San Sebastian holidays: a guide to the best areas and hotels

A neighbourhood guide to where to stay in San Sebastian, as chosen by our resident expert, including the best hotels near Zurriola beach, La Concha beach and the city's best pintxos (tapas) bars.

GROS

Laid-back and hip, Gros is where you will find the up-and-comers (when it comes to people and pintxos). It has a distinctly local feel and is speckled with hip bars and cafés that reflect a younger population, like Taula Var, a tiny bar with an outsized selection of Spanish wines and a curated collection of the best charcuterie, cheese and snacks from the Iberian peninsula. Perched on the Zurriola beach, the surfing influence is felt intensely in Gros’s first few blocks, where in summer you will find people wandering barefoot from surf shop to café and back to the beach. Plaza Cataluña is the social nucleus, and on the eastern tip Mount Ulia offers beautiful views of all of San Sebastián. For your money, Gros is the best spot for sleeping in the city.

Where to stay

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CENTRO

Elegant, with sweeping pedestrian promenades graced by women in furs and teenagers with shopping bags, the Centro is the chicest district of Spain’s chicest town. The buildings are stately, stone affairs, and each corner reveals a new top-of-the-line clothing boutique or cosy café bar. You’ll find the imposing Buen Pastor Cathedral, as well as the Reyes Católicos, a popular zone for drinking, eating and going out. Be sure to pop into Casa Valles, one of the last living examples of an old-school pintxo bar, for a gilda (the famed anchovy-olive-pepper pintxo), or into Amelia for haute cuisine. 

Where to stay

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LA PARTE VIEJA (OLD TOWN)

La Parte Vieja, the Old Town, never sleeps… not even during siesta. The leafy, tree-lined boulevard that forms its border is the meeting point for a stroll, an ice cream or a night out pintxo-hopping. The heart of San Sebastián, it is where you will find the most famous pintxo bars (classic spots such as Txepetxa, A Fuego Negro and Ganbara), the port that once served as the city’s livelihood, the oldest markets and the famous Mount Urgull. It is also where the value for your money, hotel-wise, plummets—and the noise outside your hotel window skyrockets.

Where to stay

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ANTIGUO

Stately Antiguo is the neighbourhood oft-overlooked by visitors to San Sebastián. Yes, it is quite far from the Old Part’s attractions, but the distance is one of Europe’s most beautiful strolls, along La Concha bay. Antiguo has a more residential feel along the Ondarreta beach, its blocks lined with stately mansions. However, the lively Calle Matia holds some of great restaurants and buzzes with life any night of the week. Vinoteca Bernardina has some fine jamón ibérico along with a menu of elegant pintxos and wines.

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AMARA

If the rest of the city is all elegant, beach strolling, Amara is a bit more buttoned up and down to business. Mostly serving as catch-all sprawl, Amara has little more to attract outsiders than the Anoeta Stadium, which the Real Sociedad calls home. Don’t let its seeming lack of charm put you off, however—it’s one of the few neighbourhoods where you can find a taste of the old Spanish style, with no concessions to global trends. Case in point? The fried calamari at Bar Txirrita — visit on Wednesdays, when bars offer up happy hour specials for a pintxo and a drink.

Where to stay