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Planning a travel itinerary can be daunting, especially for a trip that takes you far from home. Like going to the Basque Country.
The process can present challenges if you want to design a trip that takes you off the beaten tourist track.
The internet is filled with articles and blog posts with ideas of places to visit in the Basque Country, but a lot of them tend to repeat the same tourist sights.
Going to Donostia-San Sebastián? Yes, go to the beach, eat pintxos in Parte Vieja, hike Monte Urgull, and take the funicular up Monte Igueldo.
Going to Bilbao? Visit the Guggenheim Museum, bar hop in Casco Viejo, and take a tour of San Mamés Stadium.
Going to Biarritz? Take a surf lesson, enjoy the beach, and go shopping.
If you’re looking for those types of travel tips, search any number of articles or buy a guidebook written by a fellow Anglophone and you’ll find the answers you’re looking for.
But if you’re like me and prefer to develop your next trip of a lifetime with real input from locals in the Basque Country, read on.
Let me share with you the tried and true ways I’ve used to get in touch with people who live in the Basque Country to get their recommendations for how to make the most of my time in their home country.
Start With Who You Know
Take an inventory of who you know who lives in the Basque Country. This could be family, friends of family, or friends of friends.
Reach out to them on social media or by email to ask what they would recommend visiting, eating, seeing, and doing when you’re in their neck of the woods. Starting these conversations could even get you an invitation to someone’s house or an invitation to show you around!
While such a proposition may seem awkward or uncomfortable at first, the idea of visiting people you don’t know or barely know, I would highly recommend you take advantage of the opportunity.
Visits with locals are an invaluable cultural experience, a way to learn firsthand about Basque culture and everyday life, even discuss local politics and current events. They say you regret the things you don’t do in life more than the things you do, so put yourself out there and say yes!
If you don’t know of anyone who lives in the Basque Country, that’s okay too. Maybe you know people who have visited before you and could ask their advice of what to see and what to miss? If they stuck to the guidebooks on their visit though, maybe it’s best you read on to the next step.
Follow Basque Tour Operators
Tour operators are on social media to advertise their services and drive up business. While you’ll get the most out of their expertise and insider knowledge by signing on with them for your next trip to the Basque Country, they can also be great resources by learning where they take their clients.
Just be sure to thank these tour operators for their content with lots of engagement! Everyone appreciates likes, comments, shares, and retweets.
You’ll see in tour operators’ social media posts repeats of the major sights you’re probably already familiar with, but you’ll also pick up some good tips on lesser known walks, cycle routes, coastal villages, regional parks, and restaurants in the Basque Country.
If you’re a visual person like me, Instagram is your spot. But if you’re more of a reader, get on Twitter.
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Here are some of my favorite tour operator accounts, the ones I personally follow for my travel inspiration. Just be careful: they’ll give you serious travel envy!
Basque Experiences
Photo: Basque Experiences Instagram
Basque Experiences offers ready-made tour packages of the Basque Country or customized experiences based on client requests and interests. Their regular tour packages offer a variety of activities, catering to the gastronomically inclined as well as more active types with sporty tours including cycling, hiking, and sailing.
The owner and one of their guides, Erik Sadler, is even half English and half Basque!
On Instagram, they share lots of photos of their tours and clients with plenty of hashtags and location tags to explore. Their website also features an engaging blog that sums up some of their past tours, where you can get plenty of ideas of where to go on your next trip.
Basque Experiences has nothing but 5-star reviews on TripAdvisor, so you can rest assured these guys know their stuff.
Find Basque Experiences on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Aitor Delgado Tours
Photo: Aitor Delgado Tours Instagram
Aitor Delgado Tours specializes in day tours and private tours throughout the Basque Country led by multilingual tour guide Aitor Delgado himself. I especially love that his company offers unique LGBTQ-friendly and focused tours. TripAdvisor has them ranked as #2 in the Food and Drink in Bilbao category with testimonials from over 200 satisfied customers.
Their blog is a great resource as it features an extensive list of upcoming traditional festivals, art exhibitions, and sporting events throughout the Basque Country. Perfect for planning your summer itinerary!
On Instagram, Aitor Delgado Tours post a variety of cultural and geographical hotspots throughout the Basque Country. Much like on their blog, they’re good about sharing photos of special events and art installations in the region as well.
Find Aitor Delgado Tours on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Basque Tours
Photo: Basque Tours Instagram
Basque Tours runs a variety of tours throughout the Basque Country, including day trips and multi-day itineraries, both pre-packaged and customized. Their bestsellers include pintxos tours in Donosti, Rioja wine tours, and Basque coast tours in both Iparralde and Hegoalde. Basque Tours are recognized with over 600 positive reviews on TripAdvisor!
