Start from 78 curated places around San Sebastián, ES, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Bar Nestor
A four-table bar famous for one of the best tortillas in the city and an aged txuleta steak cooked to blushing perfection on a sizzling plate. The tortilla is made twice daily in strictly limited quantities, and getting a slice requires adding your name to the list an hour before the bar opens. Bring cash, arrive early, and plan to linger.
Borda Berri
One of the most serious pintxos kitchens in the Old Town, known for slow-braised veal cheeks in red wine, garlicky pig's ears, and an orzo risotto that locals return for weekly. Everything is made to order at the bar, so point and wait rather than grazing from the counter. The room fills fast on weekend evenings.
Trails & outdoors
Monte Urgull Summit Loop
A 4km loop through the forested hill behind the Old Town — easy enough for anyone in flat shoes, with four entry points and a combination of woodland path, cliff-edge promenade, and fortress ruins at the summit. The Paseo Nuevo route on the ocean side offers crashing wave views; the Zuloaga Plaza route through the trees is shadier. The whole circuit takes under two hours.
Paseo de La Concha to Peine del Viento
A flat, paved coastal walk of approximately 3km one-way from the old port promenade along La Concha bay through a cliff tunnel, past Ondarreta beach and the Miramar Palace gardens, to the Chillida sculpture at the western end of the bay. San Sebastian's defining urban stroll, done daily by residents at every hour.
Things to do
Aquarium de Donostia-San Sebastian
A maritime museum and aquarium in an 1928 building at the old port with a 360-degree underwater tunnel where sharks and sea turtles pass directly overhead, plus exhibits on the Cantabrian Sea ecosystem and a whale skeleton that spans a full gallery. One of the most legitimate rainy-day options in the city and genuinely good for families and adults equally.
San Telmo Museoa
The Basque Country's primary history and contemporary art museum, occupying a former Dominican convent and its modern extension. The 1920s cloister murals by Jose Maria Sert are among the most significant works of art accessible freely in the region, and the rotating contemporary exhibitions bring in international and Basque artists with unusual curatorial ambition for a regional museum.
Landmarks & sights
Playa de La Concha
San Sebastian's famous crescent bay, flanked by white wrought-iron railings and bookended by Monte Urgull on one side and Monte Igueldo on the other. The beach itself is excellent, but the real experience is the Paseo de La Concha promenade — a 6km walk from the old port past Ondarreta to the Peine del Viento sculpture that locals do year-round regardless of swimming conditions.
Peine del Viento
Eduardo Chillida's most celebrated outdoor sculpture — three rusted steel combs bolted into the cliff face at the western end of the bay, designed to be activated by the crashing Atlantic waves. Blowholes in the rock floor release compressed air and water with each swell, making the sculpture perform differently on every visit. The most honest monument in the city.