so into northern spain!

our magical urban-plus-outdoor-adventure itinerary

I recently returned from a trip to Northern Spain with two of my best friends, Lily and Nellie, sponsored by elsewhere, a travel company that works with local experts to create truly unique travel experiences.

On our last day in Spain, we had an incredible private tour of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and then partook in our favorite trip ritual: hopping around from pintxo bar to pintxo bar (pintxos = small little plates of food — similar to tapas but they are typically sitting on the bar and you point to what you want), drinking txakoli (a lightly effervescent white wine that is very, very popular in the region), and playing gin rummy.

We then headed back to our hotel room, crammed onto the bed with, well, another bottle of txakoli, and recorded what I can only assume was the greatest podcast episode of all time. We recapped the full trip, what we loved, what we would change. We shared the most absurd moments. We laughed so hard and made so much fun of each other in a way that only really old friends who have just spent 12 days straight together can do. I’ve been so excited to share it.

But… the recording failed. I have no idea what happened, but I blame the txakoli.

I thought about re-recording with them remotely, but the magic of that moment, being there together on the last night of a truly perfect trip, is gone. So instead, I’ll share the highlights here! Full itinerary with ALL the details is here.

We spent two nights in Madrid and could have spent at least four. There’s so much to see and do here, and we barely scratched the surface. Our highlights were shopping in the Chueca and Salamanca neighborhoods — Malababa, Soeur, and Sessùn were some of our favorite shops. We had a wonderful meal at Charrúa Madrid and fun cocktails at Ficus Bar. You can find all of our favorite shops, tapas bars, and many places that we didn’t get to explore but wanted to on my Spain map here.

strolling the charming, windy streets of chueca!

San Sebastián is the coolest town — worth a trip to Spain all on its own. It’s a coastal town on the Northern coast of Spain, right next to the French border, and it fully charmed us. It’s that perfect European blend of old meets new — hip young surfers going to 200-year-old pintxo bars to meet up with their friends after surfing all afternoon, 100-year-old pastry shops next door to chic Spanish design ateliers. We spent three nights there and loved every minute, but these were our highlights:

cooking in a private gastronomic club

When you’re wandering the cobblestone streets of San Sebastián looking for your next pintxo, you might find yourself stumbling through the doorway of a friendly looking restaurant, only to be turned away. “Disculpa, privado!” they’ll tell you — “Sorry, private!”

You’ve stumbled into a sociedad gastronómica — one of San Sebastián’s 100+ private gastronomic clubs. Each one has its own personality and offering, but at its core is this: it’s a private social club centered around cooking and eating with fellow members. Members reserve a time to cook — depending on the size of the club, three to four members can cook at a time — and they can invite guests to join them. Members will head to one of the many local markets, grab their food, and then bring it back to the shared kitchen to cook for/with their friends and family.

post-lunch txakoli on the deck at the club

The only hitch? You have to be with a member to go inside of one! This was the coolest tour that elsewhere set up for us — Jani, our guide, was an incredibly cool young mom and entrepreneur (she owns her own tour company) and is a member of several clubs. She picked us up at our hotel, took us to her favorite local market and farmer’s market to grab ingredients, and then back to her club, which was a stone building with wooden beams and felt like a scene out of a Game of Thrones banquet. We cooked a local fish dish, a tomato salad, and seared white asparagus, and she taught us all about Basque cuisine and the local gastronomic clubs.

We spent the entire afternoon cooking and eating and drinking txakoli on the deck of her club overlooking the city. A cannot miss experience if you find yourself in San Seb! Here’s a great Saveur article if you want to read more about the clubs.

pintxo hopping

Pick three or four pintxos bars that are close together, and hop from bar to bar, eating a snack and having a glass of txakoli at each one. This is always my favorite way to explore a new place on limited time — an appetizer at one spot, a meal at another, after-dinner drinks at a third, so the pintxos culture really allows you to see a lot of places in one night!

My map has a lot of great pintxos bars saved, but here’s an especially great hop (these are all on my map):

• Start at Ganbara and grab whatever looks good — we had delightful fried padrón peppers.

• Walk over to Txepetxa Taberna for a little sandwich — my favorites were the simple ones filled with local jámon and idiazábal cheese (similar to manchego).

• The cheesy risotto at Borda Berri was phenomenal.

• Finish your night at Otaegui, the oldest bakery in the city, for pantxineta, a delightful puff pastry and custard-filled local treat, and a slice of Basque cheesecake.

pintxo hopping around the old town!

surfing

Nellie is a big surfer and after a full 24 hours of pestering, finally convinced me to go out with her. There are tons of surf shops that rent wetsuits and boards lining the beach, so it was really easy to get into the water. The waves were absolutely perfect. Gentle, clear water, no getting-stuck-in-a-washing-machine vibes when you fall of your board. It was so, so much fun.

