San Sebastián, known in Basque as Donostia, is a city that has a slightly unfair advantage over most places: it is genuinely beautiful, it sits between two hills and a perfect crescent bay, it has more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else on earth, and it rains enough to keep the surrounding countryside green without dampening, as it were, the city’s considerable enthusiasm for outdoor life. It is also small enough to walk everywhere, which is either charming or maddening depending on your relationship with hills.

The question of whether San Sebastián is primarily a beach resort, a food destination, a cultural city or a Basque-identity project is one the city resolves by being all of them simultaneously and without apparent effort. Prices below were correct at time of writing; as is always the way with these things, checking ahead before you visit is the safest policy.

1. La Concha Beach and the Promenade

La Concha is consistently ranked among the finest urban beaches in Europe, and it earns the ranking without requiring much qualification. The beach occupies a perfect semicircular bay between Monte Urgull and Monte Igueldo, a kilometre and a half of fine golden sand backed by the elegant promenade that Queen Maria Cristina commissioned in the 1880s as part of her effort to establish San Sebastián as the summer capital of the Spanish court. The white iron railings, the lamp posts and the Belle Époque architecture facing the sea are the residue of that ambition, and they have aged well.

The Paseo de la Concha runs the full length of the beach and connects, at the western end, to the Ondarreta beach and the Peine del Viento sculptures. The island of Santa Clara sits in the middle of the bay; in summer a water taxi runs from the beach to the island, which has a small beach of its own and views back toward the city that justify the trip. The promenade at sunset, with Monte Igueldo on one side and the old town on the other, is one of the more persuasive arguments for the city’s reputation.

• Location: Paseo de la Concha, 20007 San Sebastián. Central and impossible to miss.
• Best time to visit: Early morning for the beach with space to move; sunset for the promenade walk. The beach gets very crowded in July and August.
• Ticket prices: Free. The Santa Clara island water taxi charges a small return fare in summer.
• Good to know: The La Perla spa, the former royal bathhouse built into the promenade at the beach’s edge, is now a thalassotherapy centre and open to the public. The old Casino building on the promenade, long since repurposed, is now the City Hall.

2. Parte Vieja

The Parte Vieja, the old town, is the social and gastronomic heart of San Sebastián: a compact grid of narrow streets between Monte Urgull and the river Urumea, rebuilt after British and Portuguese forces burned the city almost entirely to the ground in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars. The current old town is therefore not especially old by Spanish standards, but it is dense with bars, churches, markets and the kind of street life that accumulates in a small space when a city takes eating and drinking as seriously as this one does.

The Plaza de la Constitución, the square at the old town’s heart, has numbered balconies that once served as box seats for the bullfights held below – the ring was dismantled in the 19th century but the numbering survives, which gives the square a pleasing air of having been designed for spectators, which it was. The Mercado de la Bretxa, the covered market off the plaza, is the functional centre of daily Parte Vieja life. The Basílica de Santa María del Coro, at the old town’s seaward end, has a Baroque façade of considerable elaboration; the church of San Vicente, a short walk away and dating from the 16th century, is the oldest building in the city.

• Location: Between Monte Urgull and the river Urumea, north of the city centre. Accessible on foot from anywhere in central San Sebastián.
• Best time to visit: Any time, but the pintxo bars operate on Basque time: lunch from about 13:00, the evening txikiteo (bar crawl) from around 19:00. Both are worth participating in.
• Ticket prices: Free. The market and churches are free to enter.
• Good to know: The pintxo bars of Calle Fermín Calbetón and the surrounding streets are generally considered the best in the Parte Vieja. The protocol is to order one pintxo and one drink, eat standing at the bar, and move on. Attempting to sit down and order a full meal in a pintxo bar is technically possible and socially incorrect.

3. Monte Urgull

Monte Urgull rises directly behind the Parte Vieja to 123 metres, its summit crowned by the Castillo de la Mota and a large statue of the Sacred Heart that has been looking down on the city since 1950. The hill is a nature reserve and public park, criss-crossed with paths that wind through the old fortifications, gun emplacements and cannon batteries that reflect Urgull’s history as the military defence of the city. The English Cemetery on the hill’s northern side contains British soldiers who died during the 1813 siege, a detail that adds a certain historical texture to what is otherwise a pleasant walk.

