Private Basque Cheese & Txakoli Wine Tour from San Sebastian

Highlights

Inclusions

Itinerary

1. We’ll leave the ‘big city’and travel to rural Gipuzkoa to learn the secrets of Idiazabal cheese production in a traditional farmhouse. A kilo of this cheese usually goes for around 20 euros, although a competition is held every year to select the best cheese of the season, sometimes reaching up to 14,000 euros per ½ kilo! We’ll do a tasting, and you’ll hear the secrets of Basque cheeses. You’ll taste traditional cheeses, all made with unpasteurized sheep's milk. This is the Real Thing, the Real Cheese.

   1.5 h

2. There’s a Spanish expression that roughly translates as, ‘With bread and wine you walk the road’. We’ve already eaten the bread and cheese. We’ll find the wine on the coast, in the hills overlooking the Cantabrian Sea, the ideal place for growing the grapes from which txakoli is born - a typical Basque white wine with a slight acidity, ideal to pair with fish. We’ll visit a small sustainable winery that uses traditional methods and grapes called Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Beltza. Thus you’ll learn the intricacies and power of txakoli.

   1.5 hAdmission included

3. All this will take place near Getaria, the coastal town through which we’ll take a short walk before eating. Getaria is not only the home of a mountain with a mouse-shaped profile, but it’s the hometown of two of the most well-known Basques: Juan Sebastián Elcano (the first to go around the world) and Cristóbal Balenciaga (the international designer known as the Prince of Fashion). More: our coast is famous for its charcoal-grilled fish, omnipresent in the streets closest to the port…so it makes sense to have lunch here. Do you need a more compelling reason?

   1.5 h

4. It’s a dream road for two reasons: you can take a good nap after lunch and dream of sheep (latxas, of course), but we don’t recommend it. The road back to San Sebastián is one of the most beautiful on the Basque Coast. It would be a pity to miss these winding roads (splashed by waves during heavy storms), or the cows grazing alongside quiet farmhouses on Mount Igeldo. You've been warned.

   Passes by

Cancellation

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.

Reviews

Ratings come from 25 reviews collected by our booking partner. They are travellers' own words, in the order they were written — never reordered to flatter the experience.

Know before you go

How it compares in San Sebastián

• Its from-price is 94% above the median of the 397 experiences we list in San Sebastián.
• It is longer than most of them.
• By number of reviews it ranks 74 of 397.
• The operator lists free cancellation on it.

About San Sebastián

San Sebastián, or Donostia, is a Basque seaside city around a shell-shaped bay, with a golden beach, a hilltop fort and a pintxo scene known across Spain.

San Sebastián curves around La Concha Bay, a near-perfect shell-shaped inlet with a white-railed promenade and a sheltered city beach. Monte Urgull guards the east end with an old fort, and Monte Igueldo, at the west end, has a funicular and a viewpoint. The Parte Vieja, the old town, was rebuilt after the fire of 1813 and is packed with bars and a baroque basilica.

Top-ranked sights in San Sebastián: San Sebastian Old Town (Parte Vieja Donostiarra), La Concha Beach (Playa de la Concha), Constitution Square (Plaza de la Constitución).

See all 397 experiences in San Sebastián