My husband and I have enjoyed prior trips to Barcelona, Madrid and Andalusia. We have missed Bilbao, San Sebastianand Valencia. Any intelligent way to combine those on one ten day or so trip? Thanks in advance.

From where in Spain will you be starting?

Bilbao and Donostia/San Sebastián are an easy combo, west to east, just about 100 km apart---a combo that many, many travelers to the Basque Country do, to see both wonderful cities.

From either of those cities, to Valencia is more complicated.

By car, from SS it´s 6 hrs plus.
From Bilbao, about 6 hrs, 30 min (all of this w/o stops).

If driving, a "sort of" midway stopping point on the slightly quicker route might be in Tudela, Navarra, where we have overnighted at the AC Ciudad de Tudela.
Or on the slightly longer route you could stop in Zaragoza, which certainly has much, much more to see, including the Basílica, the Seo, the Lonja and the lovely mudéjar architecture plus a lively tapas scene in El Tubo. Plus many more lodging options.
https://www.zaragoza.es/sede/portal/turismo/

From Bilbao (the larger/international) airport there are 3 airlines that serve Valencia---Volotea, Air Nostrum and Vueling--- but only Volotea flys to Valencia from SS, and the route is twice weekly, Monday and Friday only, and the flights are seasonal. SS has a very small airport located not in SS but in Hondarribia.

There are no direct trains to Valencia from either city. They all require a train change in Madrid at the Chamartín rail station.

There is bus service from Bilbao by Gilman bus but it´s a very, very long ride.

Agree with Maribel, it seems odd to combine Bilbao and Donostia-San Sebastian with Valencia...too far apart. I would combine Bilbao and D-SS with either Burgos or Santander, Pamplona, Zaragoza...

yes, as mikelg says, the easiest city combos would be Bilbao/SS/Donostia/Pamplona/Zaragoza/Burgos/Santander, any of those combos, or combine the 3 major Basque cities, Bilbao/Donostia/Vitoria plus visits to the wonderful fishing villages on the coast----Bermeo, Mundaka, Lekeitio in Vizcaya, Getaria, Zarautz, Hondarribia in Gipuzkoa (keeping it all in the "Basque mode") or even moving over further east to the French Basque Country....St-jean-de-luz, Baiona, etc. But...how much time to you have?

Bordeaux is also only about 3 hours away by car from San Sebastián.

What time of year would you be making this trip? I ask because of your post on the other board indicating that it would be off season and you´d be starting from NY.
With 10-12 days, I would be tempted to stick to just one coast, the Cantabrian coast, or the other, the Mediterranean coast, but not both. But it's not my trip!

If "off season", it could be quite rainy in the Basque Country. This is why it's so beautifully green. As mikelg often reminds us, the weather there can be quite unpredictable.
We go to Donostia/San Sebastián in late January for the Tamborrada, and it´s often very cool and wet for part of the day, then magically clears up and the sun comes out for a few hours. You just never know.

Valencia, ime, is usually warmer in the winter, or it has been when we've been there for Christmas.

If you don´t plan to rent a car, your best option for Bilbao, SS, Valencia would be to fly from NY either to Valencia connecting through another European airport or to Bilbao through a European airport since there are no non-stop flights from NY to either city. I use https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search to find the best connections with the shortest duration and the lowest price. Others use Google flights.

As always, I was hoping Maribel would respond. Thank you all!

The weather in April or May should be more pleasant in the Basque Country.

Here´s the monthly weather for San Sebastián for April this year
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/...th=4&year=2024

And for Bilbao
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/...th=4&year=2024

And Valencia
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/...th=4&year=2024

And, of course, it does not rain every day, we have beautiful sunny days too!