The views from the summit, across the bay to Monte Igueldo and out over the Atlantic, are the finest in the city from ground level. The walk to the top takes about 20 minutes from the Parte Vieja and requires no particular fitness beyond a willingness to go uphill. The Paseo Nuevo, the breakwater promenade that runs around the base of the hill on its ocean side, is worth walking in its own right: exposed to the Atlantic swell, with waves breaking against the wall in anything but calm weather, it provides a bracing counterpoint to the elegance of the La Concha promenade on the other side of the city.

• Location: Directly behind the Parte Vieja. Multiple paths lead up from the old town; the most direct starts near the Museo San Telmo.
• Best time to visit: Morning for clear views; any time for the walk. The Paseo Nuevo is best in rough weather, which San Sebastián provides with some frequency.
• Ticket prices: Free. The castle museum inside the Castillo de la Mota charges a small entry fee.
• Good to know: The hill is also home to the Aquarium on its seaward base (covered separately below). Combining Urgull with the Parte Vieja and the Aquarium makes a natural full morning.

4. Peine del Viento

The Peine del Viento, or “Comb of the Wind”, is a series of three large weathered steel sculptures by the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, installed in the rocks at the western end of La Concha bay in 1977. The works are embedded directly into the granite cliffs where the bay meets the open Atlantic, their forms apparently growing from the rock and reaching toward each other across the breaking waves. When the swell is up, water forced through holes in the rocks beneath the sculptures erupts in jets of spray. It is one of the most successfully sited pieces of public sculpture in Spain, and Chillida spent years choosing this specific location before he was satisfied.

The approach path descends from the western end of the Ondarreta promenade to a terrace of volcanic basalt paving, also designed by Chillida in collaboration with the architect Luis Peña Ganchegui. The whole composition, sculptures, terrace and setting, was conceived as a single work and functions as one. The walk from La Concha along the promenade to reach it is itself part of the experience.

• Location: Paseo Eduardo Chillida, at the western end of Ondarreta beach. A 20-minute walk along the promenade from La Concha.
• Best time to visit: Rough weather, when the wave jets are most dramatic. Sunset, when the sculptures catch the last light from the west. Both, if you can manage it.
• Ticket prices: Free.
• Good to know: The funicular to Monte Igueldo is a short walk from the Peine del Viento, making the two a natural pairing. Coming down from Igueldo and walking along the promenade to the sculptures at sunset is a very good afternoon in San Sebastián.

5. Monte Igueldo

Monte Igueldo stands at the western end of La Concha bay at 181 metres, topped by a viewing tower and a small amusement park that has been there since 1912 and does not appear to have changed its ambitions significantly since. The funicular railway that runs up the hillside was built the same year and remains the most entertaining way to reach the summit. The amusement park, with its wooden roller coaster and vintage rides, occupies a category somewhere between nostalgic charm and mild dilapidation, and is loved by the city precisely because of it.

The view from the top is the point: a panoramic sweep across La Concha bay, the Parte Vieja, Monte Urgull, the river Urumea, the Kursaal and, on a clear day, the coast stretching toward France and the Pyrenees in the distance. It is the view that appears on every postcard of San Sebastián, and standing on the terrace with the bay laid out below is a reminder that the city’s reputation for beauty is not misplaced.

• Location: Funicular lower station at the end of the Ondarreta promenade, 20008 San Sebastián.
• Best time to visit: Late afternoon or early evening for the best light on the bay. Check the funicular and amusement park hours in advance as they vary considerably by season.
• Ticket prices: Funicular return around €3 for adults. The viewing tower charges a small separate entry fee. Amusement park rides are paid individually; there is no overall admission charge for the park.
• Good to know: The funicular hours are seasonal and the amusement park has been known to close outside peak months with limited notice. Checking the official Monte Igueldo website before making it central to your day is sensible.

6. Museo San Telmo

The Museo San Telmo occupies a 16th-century former Dominican convent at the foot of Monte Urgull, extended in 2011 by the architects Nieto Sobejano with a new wing clad in perforated weathering steel panels designed to gradually be colonised by vegetation from the hill above. The building alone is worth the visit: the original Renaissance cloister, the church interior with its murals by José María Sert, and the new extension in studied contrast with the old represent one of the more thoughtful museum expansion projects of recent decades.

