Destinations

The town painted by Picasso: a Monday market, an assembly house, and the oak the Basques swore under.

A tidal estuary of marshes and sandbanks, with the best surf beach on the coast at its mouth.

The world's first transporter bridge, still carrying cars and passengers across the Nervión on a hanging gondola.

Cliffs of vertically tilted rock between Zumaia and Deba, with a coastal path along the top.

The Basque capital most travellers skip: a medieval almond, a cathedral restoration you can visit, and a serious pintxos crawl.

A town with a university older than any other in the Basque Country, and a modern sanctuary in the valley above.

A cave of eccentric stalactites that bend and loop instead of hanging straight down.

A Gothic cathedral in Bilbao's old town, formerly a parish church elevated to cathedral status in 1949.

A landmark titanium building by Frank Gehry that transformed the industrial city of Bilbao into a cultural destination

An inland salt valley of wooden terraces, worked for salt long before anyone thought of the coast.

A market town with beans named after it, an arcaded square and a river through the middle.

An arcaded market town with a dark history and the old road to Vitoria running through it.

A Baroque basilica and pilgrimage complex in the Basque Country marking the birthplace of Ignatius of Loyola.

A harbour village at the mouth of the Urdaibai estuary, with a wave surfers travel for.

The best-looking harbour on the Bizkaian coast, with a basilica whose roof is a ship's hull.

A chapel on a rock reached by a stone bridge and 241 steps, above the most dramatic stretch of the Basque coast.

A fashion museum in Getaria, in a palace at the edge of the village where Balenciaga was born.

A surf town with two kilometres of sand, twenty minutes from San Sebastián at half the price.

One street, houses touching overhead, and a small ferry from the other side of the bay.

A Wednesday market running since 1512, and the cheese competition that goes with it.

Mountains between Bizkaia and Álava, and the cave where Basque mythology puts its goddess.

A small port where the cliffs expose sixty million years of rock in vertical stripes.

The Basque Country's most serious fishing port, with working boats in the harbour and almost no visitors.

A village clinging to a cliff, with one square, one harbour and no room for a car.

The western end of the flysch coast: a stone old town, a good beach, and a Camino stage.

Eduardo Chillida's three iron sculptures anchored in the rock at the end of the beach.

The ultimate culinary pilgrimage destination featuring world-class pintxos and pristine beaches

A distinguished fine arts collection featuring masters like Velázquez alongside a premier assembly of Basque modern art

Bilbao's old town: narrow medieval streets and one of the densest concentrations of pintxo bars anywhere.

The hill above Bilbao, reached by a century-old funicular, with the whole city laid out below.

A fortified Basque fishing village with an old walled town and a strong pintxos scene.

An industrial-chic port city anchored by the Guggenheim and a world-class Basque food scene

A tiny fishing village renowned for grilled turbot and traditional Txakoli wine with a view

A hilltop viewpoint with the classic curved-bay view of San Sebastián, reached by a vintage funicular.

A historic Dominican convent turned museum, notable for its striking Sert murals and extensive Basque societal history

Basque pilgrimage basilica rebuilt in the 1950s — raw concrete, Oteiza's apostles, Chillida doors, a serrated silhouette above a limestone gorge.

A perfect crescent of golden sand in the heart of San Sebastián.

A tidal beach within the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve near Mundaka in the Basque Country.

A long sandy beach in the surf town of Zarautz on the Basque coast.