We flew in to Bilbao and knew we wanted to begin our walk to Logroño from San Sebastian, so we decided to perform a kind of test day by getting an early morning bus from Bilbao to the coastal town of Zarautz, then walking the 22-ish kilometres from there to San Sebastian. For the entire bus journey, however, we had a man sat behind us (who may or may not have had COVID) constantly coughing and hacking into the back of our heads! To further rub salt into the viral wound, he insisted on listening to an awful accordian-based oompah tune on his phone over and over and over again! Meanwhile the rest of the bus sat in near silence! I usually really enjoy the bus journeys in Spain, but we couldn't wait for this one to be over! Let's see if we become ill in the next few days! *sigh* Despite this walk being the usually-very-doable 22km, it felt a lot more, due mainly to the mountain in the way! (That may be a slight exaggeration!) From the near sea level of Zarautz, we'd climbed to 100 metres by the time we'd reached the small town of Orio, in around 6km. Then, from here, we climbed steeply over a distance of 3km to 300 metres! What made things more challenging was the rocky, very uneven path, which slowed us down hugely. and I was constantly wiping sweat from out of my eyes, what with the temperature being nearly 30°. At one point an American couple, maybe in their 60s, passed us as they headed downhill. As the lady passed me, instead of the usual "Buen Camino!" you tend to get from passing pilgrims, she just said "You've got a long way to go!", to which I merely answered "Thanks!" in the most sarcastic tone I could muster under the circumstances. The second stretch of the walk, from Orio to the next small town, called Igeldo, is a bit of a slog at 11km, with supposedly nothing in between, so when we finally reached the summit, we were amazed and relieved to see a perfectly positioned little cafe that could easily have been a mirage. Suffice to say it wasn't, and we stopped here for 10 minutes for some of their rejuvenating apple juice. From here, the walk is pretty pleasant, either along quiet country roads, concrete or asphalt dedicated paths, or the more pleasing dirt trails with sea views. To our disappointment though, when we finally reached what was supposed to be Igeldo, we realised it wasn't there! Instead was just a series of farms. We consulted both the map and the official Camino route, fearing we'd made a wrong turn, but everything was correct, and the route didn't pass through Igelgo at all. We considered going off-route slightly, to Igeldo, but decided ultimately to the push on for the final 4.5km down into the always stunning bay at San Sebastian. My phone battery unfortunately ran out at this point, but luckily we were able to wing it easily from there. We sat on the beach for a while, and Jess had a swim, before we ambled our way around the bay to our hotel in the old town. Muchos showering ensued! We have two nights booked here, before we begin our 'proper' walk to Logroño on Tuesday. Tomorrow evening we've booked a table at our favourite pintxos bar in San Sebastian, Sidreria Beharri, and will be again having the famous, Basque Txuleton steak (pronounced Choo-le-ton), which is incredible! There are so many pintxos bars in San Sebastian though, the vast majority of which being exceptional, that you could really pick any of them. Just be sure to go out before 9pm as that's when the locals all suddenly appear for dinner, resulting in a pintxos frenzy and no room anywhere! Monday - The weather's been totally different to yesterday - 17° and very wet - so apart from visiting the cathedral to get our pilgrim passports, booking our bus tickets for tomorrow morning at the bus station, and grabbing some pintxos for lunch, we've been at the hotel waiting for our dinner reservation at the Sidreria. If I get my way we'll hit a bar beforehand though! ;D

Hiking/Backpacking

walking poles are highly recommended for the steep, rocky section near Orio. We did this route backwards, so were climbing it, but descending will be just as tricky in places. Go for lunch around 1pm and dinner around 8 to beat the locals! :)

Urola-Kosta, Autonomous Community of the Basque , Spain

time : Sep 7, 2025 11:39 AM

duration : 5h 31m 7s

distance : 19.6 km

total_ascent : 709 m

highest_point : 364 m

avg_speed : 4.0 km/h

user_id : fineartjones

user_firstname : Neil

user_lastname : Jones

We flew in to Bilbao and knew we wanted to begin our walk to Logroño from San Sebastian, so we decided to perform a kind of test day by getting an early morning bus from Bilbao to the coastal town of Zarautz, then walking the 22-ish kilometres from there to San Sebastian. For the entire bus journey, however, we had a man sat behind us (who may or may not have had COVID) constantly coughing and hacking into the back of our heads! To further rub salt into the viral wound, he insisted on listening to an awful accordian-based oompah tune on his phone over and over and over again! Meanwhile the rest of the bus sat in near silence! I usually really enjoy the bus journeys in Spain, but we couldn't wait for this one to be over! Let's see if we become ill in the next few days! *sigh* Despite this walk being the usually-very-doable 22km, it felt a lot more, due mainly to the mountain in the way! (That may be a slight exaggeration!) From the near sea level of Zarautz, we'd climbed to 100 metres by the time we'd reached the small town of Orio, in around 6km. Then, from here, we climbed steeply over a distance of 3km to 300 metres! What made things more challenging was the rocky, very uneven path, which slowed us down hugely. and I was constantly wiping sweat from out of my eyes, what with the temperature being nearly 30°. At one point an American couple, maybe in their 60s, passed us as they headed downhill. As the lady passed me, instead of the usual "Buen Camino!" you tend to get from passing pilgrims, she just said "You've got a long way to go!", to which I merely answered "Thanks!" in the most sarcastic tone I could muster under the circumstances. The second stretch of the walk, from Orio to the next small town, called Igeldo, is a bit of a slog at 11km, with supposedly nothing in between, so when we finally reached the summit, we were amazed and relieved to see a perfectly positioned little cafe that could easily have been a mirage. Suffice to say it wasn't, and we stopped here for 10 minutes for some of their rejuvenating apple juice. From here, the walk is pretty pleasant, either along quiet country roads, concrete or asphalt dedicated paths, or the more pleasing dirt trails with sea views. To our disappointment though, when we finally reached what was supposed to be Igeldo, we realised it wasn't there! Instead was just a series of farms. We consulted both the map and the official Camino route, fearing we'd made a wrong turn, but everything was correct, and the route didn't pass through Igelgo at all. We considered going off-route slightly, to Igeldo, but decided ultimately to the push on for the final 4.5km down into the always stunning bay at San Sebastian. My phone battery unfortunately ran out at this point, but luckily we were able to wing it easily from there. We sat on the beach for a while, and Jess had a swim, before we ambled our way around the bay to our hotel in the old town. Muchos showering ensued! We have two nights booked here, before we begin our 'proper' walk to Logroño on Tuesday. Tomorrow evening we've booked a table at our favourite pintxos bar in San Sebastian, Sidreria Beharri, and will be again having the famous, Basque Txuleton steak (pronounced Choo-le-ton), which is incredible! There are so many pintxos bars in San Sebastian though, the vast majority of which being exceptional, that you could really pick any of them. Just be sure to go out before 9pm as that's when the locals all suddenly appear for dinner, resulting in a pintxos frenzy and no room anywhere! Monday - The weather's been totally different to yesterday - 17° and very wet - so apart from visiting the cathedral to get our pilgrim passports, booking our bus tickets for tomorrow morning at the bus station, and grabbing some pintxos for lunch, we've been at the hotel waiting for our dinner reservation at the Sidreria. If I get my way we'll hit a bar beforehand though! ;D