Villa Magalean Hotel & Spa

Worth getting out of bed for

You can see the fortified walls of the mediaeval old town in Hondarribia from the front door at Villa Magalean Hotel and Spa: your beach-house stay is only streets back from the riverfront, too. Hotel staff have the expertise you need to tailor your time in the Basque Country to your own agenda. Food-and-drink lovers will want to check out the region’s txakoli bodegas, perhaps take a tapas tour of Fontarribia or enjoy a private dinner at a fisherman’s house. The calorific highs of San Sebastián need little introduction, whether you go on a pintxo bar crawl, bag a table at a starred restaurant, or take picnic slices of gâteaux to the top of Monte Igueldo. A stroll along the curvaceous prom at La Concha should help walk off the food fest. Highlights of the Cantabrian coast include Pasajes, where you’ll find a historic shipyard and Victor Hugo’s former home; and Getaria, a fishing port loved by anchovy lovers (and feared by anchovies). This is a coastline beloved of surfers – the hotel can arrange tuition: for sands and rollers typical of the area, explore Zarautz or over-the-border St Jean de Luz. At the westerly end of the Pyrenees mountain range, there’s no shortage of trails for mountain biking or hiking either – yours to explore a dos (ask the hotel to prepare you a gourmet picnic to enjoy along the route), or with the informative company of an expert guide. 

Local restaurants

A timber-lined dining spot on the banks of the Bidasoa, Alameda is a starred family-run restaurant where the Txapartegi brothers oversee a Basque Nouvelle menu featuring liberal use of pasture-fed beef, anchovies, oysters, and Banka trout, as well as whatever’s in season from tomatoes to white asparagus, to broad beans and peas – a delight worth booking well ahead of your stay. Fishing is the livelihood of so many in this corner of Cantabria it would be churlish not to sample its fruits – and Hermandad de Pescadores is an excellent spot for it, with grilled monkfish, buttered hake, sautéed clams and cod fritters all on the menu, served in a traditional flotsam-decked blue-shuttered bistrot. Ostensibly a pintxo bar on the marina in Hondarribia, Bar Gran Sol is more like a culinary studio where the smallest of Basque delicacies is crafted into an art form: savour smoked-cod toasts, a soft-boiled-egg-topped nest of straw potatoes; cheese-mousse-stuffed mushrooms or squid croquetas. 

Local cafés

Amona Margarita is foremost a bakery – good news if you’re after a rustic pastry to go with your coffee, or fancy taking away one of their proudly made-from-scratch panettones. A traditional timbered café that has a way with all things toast, freshly pressed orange juice and coffees sporting serious crema, Gaxen is a solid choice for mid-morning pit-stops. 

Local bars

This is fair warning that you’re unlikely to visit Gastroteka Danontzat and leave only having drunk – not when there are fried potatoes so good you’ll conclude that was all you wanted anyway, and not when there’s sweet-charred octopus or truffle-laced slabs of cheese to try. In fact, it may be worth surrendering pre-arrival and booking the six-course wine-paired tasting menu… Sidle along Kalea San Pedro to Itsaspe, where you might be interested in the hot and cold pintxos (the tortilla is tipped), artful platters or fresh seafood, or perhaps you just fancy a rifle of its wine menu, sipped at a pavement-side high table.