I am having heretical thoughts. After much thought and consideration, I don't think I really want to indulge in pintxos.
Am I crazy?

I suspect my opinion might be regarded in Basque as "Pentsamendu debekatua da" (roughly translated as "That is forbidden"). Then again, I might not be alone. I'm wondering how any of you feel.

Don't get me wrong--I want to chow down in Basque Country, both in France and in Spain. There is so much I want to taste and test everywhere for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But at 72(ish) and 81, we put thought into how we spend even our more generous "we-are-on-vacation" caloric allowances. There are so very many excellent restaurants available on all our Basque itinerary (see below) that I'd hate to arrive at any good establishment feeling so much like a stuffed turkey that I can't taste the very food I want to savor.

I was already inclined to ditch any official pintxos tour, which quite frankly, I've already decided might be on par with some random Irish pub crawl tour. Now I'm thinking about ditching them altogether, or just testing two or three lunchtime-ish bars only on one day and one-day only.

This new leaning of mine is ironic given I've always raved about food tours (a dear friend of mine ran four of them) and we've indulged in those time and time again in many cities. But now that both our caloric intakes have just naturally trimmed because we are not longer automatically cycling off a zillion calories, we eat calorically cautiously. If I err, I'd rather follow the restaurant-only trail of The Hungry Onion's Ziggy than his or anyone else's pintxos trail. And quite frankly, while I'm fabulous at fighting my way to the bar for a beer, I'm not that excited about fighting my way to the bar for bread-based food* I probably don't need or want. Well, I don't "need" the beer, but that's what I'm doing

*Another irony--I still automatically inhale Paris croissants and butter as soon as I land at CDG. The day I stop that is that day I know I'm dead.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For your information:
We will start our Basque Country tour, sort of without a car, in Bayonne and end in Bilbao. Here is our "bare-bones" itinerary:
3 nights Bayonne (includes our arrival day), public transport to...
3 nights St Jean de Luz (hoping to do Le Petit Train de la Rhune), public transport to...
3 nights San Sebastian--3rd day includes our early transfer to Bilbao by car with the famous Mikel (poster name mikelg), spending hours sightseeing before we get to our Bilbao hotel.
4 nights Bilbao--Guggenheim and Bilbao tour by the same famous Mikel (mikelg).

So I'm interested in your thoughts regarding the much vaunted pintxos. Missing out? Sort of missing out? Point our taste buds and bellies towards the Michelin star places instead?
AZ

I did a small group 9 or10 day guided tour of the area; it included a couple hours one Sunday (I think) afternoon in San Sebastian (I think) bar hopping for pintxos. And, we supposedly went to the "special" places for the exceptional, unique to the area pintxos.

It was fine, but I I wouldn't go out of my way to do this, and there were hordes of people the day we did it.

I realize my life style inclinations aren't those of many people who post here, but my advice to you would be just wing it. Wait until you are in the midst of your trip to see if you are so inclined or not inclined.

We just came back from a month in Andalucia. We had a lot of trepidation about the caloric intake as well, because, as you know, so much of Spanish tapa food is deep fried.

Both of us have treated high blood pressure, so the struggle is real. The other thing to watch of course, is the salt intake.

So, the first few days, we ate at tapa bars, because of course, there are those things that you really miss when you're not in Spain. But we did find that our tastes have changed, and we had our fill of jamon by the time we spent a few days in Seville.

After that, we decided to adopt the Spanish mealtime custom of eating, with lunch being the main meal. So, in the morning, a healthy breakfast involving yogurt, fruit and whole wheat bread type items, with possibly some type of egg.

I had made quite a few restaurant reservations in advance. So for a late lunch, usually 2 pm-ish, we concentrated on seafood and fish, and tried to stay away from deep fried items. Then in the evening, we could make it through that time when the restaurants are still closed, and just have a few well chosen tapas after 8 pm. This also served my digestive issues well.

In the Basque country, in my humble opinion, the food is much superior to Andalucia. There are so many really good seafood options that are not available where we live with the quality of seafood from Northern Spain. So, if that suits your palette, then I would say you should not miss them. In San Sebastian and in Bilbao, we used Maribel's guide to the best pintxos, but you will be in good hands with mikelg.

As for Michelin star restaurants, we went to 4 Michelin star restaurants in Andalucia. Twice we went for lunch, and twice for supper. The alternate meal of the day was a light meal. While we enjoyed the Michelin stars, I am more and more finding they are more about the experience and the inventiveness than the deliciousness of the meal.

So my advice, yes, work in a few M* meals, but also enjoy the fresh seafood and the wonderful inventive pintxos that mikelg recommends.
And, happily my cholesterol actually went down after this trip!!

It's your trip -- eat what you want!

That said, my pintxos tour was, for me, a highlight of my time in the Basque portion of Spain. The tour I joined was hardly a pub crawl. It was with San Sebastian Food, arranged it in advance through their web-site; you may also be able to make arrangements through a shop it has at the Hotel Maria Cristin in San Sebastian (which is where my group met).
http://sansebastian.mimofood.com/en/...g-tour-dinner/

It was a splurge for me, but the tour took several hours, covered quite a few different pintxos bars, and I thought the guide put it together very nicely. I enjoyed the wine parings, but of course, one can enjoy pintxos without imbibing. Here's part of my TA review:

"We tasted a wide array of pintxos, from simple to complex and traditional to gastronomic and with appropriate transitions from appetizer-like through main-course-like to cheese and dessert options. The wine pairings were well considered and also allowed a wide sampling, from txakoli through various white and red Spanish wines to sherry. Our guide ... provided information about the foods and wines we tasted and the pintxos bars we visited, as well as the general traditions behind this cuisine, and she also gave us an introduction to San Sebastian / Donostia’s private gastronomic club traditions."

It's been a while since I was there, and mikelg has reported on some of the ways that the pintxos experience in San Sebastian has changed in recent years, so I can't attest to the current status of the tour I took. I'm sure mikelg can provide better input.

I hope that helps you decide!

Natylou, I'm curious. Which starred restaurants didi you try in Andalucia?
I have to say that I just came back from three weeks in that region and I'm not sure I ate any fried foods!! But they are very popular in that region!

I'll also confide that, despite avoiding fried things, I gained 8 pounds in one month.