When we first announced we were getting the ferry to Bilboa in Spain and starting our dream trip travelling Europe, the one place everyone told us to visit was San Sebastian on the North Coast of Spain near Andorra

Endless recommendations, a place we MUST visit

So on our journey over we were vigourously checking the weather praying that we would leave the bad English weather behind and be able to visit San Sebastián in the Sun (we were originally thinking to head straight to Seville- We told you we had no plan)

As we arrived, we loaded up the Weather app, and there it was bright sunshine and 19°

So we popped  San Sebastian in the satnav, loaded up park4night and tried to work out where we were going to stay for the night and park with our extra long camper. (Here’s the link to the 2 spots we stayed)

Initially arriving in San Sebastian, it just looks like any other town, high rises and graffiti and a lot of roads. initially we were pretty underwhelmed.

A bit plain, a bit boring, but we had so many recommendations we parked up and were ready to hit the town obviously heading straight toward the beach. We personally got the bus it wasn’t worth the 55 minute walk for us from where we parked the van. 2 euros each later and we were blessed with a beautiful park and a stunning view of the sea with the little island in the middle of the Cove.

Walking down the boulevard with the sun shining on our face was genuinely the perfect arrival for our time in Spain. 

We found the nearest café, grabbed a coffee and some Tapas and basqued in the Sun before heading into the old town. 

Truthfully, the old town and some of the courtyards are the main highlight of San Sebastian (other than the beach cove), about the only place of any real character. The rest was just a standard town with some good shops. The old town offered an endless array of pixos, wine, and Tapas bars and cute independent shops. Our favourite tapas restaurant was La Barra Kodjua- the food here was amazing and still the best we’ve had up to this point.

we also loved the !!!! Shop which hosted some lush relaxed fashion & streetwear with printed garments specifically designed by local artists. 

If you were to visit San Sebastián for a little weekend mooch and to enjoy a few few drinks a few snacks and some nice local food it’s pretty good. 

We personally couldn’t have spent more than maybe three days there. I wasn’t enough to do or enough to see and we can’t sit still. 

We were lucky enough to visit a really nice tapas place which we would highly recommend, but most of them had a pretty similar menu pretty similar price points and you can see a lot of the food each place had on offer on the counter, meaning you could see what tickled your fancy.  Unless you went to sit in one of the nicer restaurants where a larger menu was on offer, we assume this was down to the kitchen size.

One thing we loved about San Sebastian was the Price, everything was very very well priced from the wine to the food. We didn’t spend over €40 for a meal. The buses were dead cheap and very frequent, but you could walk easily, get Ubers or rent the local bikes. 

We aren’t massive drinkers, so we didn’t fancy visiting too many of the bars, but as it was our first night we decided watching the Sun go down over the hills whilst sat on the beach was going to be the way forward and celebrated with a bottle of champagne instead. The temperature dropped quickly being February but don’t worry we perceiverd through a few glasses of Moet before heading back for some food in the van. 

Whilst taking in our first day and what felt like an eternity of this dream we watched all the lights along the Boulevard of the beach slowly begin to light up, adding some real zest to the bay.

But overall, we found San Sebastian was pretty overrated. A standard town with relatively standard offerings.

The highlights

Beautiful parks

A lovely beach

A few spots with some stunning architecture, especially the churches

The old town cobbled streets were perfect to find nice food and wine spots

And it is affordable as a town like this could be

The negatives 

Not that many spots for van lifers

Not a huge amount to do, especially in the off-season (we wanted to visit the boat ride via the funicular but it was closed) 

The climb up to Jesus was average

90% of the town lacked the character we were told it had 

Overall, if you’re in the area, it’s worth a visit, but I wouldn’t spend more than two days there, it’s a very relaxing city break

I think our issue was the expectation and the way it was hyped so this is a very realistic review of what to expect.