The collection covers Basque history, society and art across three floors and five permanent exhibition areas. The Sert murals in the former church, depicting scenes from Basque history in earthy monumental tones, are the most striking single element, occupying the full height and length of the nave. The contemporary art collection on the upper floors includes significant works by Basque artists of the 20th century. The museum is the best introduction to Basque culture and identity available in the city, which is a reasonable thing to seek out in a city as distinctly Basque as San Sebastián.

• Location: Plaza Zuloaga, 1, 20003 San Sebastián. At the foot of Monte Urgull, adjacent to the Parte Vieja.
• Best time to visit: Tuesday, when entry is free. Weekday mornings otherwise.
• Ticket prices: Around €6 adults; reduced rates for students and over-65s. Free on Tuesdays.
• Good to know: The museum is closed on Mondays. The church of San Vicente, the oldest building in San Sebastián, is immediately adjacent. The combination of the museum, the church and the base of Monte Urgull makes for a coherent half-morning in this corner of the city.

7. Kursaal and the Gros Neighbourhood

The Kursaal is a congress centre and auditorium designed by Rafael Moneo and opened in 1999 on the eastern bank of the river Urumea, at the point where the river meets the sea. It consists of two rectangular glass boxes of different sizes, set at slight angles to each other on the riverbank, their translucent façades illuminated from within at night so that they glow against the water. Moneo described them as two stranded rocks, and the image is accurate. The building is controversial in the way that architecturally ambitious public buildings in conservative cities tend to be, and is now sufficiently embedded in the city’s identity that the controversy has mellowed into pride.

The Kursaal is the home of the San Sebastián International Film Festival, held every September and one of the major events in the European festival calendar since its founding in 1953. The surrounding Gros neighbourhood is the younger, less tourist-saturated counterpart to the Parte Vieja, with its own beach (Zurriola, exposed and popular with surfers), a good concentration of pintxo bars, and the Tabakalera cultural centre in a converted tobacco factory that hosts contemporary art and film.

• Location: Avenida de Zurriola, 1, 20002 San Sebastián. On the eastern bank of the Urumea, a ten-minute walk from the Parte Vieja.
• Best time to visit: The exterior is worth seeing at any time of day; the illuminated facade at night is particularly good. For the film festival, September bookings are needed months in advance.
• Ticket prices: Free to view from outside. Internal events (concerts, film screenings) have their own pricing.
• Good to know: Zurriola beach, directly in front of the Kursaal, is the city’s surf beach and has a noticeably different atmosphere from La Concha: less resort, more local. The María Cristina bridge a short walk south, lined with lamp posts by the sculptor Mariano Benlliure, is one of the more elegant river crossings in northern Spain.

8. Aquarium

The Aquarium of San Sebastián, housed in the former port authority building at the base of Monte Urgull, is the oldest aquarium in Spain and, according to most measures, one of the better ones in Europe. The building dates from the 18th century; the aquarium itself has been here since 1928. The main draw is a 360-degree acrylic tunnel running through the largest tank, which gives a genuinely immersive view of the rays, sharks and other large fish circling overhead. The museum section on the upper floors covers the maritime history of the Basque coast with more depth than most aquariums manage, and the oceanographic collection includes whale skeletons and navigational equipment of real interest.

The location, at the point where the Parte Vieja meets the sea and the base of Monte Urgull, means the aquarium fits naturally into a morning that also takes in the old town and the hill. It is popular with families and occasionally crowded; weekday mornings outside summer are noticeably quieter.

• Location: Plaza Carlos Blasco de Imaz, 1, 20003 San Sebastián. At the seaward end of the Parte Vieja.
• Best time to visit: Weekday mornings. Feeding times for the main tank draw the biggest crowds.
• Ticket prices: Around €13 adults; reduced rates for children and seniors. Check the official website for current prices and opening hours, which vary by season.
• Good to know: The Basque Maritime Museum (Euskal Itsas Museoa) is housed in the same port area and covers shipbuilding, fishing and navigation from a Basque perspective. Separately ticketed and less visited, it is worth an hour for those with a maritime interest.

