A very unique experience…read more If you have never been to a cider house in Basque Country and do not have an experience or local friend with you, it will take a you a few minutes (or even longer!) to figure out what to do when you walk into one! You are given a glass, walked over to a long wooden table, left with a plate full of delicious chorizo, which usually arrives within the first minutes, and left there to figure the rest out for yourselves! We were fortunate to have a good friend who was born and raised in the area, so he coached us when we visited Petritegi. Our group got a table next to the rows of cider barrels, so all we had to do was get up, take three steps, and fill up our glasses with cider right out of a barrel. Just as we were sitting down, someone in the hall behind us yelled out "txotx!" (pronounced "CHOACH") and a whole bunch people around the hall jumped up and started walking towards him! Our friend told us that "txotx" means the person is about to open the tap on one of the huge barrels. All interested parties are supposed to stand up from their meals, get in line, and hold their glass at just the right angle to catch a couple of fingers of cider from that hissing stream. A lady who was standing behind me on the line saw me filling up my glass, and said, "No, no! pour just a little and keep coming back for more!" Apparently, the idea is to drink your cider while it is still bubbly from the pour. See, you are supposed to hold your glass as far away from the tab as possible so the one inch or so that your pour has as much air bubbles in it as possible! Needless to say that we all got cider all over our hands until we finally got a hang of it and stated txotxing left and right!! Meanwhile at the table the food kept coming! Salt cod omelette, Fried salt cod with peppers, bone-in ribeye steak and for Dessert (cheese, quince jelly, walnuts, almond 'tiles' and 'cigarettes'). Cider and bread were included of course! This meal at Petritegi was one of the most memorable parts of our group of six. We laughed, we drank, we laughed, we talked, we laughed, we ate and we laughed some more and in between we yelled out txotx as often as we could!

Petritegi Sagardotegia was a really fun and memorable experience near San Sebastián…read more The tour itself was good, and it was interesting learning more about the cider making process and trying the different ciders directly from the barrels. I was not the biggest fan of most of the ciders personally, with the exception of the mixed apple cider from the barrel, which I really enjoyed. What truly blew me away was the meal included with the experience. The chorizo, tortilla, steak, and dessert were all incredible. Just an absurd amount of food and everything felt authentic and satisfying. Even if you are not a huge cider person, the overall experience and meal make this absolutely worth doing.

One of my favorites places on my trip to Spain. We showed up right at opening because we didn't…read morehave a reservation and they took us in. We had three bottles of sidra over a couple hours and ate a ridiculous amount of foot. It's crazy the amount of food they gave two people and it was all at a reasonable rate, especially with the endless bottles. I'm not sure what my favorite thing to eat (traditional cider menu) was because it was all good and we were buzzed the entire way. It's an experience you can't find in the states, but it's something I want to do every week for the rest of my life.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! SLAP YOUR MAMA! If you have never been to a cidreria, YOU HAVE TO or you miss…read morethe Basque way. All the cider you can chug and the typical ONLY menu served: Chistorra with bread (a type of local sausage), bacalao omelette (SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD), Bacalao with peppers, and their "chuleta" - a MAMMOTH SIZE BONE IN SIRLOIN served RARE! Simple dessert of crack your own walnuts, cheese, quince and cookies. An experience to be had!

This Family run Basque Cider house is only open about three months out of the whole year (for 2011,…read moreJan 21-Apr 30th). But if it is open, and you're anywhere near San Sebastian, make a reservation and GO! I don't want to give too much away about the experience, but suffice it to say that this visit was one of the most fun of our trip so far. Super friendly folks, and as far as we could tell, we were the only people there who weren't longtime friends of the family. They've had the cider house in the family for something like 40+ years. They seemed so surprised to see us that they asked how we ended up there... In any case, it was definitely an evening that will be one of the highlights of our trip. I can't wait to go back! Txotx! (note that Zelaia is in Hernani just south of Astigarraga...about half an hour from San Seb)

This was a culinary experience like no other. This cider house in Basque Country is one of the…read morefinest. Just having the cider poured directly from an old wooden cider vast to your glass is unreal, and as good as it gets. Yes, the cider is excellent, but we can of forget about the food. A series of courses that come at an un-rushed pace make a great compliment to this whole experience. It all starts with some chorizo and freshly baked bread. Then you make sure to get more cider, and you will receive the tortilla de bacalao. This fish tortilla is incredible good, you cannot even know there is fish, just this amazing flavor that you try to guess bite after bite. Then you will have an amazing roasted cod with peppers and some finely sliced lightly battered fried onions. In case you still hungry, a very thick piece of rib eye is on the way, no worries. This beautiful cut (called chuleton) and grilled over open flames from charcoal is done just perfectly. Meat here are all grass fed, so no need to talk about quality. And of course you would have been going for more cider. Make sure you take your time and watch your pace, it is not a race. This experience may take a few hours, it is up to you. At the end, you will have some sweets your ways. You will experience some sort of butter cookies with membrillo and Idiazabal cheese. This was an outstanding experience, and very reasonable priced. If in San Sebastián, this place is a visit that must be done. Oh, before I forget, the service was excellent. The waitress staff was always making sure we were happy and well taken care of.

Great staff and history of ciders/cidres on tap! Ciders are popular in this region and they make…read morevarious flavors. The ciders are fresh.

We were so lucky to visit this sidreria, had a great time touring around it with the owners' sons…read morewho also play an important role in the production of this delicious cider, and had an amazing tasting experience right off the 'barrels'. They ordinarily don't receive any visitors but they so kindly welcomed us and open the doors of their family owned business for us to visit. They spent a good amount of time with us, explaining to us the entire process of making cider from picking the apples to fermentation, to bottling, etc. We tasted cider at the different stages in production. Needless to say their cider is the best we tried while in northern Spain. It's acidic and dry, with just the right amount of sweetness. We also purchased a bottle of their sweet cider which is the latest project they were working on. The production of this gem utilizes the methodology of ice wine to make sweet, golden cider with a nice level of acidity, definitely a treat! Visiting Zapiain was an experience we will never forget and one we were so grateful to have had the opportunity to enjoy.

