San Sebastian: A Beautiful City in Spain

I’ve got one question for you! Why had no one told me how beautiful San Sebastian is?

I love a beautiful city as much as next traveller but for some reason or the other, I’d never quite made it to San Sebastian – this all changed however when we visited The Basque Country. But you know what, instead of trying to describe it all to you, why don’t I show you?

Upon arrival in San Sebastian, my very first thoughts were how reminiscent (to me) it was of Paris (I say so because I’d been to Paris before San Sebastian).

As we walked through the city, this feeling felt more and more re-affirmed…

…except that unlike Paris, there seemed to be a more laid back vibe about San Sebastian. Families were out cycling together, people were taking leisurely strolls with the friends in no hurry to get anywhere. Everything and everyone just seemed so warm and inviting…

And then we happened upon the beach…. I was not expecting a beach. More so one this beautiful. Cities usually never have great beaches. For all the beauty of London, New York, Paris, Singapore and the like, their appeal is never to do with beaches. Somehow, San Sebastian managed to not just have any old beach but one any holiday maker would travel across the world to come spend time on…

When we arrived, it was slightly overcast but this is the Basque Country after all and overcast weather lasts like for all of 2 seconds before clearing up!

We made our way to our home for the night – Hotel Londres! Now can you see that done at the top (behind the sign)… Well remember that for later on… 😉

We hurriedly and excitedly checked in!

And made our way to our rooms with this view! I mean COME ON! Imagine walking in with a view like that welcoming you. I don’t even remember where I flung my luggage as I reached for my camera to take photos of the view from the room…

See what I said about overcast weather? All gone!

Eventually we made our way back out to the city to go exploring it but if I tried to cram all of that into one blog post, I think you would end up with 100s of photos to look through so I’ll tell you more about that later on…

Finally, we headed back to Hotel Londres for a quick change and headed back out again for dinner… Secretly, I think we all came back to the hotel to catch the sunset!

The next morning, bright and early, we got up for breakfast (which was amazing and which I think I remember taking photos of but when it comes to me and food, I can’t be trusted so I’m not really sure what happened). After breakfast, we were then taken on a tour around the hotel to check out some of it’s other amazing rooms…

First off was the Mata Hari suite. The suite is named after Mata Hari, an exotic dancer/spy who did stuff in World War 1 (check out her Wikipedia page for full details – her story does not end well…) Whenever she stayed in San Sebastian, this was where she stayed in and the room has been kept true to this lady of mystery’s vibe…

The ‘bad bish’ herself…

The suite is amazing and one of the most popular in the hotels so you might find it hard to book it but I highly recommend you try when you visit!

After that suite, we headed on upstairs… to check out some more rooms…

First off, we stopped to take in the views from the private balcony overlooking the city (instead of the beach)… Just check out those rolling Basque hills behind…

The next room was the room of Luis Mariano… A singer and some other stuff but to be honest, I was distracted from the story of Luis by the view on the balcony! This balcony had it’s over private terrace with sun beds and a pretty brilliant view across the beach…

Finally, we headed to some of the rooms which had no theme but came in triplicates and so larger parties could get the three rooms, open them up and use them as apartments when staying at the hotel. The views here were amazing as usual….

Now remember that dome I told you about earlier (behind the hotel sign?), if you don’t then you need to scroll back up to find out more about it. 🙂 Anyway, it turns out, you can walk up to the Dome and with Hotel Londres being such an iconic hotel in San Sebastian, it’s one of the places, the locals look up at and would love to come up to see in person as it is not only iconic but offers some of the best views across the city… (as I’ve been told) Of course, to add to my humble brag list, I had to hug it!