The hook
A Belle Époque city curled around one of Europe's most beautiful urban beaches, and, by many counts, the best place to eat in the world for its size, where you graze standing up, plate by plate, bar to bar.
01Why it's worth it
San Sebastián (Donostia in Basque) sits on a scallop-shaped bay, La Concha, framed by green headlands and a genteel arc of early-1900s architecture. It would be a lovely coastal city on looks alone, but its real fame is food: the old town's pintxos bars, where the counters are piled with small, inventive bites you eat with a glass of local txakoli or cider, are a culture unto themselves, and the surrounding hills hold a famous cluster of destination restaurants that has long given the city one of the highest concentrations of Michelin stars per capita on earth. The Basque approach, superb raw ingredients treated with restraint and pride, runs from the humblest counter to the grandest table. Add a walkable old quarter, a surf beach at Zurriola, and the funicular up Monte Igueldo for the postcard view, and it earns its place. The catch is that the pintxos secret is well out, so the best bars are shoulder-to-shoulder at night.
02How to experience it
Don't sit down for one big dinner; do a pintxos crawl through the Parte Vieja, one or two bites and a small drink at each bar, following the crowds of locals. Order the txuleta (aged beef) or the day's seafood, drink txakoli poured from height, and pace yourself. Walk La Concha at dusk, ride the funicular up Igueldo, and if you want the high-end tables, book the Michelin restaurants weeks ahead.
From the locals
Whenever travellers trade the most underrated corners of Europe, the Basque coast keeps coming up, and San Sebastián is named with a single qualifier that says it all, "San Sebastián, Spain (food)," alongside its neighbour Bilbao, a shorthand regulars use because the eating here needs no further explanation.