We were in San Sebastián for the week and found this great bar for one of the best ciders we had!!!…read more Great location, and very friendly.

After a couple of nights of pintxo hopping in Donostia's old town, my wife and I were looking to…read moreenjoy a sit-down dinner. We came to the right spot. Sidreria Beharri is a Basque cider house. But instead of a fixed menu featuring all you can drink cider, we chose a different selection. We started off with two glases of Txakoli, or Basque sparkling white wine, along with a plate of sliced fresh tomatoes garnished with olive oil and salt. Splendid! Our main dish was rape, or angler fish, which was recommended by our server. It was a great suggestion. The fish was filleted and its soft white meat was grilled with butter, olive oil and parsley, and it came with thinly sliced potatoes grilled in the same sauce. It was outstanding. We finished off the meal with a nice slice of cheesecake-fluffy but not too sweet. The servers were attentive and answered all our questions, and the atmosphere was lively as other guests enjoyed the fixed meals that came with unlimited glasses of cidra, or Basque hard cider, which they filled from a wooden barrel. I highly recommend this fine establishment.

First to review! We…read morewere excited to go to this museum on Wednesday when we spent the day in Astigarraga--because sidra. Most of our friends who had been to San Sebastian recommended going to a traditional cider house, and cinching the deal was a NYTimes travel article all about the city that mentioned this museum. We were the only ones on the tour, which we recommend taking because none of the museum placards are in English. Our guide was a young and nice blue-haired gentleman, and--lo!--it was his first day on the job. He did great! You start with an outdoor tour of the vineyard, where you learn about the breeds of apples, the history of Basque cider, old techniques, etc. Then you move inside to the museum itself getting into more detail about the culture, tradition, and modern innovations. Then, the best part: tasting cider! First, technique. You don't want to look like an American idiot in the bars, so you can practice here by learning where to stand and how to hold your glass. We tried a couple local ones, a sweet cider, a non-alcoholic apple juice, and a super sweet dessert one with anise. They have a cute little gift shop, and we all bought bottles to bring home since prices were completely reasonable. Overall, a wonderful visit that the three of us thoroughly enjoyed. If you're interested in cider, definitely plan to stop here first before you start drinking.

This was a fun little stop to learn about how ciders are made in the area, because even if you have…read moreseen an apple orchard in the US, it is much different here in terms of varieties and how they collect or ferment the apples. The actually tour and informational part is fairly short, but necessary for non Spanish speakers since none of the signs are in English. The "museum" is very small and probably takes 15 min even if you read everything. I think kids would have way more fun practicing the rhythm with the wooden sticks to mash actual apples in autumn, than us dozen adults with no apples in spring. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the Txotx, or collecting and drinking the cider straight from the (fake) barrel. You could just go directly to any cidery (sargardoa) in the area between March and May to do just that, but it's better to practice here first so you'll know what's happening. We also got to try a couple different types of cider to appreciate the nuances, but just heads up they are much dryer and funkier than any American cider. For 5 euro, it's a fair value, but I felt the same tour could've been done in 30-45min. Check out the gift shop because the apple juice and ice cider are amazing and very reasonably priced. No parking lot and it's a very small town, so allot extra time to look for parking. Can book and prepay online but I think a group just walked in without booking and joined our reservation.

One of my favorite cities in Europe Beautiful crescent…read morebeach Great food Nice mix of old town and vibrant downtown People are nice and friendly. Lots of culture and shopping Try their pintxos. Swim in the beach. Stroll around. Just charming.

What a wonderful small city!…read more Super walk-able if you stay in city center. There is so many pinxto restaurants around. We stayed here 2 nights and 3 days, and that was just the perfect amount. I guess another day wouldn't hurt if you want to hit up more pinxto restaurants. We were able to go to the beach, hike, and take the funicular up to view the gorgeous city. If you do the hike, be prepared to spend about 2-3 hours on the trail (pack a snack and lots of water!), depending on your pace; we took the bus back. I suppose you can hike back but we wanted to use our time wisely and bus back. Highly recommend! Oh, and the beach is quasi-nude; you will find a few nudists ;)

Ugh, I want to be honest but I also want to highlight the good part of the experience, for it was…read morenot a wasted meal. This was not a favorite flavorful experience, for the most part. We did however thoroughly enjoy the small sirloin steak. It was tender, perfectly cooked medium rare, delicious and the best part of the meal. It came with fries that were properly crispy and delicious. Perfect amount of salt and so good!! I would go back for the steak in a heartbeat!! We ordered the tomato and tuna salad, it was OK. Wouldn't order again. The poached egg was different and tasty. It had mushrooms and I enjoyed it. I would order this again. The clams were tasty but a bit larger than I usually like them. I wouldn't order them again. Absolutely did not like the crab. It had so much of the shell that had to be spit out. I would not order this again. I would go back for the steak!! The wine was not my favorite either, we got a bottle of Muga. I will ask for a recommendation next time. I also thought it was super strange that almost everyone with a jacket was asked to hang it on the coat rack (which we didn't notice when we entered), but ours hung from our chairs. This was a last minute trip and we booked what we could for dinner. While I loved the steak, the other things we ordered were a miss.

We shared a majestic, 5-star tomahawk steak cooked perfectly inside a fire oven/grill. We also had…read morefries and a simple, much needed green salad - both were very good. Service was delightful because it was happy and frisky.