Custom Tour 2 - 11 May 2025
We had used Basque Guides in…read more2024, for a shore excursion in Bilbao. That experience was so great, that we decided to hire them for multi-day tour of the Basque country. We had two main reasons for visiting the Basque country.
1. My wife's maternal ancestors are Basque and in fact come from a small town in the Basque country named Aginaga in Basque, Aguinaga in Spanish.
2. To visit wineries and taste wine in the Rioja wine region.
We enjoyed the entire experience so much, that this review will probably become long and effusive but I hope helpful. We were joined on our tour by some great friends with whom we had traveled before.
We stayed in three different cities in Basque country - San Sebastian, Briones, and Bilbao.
First the hotels which were all recommended by Iker Bardaji, the owner of Basque Guides:
1. Lasala Plaza Hotel in San Sebastian for five nights - An adults only hotel perfectly located across from the malecón and in old town which is filled with amazing bars, restaurants, and shops.
2. Hotel Santa Maria Briones for two nights in the small town of Briones (population of 824) in the heart of Rioja. It is a small 16 room boutique hotel. You will never find better accommodations or friendlier staff anywhere. We wish we could have stayed longer.
3. Hotel Miro in Bilbao for two nights. The hotel is a very nice business/tourist hotel. Rooms are very good. But its main attraction is being directly across the street from the Guggenheim Museum.
Our tours:
San Sebastian - we spent five nights in San Sebastian which gave us time to venture out into the stunningly beautiful countryside especially along the seashore. The first day we took a comprehensive tour of San Sebastian The second day we headed off to the world famous city of Pamplona, know for the running of the bulls but we learned it was so much more. The next day we explored the French Basque country towns of Biarritz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and other small towns along the way. The following day, we explored the Spanish coastal cities of Basque country including the town of Aginaga from which my wife's maternal line immigrated. Then it was off to Rioja.
Briones - we stayed at the amazing boutique Hotel Santa Maria Briones and ventured out from there to visit wineries and taste the amazing wines of the Rioja DOC. For those of you who are wine lovers, we visited Bodegas Murua, Bodegas Amaren, Bodegas Tritium, Bodegas Ollauri Rioja Conde de los Andes, Bodegas Luis Cañas, and Bodegas Gómez Cruzado. We tasted great wine, ate great food, and slept well both nights at an exceptional hotel.
Bilbao - Our hotel was the Hotel Miró and it was a great location from which to venture out and around Bilbao. Of course, the main tourist draw to Bilbao is the Guggenheim Museum. It is well worth the visit.
A word about Iker Bardaji, Basque Guides, and his guides.
If you communicate with Iker about what you would like to see and do, Iker will put together a memorable tour for you. Until Iker and Basque Guides we had never had a tour company listen as carefully to what we wanted to accomplish, ask the right questions, and then craft such an amazing itinerary that delivered an experience we will always remember.
Iker also hires excellent tour guides. The best of the best. Not only were they fluent in English which was important to us, but they were also extremely knowledgeable about the history, culture, and lifestyle of the region. We had the pleasure of working with several of Iker's guides - Gonzalo, Andoni, Jaime, Gorka, and Mateo. All were exceptional. If you only have time for a short peek at Basque country or if you have days to explore, Iker Bardaji and Basque Guides are the right choice.