My favorite part of the trip was our four days on the camino. The Camino de Santiago, also known as the Way of Saint James, is a well-trod pilgrimage route that traverses Spain, culminating at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. The camino has origins back to the medieval era and has four routes connecting different parts of Spain to Galicia. The routes consist of trails, modern roads, and original medieval stone pathways…

that pass through everything from modern city to medieval village…

to small fishing town…

to stunning wilderness landscapes.

The flysch was truly breathtaking. If you wind up in San Sabastián and want to walk just one day of the camino, walk from Orio to Zumaia, all the way out past the town to see the flysch, then sleep at Hotel Iturregi that night!

The Camino Francés is the most popular route, but my friends and I did a small portion of the Camino Norte, which San Sebastián is right on. The Norte is challenging and stunningly beautiful, with steep, rugged terrain, but with plenty of stopping places for pintxos and a glass of wine along the way. It’s hard to sum up what a wonderful experience hiking it was.

We originally wanted to hike directly from one location to the next — to hike from one hotel to the next without ever getting in a car — 15 to 20 miles per day on the camino. However, the hotels along the route are rustic, more rustic than we were up for, so we wound up switching to stay at a gorgeous hotel in a txakoli vineyard, and just took cabs to and from the camino for our last two days.

Hiking the camino was a bucket list experience — we hiked through fishing villages and past a truly breathtaking flysch rock formation, a cult tried to recruit us by beckoning us in with warm tea and cake, we talked about everything, we talked about nothing, we laughed so hard it hurt. I cannot wait to get back to the camino one day.

Bilbao was an excellent urban re-introduction at the end of four days on the camino. We really didn’t know what to expect, and we were pleasantly surprised. I wouldn’t make a trip to Spain specifically for Bilbao, but I’d certainly make an effort to visit if I was in Northern Spain.

The Guggenheim alone could occupy an entire day — it’s a massive collection of modern and contemporary art. The architecture itself is reason alone to visit. We loved touring the museum with a private tour guide who regaled us with detailed information about every single piece.

We strolled along the river from the Guggenheim all the way to the seven streets area, where we bopped between shops and pintxo bars for the rest of the day. Admittedly, we enjoyed a lot of Italian food in Bilbao as we were feeling a little burnt out on Basque food by this point in the trip. No shame in dabbling in a little pizza while in Spain! You’ll find lots of Basque and Italian recs on my map!

After two nights in Bilbao, we headed home. It was a truly magical trip that we’ll still be laughing and reminiscing about when we’re old ladies.

1. I love electrolyte powders but so many brands have a lot of sodium in them, which can make me feel really bloated. Ultima is lower-sodium and the flavors are great!

2. Lily had a lanyard strap iPhone case that I was really jealous of. Kind of dorky looking but who cares, it was so convenient to have her phone handy for photos and looking up directions!

3. I will never stop yappin’ about my Owala water bottle. Having the ability to drink out of the straw or tilt it and chug it never gets old!

4. I brought disposable cameras for each of us and I can’t wait to get the film back!! Mattis saw them and has been begging me to get him one — it would be fun to give your kids a disposable camera to capture a summer trip!

1. Pan-fried dover sole with buttery tomato sauce and corn risotto. The reviews on this week’s recipe are RAVING! It really is so good and fancy feeling. You have to make this one ASAP, especially if you travel somewhere with access to great fish this summer!

2. Sunshine curry was a cult fave last summer — of yours and of mine! I love making a huge batch and eating it for lunch all week long (a perk of the fact that my kids won’t touch it, though I know many kids love this one!).

3. My summer tomato galette is the stuff of summer produce dreams. Buy a store-bought pie crust to make it even easier, but it’s worth making the crust from scratch if you have 15 extra minutes! PS: Make the boursin summer squash galette while you’re at it. Two summery galettes + a simple salad of romaine tossed with salt, pepper, really good extra-virgin olive oil, and balsamic, with shaved Parm, and chopped almonds would be such a chic little meal.

4. Chicken panzanella is one of my all-time faves. Crisp croutons, juicy tomatoes, perfectly cooked chicken, balsamic, olive oil, basil, with big hunks of melty goat cheese. It’s the perfect summer lunch or dinner! Don’t let your croutons burn!

I loved reading about all of your happy places in the comments of last week’s post! My number one takeaway is that I need to spend more time in Maine — so many of your happy places are there! Including this week’s winner, Heather.

Dreamy! And now you can bring your new pair of Lake Pajamas to Boothbay Harbor this summer! Email me your size and address!

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Do you have any Spain recs to add? Anyone taking an exciting trip this summer? We’re staying local for most of the summer so that we can enjoy our new cabin, minus our annual two-week Southern voyage to DeBordieu, SC to visit George’s family and Bald Head Island, NC to visit mine!