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What to Do in San Sebastián: Pintxos, the Tamborrada & the Best Food City in Spain

Sep 27
5 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

At midnight on January 20th, the Mayor of San Sebastián raises the flag of the city in the Plaza de la Constitución, and the drums start. For the next 24 hours — without stopping, without sleeping, in companies of 150 people each rotating through the old city streets — San Sebastián is drum music. The Tamborrada is the city's patron saint festival, and it is one of the most specific and unrepeatable things you can attend in Spain.

But San Sebastián — Donostia — earns a visit any time of year. The pintxos bars of the Parte Vieja, La Concha beach, the Peine del Viento, the Kursaal. Here's what to book.

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Best for First-Timers: San Sebastián Pintxos Bar Tour — Parte Vieja

The Parte Vieja — the old quarter of San Sebastián — has more Michelin-starred restaurants per square kilometre than almost anywhere in the world, and the pintxos bars that line the streets between them are where most people eat most of the time. A guided pintxos tour covers four or five bars, the etiquette of pintxos eating (you take from the bar counter, you keep your toothpicks so they can count them, you wash everything down with txakoli), and the specific bars that have been doing specific things best for decades.

January is the right month for this: the bars are full of locals rather than tourists, the pintxos are at their winter best (salt cod, crab, foie gras on bread rather than the summer tomato-and-anchovy versions), and you can actually get a spot at the bar without arriving an hour early.

Best for Families & Kids: Tamborrada Children's Parade — January 20th Morning

The Tamborrada has two components: the adult version runs from midnight January 20th through midnight January 21st. But at noon on January 20th, the children's Tamborrada fills the same streets — children in the same uniforms (soldiers and cooks, the two traditional companies), with the same drums, running their own version of the procession. It's one of the most genuinely charming things you can attend in Spain with children — the little drums, the small uniforms, the complete seriousness with which 8-year-olds perform something they've been rehearsing since October.

Free to attend; the Plaza de la Constitución and the old city streets fill up quickly. A guided cultural tour of the Tamborrada context beforehand — what the tradition means, why the uniforms are soldiers and cooks (it commemorates a Napoleonic-era episode), how the companies are organised — is worth booking to make the most of it.

Best if You Only Have a Few Hours: La Concha Beach & Peine del Viento Walk

La Concha is consistently ranked among the most beautiful urban beaches in Europe — a perfect horseshoe bay in the centre of the city, framed by the Monte Igueldo and Monte Urgull headlands, with a promenade that runs the full arc of the beach. In January it's completely empty of swimmers and completely full of atmosphere: the waves from the Bay of Biscay running into the bay, the Miramar Palace on the hill above, the city quiet on a January morning.

The walk from La Concha to the Peine del Viento — Eduardo Chillida's iron sculptures set into the rocks at the base of Monte Igueldo, with the Atlantic breaking over them — is one of the more memorable walks in northern Spain. Two hours, no booking required.

Most Unique: Basque Cooking Class — Pintxos & Traditional Recipes

Basque cuisine is the most technically sophisticated regional cooking tradition in Spain — the nueva cocina vasca movement of the 1970s and 80s that produced Ferran Adrià's elBulli and the current generation of molecular gastronomy all traces back here. A cooking class in San Sebastián that covers both the traditional foundations (the stock-based salsa verde, the spider crab preparation, the proper assembly of a pintxo) and the modern context is one of the better food experiences available anywhere in Spain.

Several operators in San Sebastián run this format with market visits included — the La Bretxa market in the Parte Vieja is the right starting point, and the class ends with eating what you've made. January classes are small groups with genuine interaction.

Best Guided Experience: Rioja Alavesa Wine Country Day Trip from San Sebastián

The Rioja Alavesa — the Basque portion of the Rioja wine region — is about 90 minutes from San Sebastián and the least-visited part of one of Spain's most famous wine areas. The villages are smaller, the bodegas are less commercial, and the architecture (several high-profile bodegas commissioned buildings by Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid) is extraordinary. A guided day trip from San Sebastián covers the wine architecture, two or three bodegas with tastings, the medieval village of Laguardia, and lunch.

January is quiet in the Rioja Alavesa — the bodegas have time to talk, the landscape is stark and clear, and the crianza and reserva Tempranillos are at their most characterful in the cold cellar conditions. A very good pairing with the pintxos culture of the city.

Looking for Somewhere to Stay?

The Parte Vieja or the Gros neighbourhood are the right bases — walkable to the bars, the beach, and the Tamborrada routes. For January 20th specifically, book at least 2–3 months ahead: the Tamborrada brings visitors from across the Basque Country and beyond. January rates outside the festival date are very reasonable. Browse hotels in San Sebastián →

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