9. Chillida Leku

Chillida Leku is the museum and sculpture park dedicated to Eduardo Chillida, the greatest Basque sculptor of the 20th century and one of the defining figures in post-war European art. The estate, ‘leku’ meaning ‘place’ in Basque, covers eight hectares of oak and beech woodland in the Jauregi farmhouse complex in Hernani, ten kilometres south of San Sebastián. Forty large-scale sculptures are distributed through the landscape, their weathered steel and stone forms placed in dialogue with the trees and terrain around them. The converted 16th-century farmhouse contains a further 80 smaller works, drawings and prints.

Chillida spent years selecting this site and arranging the works within it, and the result is one of the finest outdoor sculpture environments in Europe. The Peine del Viento in the city gives a sense of what he was doing; Chillida Leku gives the full context. The museum closed in 2011 after a dispute between the Chillida family and the regional government and reopened in 2019, which makes it newly available to a generation of visitors who missed it the first time.

• Location: Camino Zabalaga, 86, 20120 Hernani. Around 10km south of San Sebastián; reachable by bus from the city.
• Best time to visit: A weekday morning in good weather. The outdoor sculptures need daylight and ideally some sun, though the woodland setting is atmospheric in any conditions.
• Ticket prices: Around €10 adults; reduced rates for students, over-65s and children. Check the official website for current prices and transport options from the city.
• Good to know: Chillida Leku is not in the city and requires a deliberate half-day. It is worth it. Combine with lunch in Hernani or the return journey through the Urumea river valley if the weather is good.

10. Miramar Palace and Gardens

The Miramar Palace sits on the promontory between La Concha and Ondarreta beaches, occupying the precise point at which the two bays divide, with views in both directions and out to the island of Santa Clara. Queen Maria Cristina commissioned it in 1893 as the summer royal residence, which is how San Sebastián became the de facto summer capital of Spain during the Restoration period: the court arrived with the queen, the aristocracy followed, the grand hotels and the Casino were built, and the city’s Belle Époque character was established. The English-style palace, designed by Selden Wornum, was the royal family’s preferred summer retreat until the Civil War interrupted the habit.

The palace interior is now used by the University of the Basque Country and not open for general visits, but the gardens are public and free, and the views from the headland are among the best available at sea level in the city. The terraced gardens descend toward La Concha on one side and Ondarreta on the other, and the walk around the promontory gives a sense of the geographical elegance that makes San Sebastián’s setting so distinctive.

• Location: Miraconcha Pasealekua, 48, 20007 San Sebastián. Between La Concha and Ondarreta beaches.
• Best time to visit: Late afternoon, when the light on the bay is at its most flattering and the gardens are quiet.
• Ticket prices: The gardens are free. The palace interior is not open to the public for general visits.
• Good to know: The walk from Miramar along the promenade to the Peine del Viento sculptures at the far end of Ondarreta is one of the finer half-hours San Sebastián offers, and costs nothing beyond the energy to walk it.

What else can you see in San Sebastián?

The food is the other major attraction, and in San Sebastián the two things are not entirely separable. The city and its surrounding province of Gipuzkoa have more Michelin stars per head of population than anywhere else in the world, a statistic that becomes entirely plausible once you have eaten here for a few days. Arzak, Akelarre and Martin Berasategui are the famous names; getting a table at any of them requires planning well in advance. The pintxo bars of the Parte Vieja and the Gros neighbourhood provide an equally valid, considerably more affordable, and arguably more authentic version of the same culinary tradition.

The Tamborrada, held on 20 January each year, is San Sebastián’s patron saint’s day festival: from midnight to midnight, the city’s various societies parade through the streets in Napoleonic-era military costume, drumming without apparent pause. The noise is considerable and the occasion is one of the most genuinely local festivals in northern Spain. The International Jazz Festival in July and the Film Festival in September are major events on their respective calendars and transform the city for a week at a time.

For day trips, Hondarribia, a well-preserved medieval walled town at the French border, is 25 minutes by bus and one of the finest small towns in the Basque Country. Biarritz and the French Basque coast are an hour away by bus or car. The Txakoli wine country around Getaria, the birthplace of the navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, who completed Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe after Magellan himself did not, is a straightforward half-day that combines sea views, a fine Romanesque church and white wine with a natural effervescence that suits the coast it comes from.