We arrived in San Sebastián on July 15 and checked into Hostal Alemana Hostal Alemana, San Sebastián. It is a straightforward spot, clean and quiet, which helped keep our daily spending near our 75 euro per person goal. The location was convenient enough that we could walk to almost everything we wanted to see.
Our days mostly centered around walking between different pintxo bars in the Old Town. The reality of the food scene is that you end up standing at a counter with a glass of txakoli, picking out small plates as you go. It is efficient and informal, though it gets crowded around 9:00 PM.
“The best strategy is to move to a new bar after one drink and two snacks to keep the bill manageable.”
Spending time on the beach between meals was the best way to break up the day. La Concha La Concha Beach, San Sebastián is right in the city center, and even in mid-July, the water was refreshing rather than hot. We spent hours just sitting on the sand without needing to spend any money.
We found that by avoiding the sit-down restaurants with multi-course menus, we could easily stay within our budget. The quality of the food at the casual bars is high, and the turnover is constant, so things stay fresh. It was much easier to control costs this way than we expected.
On July 20, we checked out of Hostal Alemana Hostal Alemana, San Sebastián and headed out. The trip was simple and focused entirely on the food and the coast, which turned out to be exactly what we needed.