As the French and Spanish border grew closer on the horizon, I reached nervously towards my bag, where the folded-up results of our PCR tests were tucked neatly between my Hungarian and US passports. Not that I was worried about not getting through. I was more concerned with missing our reservation at Petritegi and our…

More Michelins per square meter and one almost forgets because of the quality of the quotidian pintxo available all throughout the Old Part. When you go to San Sebastián, though, you should probably drop in on one of its high profile establishments, if you can afford to [or even if you can’t]: Berasategui, Akelare, Arzak, Mugaritz,…

“Friday at 00:15” means Thursday night, not Friday night. This most rookiest of mistakes cost me two hours of despair and a two hundred dollar flight the following morning. As the loss of my night bus from San Sebastián to Barcelona began to sink in, I found myself focusing solely on the negatives: money lost, time in…

Directly across the street from Bar Gran Sol in Hondarribia is Bar Alcanadre, a much more laid back and traditional spot where a pintxo is a pinxto and not so much an abstract work of art. The food here doesn’t take itself so seriously and neither does the service. The guy behind the bar was incredibly…

A short bus ride away from Donostia is the charming Basque fishing village of Hondarribia best known for its spacious beaches and its fusion of Spanish and French architecture. A 10-minute boat ride and you’re in France, in the town of Hendaye across the bay. As is generally true of places within Euskadi, the village of Hondarribia is packed…

And then there was Casa Bartolo, a slightly more legitimate and local looking spot where the bar is lined with plates and the floor below is covered in used napkins. They come around every 10 minutes to sweep it up. It is said by locals that the more napkins there are the better the place…

It’s a Wednesday afternoon and early, yet already the streets of San Sebastián are teaming with hungry bar-hoppers, avid pintxo-poppers looking to wash down two-bite snacks with a beer or frosty cool caña of clara. Locals and tourists and local tourists alike frequent the “pintxerias” that line the streets of Parte Vieja. At first glance these spots all look kind of similar. But they’re not. Hams…