A perusal of their website will give you plenty of ideas of hotspots to explore.
On Instagram, Basque Tours has beautiful content paired with informative captions. Their Twitter feed is equally filled with photos that will make you want to book your next trip to the Basque Country ASAP.
Find Basque Tours on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Eusko Guide
Photo: Julien Diot for Eusko Guide
Eusko Guide not only operates several tours and transfer services throughout the Basque Country, but their website is also an excellent resource. I would recommend anyone starting research on the Basque Country to start with exploring Eusko Guide’s informative website.
And don’t just take my word for it! Co-founder Patricia Palacios explains how they started Eusko Guide with the very intention of providing resources for you to plan your Basque Country itineraries:
We want to help get rid of all the difficult work and research that comes with planning a trip to the Basque Country and present everything in a well-organized manner. That way you can discover the top picks, easily plan your itinerary, save yourself time and most importantly, enjoy your trip to this special corner of the world.
And they’ve very much succeeded in their goal!
While Eusko Guide’s website covers the basics of the Basque Country, providing an overview of main sights and attractions, you can find more hidden gems in their Facebook posts and extensive Twitter feed.
Find Eusko Guide on Facebook and Twitter.
Talk to Strangers on Social Media
That’s right, this is my favorite thing to do!
I’m going to focus on Instagram in this section, as that’s the social media platform that has worked the best for me, but this could work equally on Twitter or Facebook.
(Please let us know in the comments how reaching out to people on social media has worked for you.)
Finding people on social media who actually live in the Basque Country is especially important if you don’t know anyone out there or if those contacts aren’t particularly helpful with travel tips. Because realistically, it’s not everyday someone will offer to drop everything to show you around. 
I regularly search #Basque and #BasqueCountry on Instagram and scroll through the recent photos that have been posted under these categories.
There are other hashtags you could try, but I like these because they’re in English so you’ll mostly find posts by other English-speaking tourists who are currently traveling in the region or locals who likely speak English. Perfect candidates to ask for tips and advice!
This method is great for getting travel inspiration, if you know you want to see some different tourist attractions from the main ones but aren’t sure what’s out there. You can even follow hashtags like you would user accounts so that you get updates directly in your feed.
You can scroll through and see a variety of locations, which is especially helpful if you’re trying to get out of the major cities. You’ll find ordinary people posting beautiful hiking routes with amazing viewpoints and scenic villages you may not otherwise read about on English-language websites.
If you see somewhere that looks interesting, check the location tag or hashtags on the post to figure out where the photo was taken. Use Google Maps to pinpoint where exactly it is located and how you can get there. I love using Google Maps to see how far a destination is from where I plan on staying and working out transportation.
If a photo piques your interest but the location either isn’t tagged or it’s unclear, leave a comment to ask! I used this method to find the rainbow path on the Donostia-San Sebastián campus of UPV/EHU, and the original poster of the photo even told me what building it was outside of.
Several people have even asked me to be more specific on certain locations, like on this photo of the tunnel on the promenade in Donosti.
If for whatever reason the poster does not reply to your comment, you should be able to find other people posting similar photos from the same location that may be more responsive. Keep trying until you get to the bottom of it!
I cannot stress enough how useful a tool this is. Using Instagram search takes some time and digging to find what you’re looking for, but it’s well worth it. Don’t be shy about reaching out to strangers!
If people are using hashtags on their photos, they want their content to be discovered by curious people like you. And if their profiles are public, users are indicating that they’re open to being contacted by strangers.
So don’t worry about looking like a creepy weirdo. People will probably love that their content inspired you to reach out! 
And if you do know the place you want to visit already, you can search for it on Instagram to see more photos of the place.
This has helped me in the past when going to visit someplace but I felt unsure about what I was looking for or anxious about what I would find there. Seeing different pictures from different angles can help you better visualize where you’re going.
I mostly use this method for finding travel destinations in the Basque Country, but Instagram is also useful for finding people who live in the places you’re visiting.
You can send Direct Messages to anyone you want to ask what they recommend doing in their city. While you might get a few ignored messages, it’s worth it for the ones who do reply!
Scrolling through Instagram is not only useful when your trip to the Basque Country is in the planning stages, but also when you’re in the Basque Country itself. You can see what’s happening in the different places you’re visiting on the day, to see if there are any festivals or special events going on. Even to check what the weather is like!
