrant Bilbao. A couple of links to the area:
http://tourism.euskadi.net/en/
http://www.euskoguide.com/
http://www.basquecountry-tourism.com/

Questions:
Point of entry and leaving Spain/France for this honeymoon?
Method of transport?

If you are headed up to Bordeaux there is a lot to enjoy headed in that direction. In particular you might like a visit to Espelette

http://www.euskoguide.com/places-bas...lette-tourism/

If you have the time, wine touring in the Pays Basque and Béarn makes an enjoyable journey heading up to Bordeaux. I'd recommend at least three nights in the region.

One thing to be aware is that the 24th Donosti Cup, with approximately 410 teams participating, will be taking place in San Sebastian-Donostia from 4-11 July (9 days) in 2015. Hotel rates will be going up the first week of July in anticipation event, as well as the Fiesta de San Fermín in Pamplona, which will be attracting at least 200,000 people/day for the opening days of the fiesta. Some of those people will be staying in Donostia.

Jazzaldia, the San Sebastian International Jazz Festival should be from 22-26 July (6 days), but we have to wait for the final dates.

Great thanks for all the replies and the info about when San Sebastian will be absolutely so busy we will be there from July 18th to the 23rd-ish so hopefully will miss a lot of the crowds. I like the idea of seeing Bilboa. The cheapest and shortest way to get to San sebastian from NY is flying to Madrid then train to SS. We were then flexible with how we wanted to spend the rest of the trip and where to fly out from most likely needs to be a major city, these are some great suggestions. I also was looking at the Dordogne, France area to get some contrast of seeing more wine country, small villages, castles, etc. compared to the fun cultural beachy seaport town like SS. I have heard Bordeaux is not the greatest to visit compared to other places. Thanks for all the input!

BilbAo...I know it´s a lost battle, but I have to insist on it...:)

You'll need to say whether you're traveling by public transport or a rental car if you want relevant suggestions. If you want to visit the Dordogne, for example, you'll need a car.

You can also visit French Basque country. We had a trip where we flew into Bilbao and then drove straight to Guethary in France which we used as a base to explore Biarritz, Espelette and other towns. We then backtracked to San Sebastian to use as another base and then finished up in Bilbao. It's a little bit of back tracking but the distances were so small, it was a non-issue.

We stayed here in Guethary. http://www.arguibel.fr/ It was very private and would be nice for a honeymoon.

"BilbAo...I know it´s a lost battle" - try Bilbo, it's even more confusing!

The "Pays Basque" is the French Basque country.

"The "Pays Basque" is the French Basque country", or Ipperalde to keep up the confusion ;-)

My mistake on the spelling Bilbo Baggins and Bilbao will not be missed on this trip, as I am a huge Guggenheim lover. I will look into all of these, thank you all, so incredibly helpful! If we travel the French Basque country, probably train or bus to Biarritz then rent a car to avoid border crossing charges for car rentals.

You may then like this post of mine....https://mugalari.wordpress.com/2014/...o-if-not-told/

If you rent a car in France, then you have many choices. As foodies you would probably love the southwest. For example you might take the train from Madrid to Bilbao, go over to San Sebastian and across the border to pick up a car. From there you could explore the Gers, down to the area around Toulouse, go up through the Perigord and then end in Bordeaux. That would work well if you can get an open jaw ticket-into Spain out off France.

If you have to fly in and out of Spain, then I personally would consider renting a car for the whole trip. It will give you so much more flexibility to explore small villages and even in Bilbao and Bordeaux, parking isn't that tough. e have spend lots of time driving down from the French coast through Spain and have always gone by car, because even with only 2 of us, generally it turns out to be cheaper by car than train/bus.

Bordeaux BTW in actually really nice these days-UNESCO world heritage site, great tram system and walking. It is much improved over earlier days now that the tram line is up and running and tourist dollars are highly valued.

Great to know Mikelg I've actually already checked out some of your blogs, really useful info in general about san sebastian and Bilbao. Any great hotel suggestions that are centrally located in san sebastian walkable to most stuff, we'd like to stay somewhere nice since it's our honeymoon but obviously cannot afford 300$ a night.

Jpie the areas of Gers and Perigord of France are so stunning, thank you and great suggestions!

LittleWingJimi:

We did a great trip in September that included 3 days in San Sebastian and 9 days in Rioja. We are also wine lovers and Rioja was fabulous.

Check out my web page on that trip:

http://www.travel.stv77.com/rioja/rioja.htm

Most hotels in SS are at a walkable distance...which ones have you checked? I tend to like Niza, for around 150eur a night, facing the beach and quite conveniently located

Haha @sssteve I already saw your site as well and thought everything looked amazing. The few hotels I have written down to look at were Alemana and Londres. Happy Holidays all and thanks again

Alemana and Londres are close and in an excellent location. But worlds apart when it comes to standard. Having said that, Alemana is perfectly fine hotel standard, and great value 50 meters from the La Concha Beach promenade.