This June / July (2018) we took a 10 day trip to Northern Spain. Our intent was to enjoy the coast, beaches, nature, the people and very importantly, the food. See the entire 10 day itinerary here . Traveling to Spain - Bilbao Airport - Pechon You'll find loads of flights from all Europe into Bilbao, which we found to be a good spot to land and leave from. We picked up our rental at the airport. Read the more practical stuff about picking up your car, driving around, gassing up and the toll roads in this post from the same trip . The drive to Pechon is 1 1/2 hours or so from Bilbao Airport and quite easy and nice. Down the A8 towards Santander (if you arrive early in the day, consider stopping in Santander). Pechon has 2 entrance and access roads that meet in the town forming a loop. One way goes past the camp ground, the other has some really nice views, including this guy: The town is small and cute. There are a few Posada's for you to stay. As we stayed at...

Yes, there are too many things to do and see across these regions. Each one of them would warrant an entire stay of 10 days. But as always, you will have to make some choices if you want to see some of the highlights. Here is what we did as a family of 3, with a kid that just turned 11. High-Level Itinerary We started and ended at Bilbao Airport, but we skipped the city itself, despite it's wonderful Gugenheim museum. We decided to see the local coast line, enjoy local food and see a few other towns and cities. So here are those: Day 1 (afternoon) - Arrival Bilbao Airport Picking up the car and driving details => read before you start... Drive to Pechon - 1 1/2 hours "Check into" our HomeAway apartment Get groceries at Lupa Walk to the beach Cook a simple meal and chill Day 2 - Lastres and Llanes ( details about days 2 - 4 can be found here ) Roadtrip to see Lastres Lunch at La Rula in the harbor (menu del did for Euro 12 p/p) Lastres t...

Renting (or even better, borrowing) a car is the way to go if you want to go across northern Spain. The below are some (semi-)useful and random things to know about driving around in Spain. The below is our actual experience in June/July 2018, and we flew into Bilbao and ended our 10 day trip in San Sebastian. Where to rent and drop off? Well, most airports will have rental counters, and you'll find the usual suspects. So not much to add here to what most guide books will tell you. We rented a car at the airport Bilbao, via Hertz, but that last bit is mostly because we found a deal connected to our flight via Expedia. Everything was pretty smooth, but we did drive around the parking garage, and could not get out... luckily no one was behind us, so we backed up and drove around again. Turns out that - we found out after driving back to the Hertz attendants and actually asking - the gates are license plate activated and should (!!) open without tickets. They should just op...

If like us, you figured that you don't need a car in San Sebastian (Donostia), you are absolutely right. The last thing you need in San Sebastian is a car! But, then of course, you realize that you flew into Bilbao Airport and now you need to get to that airport. The solution is absolutely to take the bus! Confused? Don't be! We spent some time googling, and one of the confusing things is that when you look for PESA, the bus company, you find some location on the outskirts of San Sebastian. This got us trying to figure out how to get there to take the bus. Red herring! San Sebastian Bus Station / PESA All you need to know is that you can: Buy tickets at the bus station in the city Take the bus straight from the central bus station  If you are like us, you are in a HomeAway or AirBnB apartment and while you have wifi, you won't have a printer. So ordering on line is a bit of an issue because you need a printed ticket to get onto the bus! We simply went ...