If it weren’t for Instagram searches and messages on my travels to the Basque Country last year, I would have never:
- Eaten bollos de mantequilla at the Pastelería Suiza in Bilbao
- Had a drink at the famous Cafe Iruña in Bilbao
- Known when pilota matches were going on in Hernani, Gipuzkoa
- Visited Albaola, the Basque Maritime Factory, in Pasaia, Gipuzkoa
- Seen the view of Donosti from the Tabakalera observation deck
- Hiked to the Bosque Pintado de Oma in Bizkaia
- Walked the coastal promenade from Zarautz to Getaria in Gipuzkoa
- Photographed the Flysch in Zumaia, Gipuzkoa
- Taken the boat ride from Hendaia to Hondarribia
- Soaked in the sun at the Rocher de la Vierge in Biarritz
- Chased sheep and pottok along the Col d’Ispéguy
Could I have found out about these places through Tripadvisor or other travel websites? Yes, most likely.
But I find Instagram to be the perfect visual space to get travel inspiration. No reading required unless you find something interesting, and it provides opportunities to connect with people who live in the Basque Country, not only fellow tourists.
Use Google Translate to Better Communicate with People in the
Basque Country
If you find someone posting beautiful photos of places you’d like to visit and you want to ask for more information but it’s clear you speak different languages, use Google Translate to get your message across.
Google Translate gets a bad rap as a terrible translation tool. Sure, while it leaves something to be desired with its super literal word-for-word translations, it can be a helpful resource when trying to communicate with someone online you don’t speak the same language.
The translations may not be perfect, but the other person will understand the gist of your message.
I’ve had Euskara speakers send me messages in English that they end with the phrase, “Translated with Google.” This is in a way a simple apology for any translation errors on Google’s part and also an indication of how dedicated they are to communicate with me, and I greatly appreciate it.
So make the effort to translate your messages and people may take the time to share information with you!
Reach out to Travel Writers About the Basque Country
Photo: Ben Holbrook for Urban Travel Blog
While a lot of travel articles on the Basque Country are repetitive, I don’t mean to say they aren’t useful!
If you find an article or blog post that particularly inspires you and you want more information on the sights featured, send a message to the writer to ask questions.
Articles usually include the email address and social media profiles of the author either at the beginning or end, so feel free to reach out. If the writer doesn’t have a huge following, they’re likely to have the time and dedicated interest to reply to your message. And if they don’t, at least you can say you tried.
People send me messages all the time asking for help with various Basque-related projects and questions, and while I don’t always have an answer, I’m always happy to help when I can.
Find Like-Minded Travel Companions
If there’s a particular attraction in the Basque Country you want to focus on, surround yourself with people who are on the same page.
Maybe you want to go to a certain festival. Maybe you’re dying to dine at one of those Michelin-star restaurants you keep reading about. Maybe you want to visit a particular sight.
Travel to the Basque Country with like-minded people or try to find fellow travel companions once you’re there. Don’t ignore that you could use social media to find and connect with these people with similar interests.
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On my last trip to Donosti, most of the young people in my hostel were there to get drunk on affordable wine, eat their body weight in pintxos, and spend their days hungover at the beach. No problem with that, but I was determined to make a day trip out to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in Bizkaia before my trip was over.
I was lucky enough to find an Australian woman who was going to Bilbao after her time in Donosti and had similar plans. So I met her in Bilbao a few days later and we figured out the bus system to get out there together. We were there to take pictures of each other at this iconic sight and had a lovely sunny day out.
Now Go On and Get Planning!
So there you have some tips for making the most of your trip to the Basque Country.
The internet can answer most of your questions and provide plenty of travel inspiration. It’s just a matter of using search tools and social media effectively and creatively.
Much like when you’re traveling, it always pays to put yourself out there and talk to new people, even on the internet! These methods may take a little extra work when planning your next trip, but they can completely enrich your experience of traveling the Basque Country.
It’s okay if you don’t have any personal connections in the Basque Country. You can still use the power of the internet to get that insider knowledge and live like a local while you’re there.
Basques are generally proud and very happy to talk to people about their country.
A lot of foreign tourists go to the Basque Country with little knowledge and recognition of Basque culture and history, which can create tension with locals (see all of the “Tourist Go Home” graffiti and demonstrations in Donosti).
I find that locals in the Basque Country really appreciate foreigners who come with a respect for the country, its customs, traditions, and language.
As such, many Basques on social media are happy to teach and share information about their home with visitors. So don’t waste the opportunities at your disposal!
And remember to return the favor to all of your new Basque friends on social media by being courteous and respectful visitors on your next trip to the Basque Country.
How do you usually plan trips to the Basque Country? What tools and resources do you find most helpful? Help your fellow travelers and let us know in the comments!
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