When: 6th – 8th May 2022
For our work Christmas party we were taken on a trip to the beautiful town of San Sebastián. This was postponed from December due to the huge rise in covid cases. I’d like to take the time at this point in the post to acknowledge I am aware of how priviledged this is, it’s my first job in the corporate world and a world away from my jobs in my 20s contributing to a lacklustre Christmas dinner in a gastropub. I have donated to Reforest Nation to offset emissions from the flight. I acknowledge that offsetting in this way is an imperfect solution, and I’m still continuing to reduce my air travel – currently typing this on a train as part of a ‘sail and rail’ journey.
San Sebastián is beautiful city set in the picturesque Basque country, with beautiful beaches, medieval old town, a reputation for good food, tucked in between mountains on the Bay of Biscay.
Accommodation
Address: Plaza Pío XII, 7. 20010, San Sebastian, Spain.
We stayed in the upmarket 4* Silken Amaza Plaza Hotel, which was in a handy location and a short 20 minute walk along the river to most of the main parts of the city and beaches.
The rooms were clean and spacious and the staff were very friendly and accommodating, especially considering the large group we were in. They had some vegan options at breakfast, buffet lunch on arrival and a 4 course meal, the latter two items specially arranged by our incredibly organised marketing manager.
Food
San Sebastian is known as a food capital of Europe, with its traditional pintxos served in bars and other traditional Spanish food, it’s easy to see why, for omnivores. I didn’t spot any accidentally vegan pintxos but I did have some lovely food in my very short break. There’s a spot that does serve vegan pintxos but it was closed when I walked past – a brilliant excuse to revisit! Plant milk is widely available, in every place I went to there was either leche de soja (soya milk) or leche de avena (oat milk) for coffees.
Mapa Verde
Address: Trueba Kalea, 4, 20001 Donostia, Gipuzkoa, Spain
Mapa Verde is an entirely vegan, slow food restaurant on the north east side of the River Itasaderra and a short walk along from the Puente de Santa Catalina. The interior is cool and comfortable, with plants and photographs of dogs (rescue dogs I think?) adorning the walls. Old exposed stone walls and stained glass windows at the rear of the cafe make this a beautiful setting to sit down and relax in.
The menu is extensive and all the choices sounded delicious, it was difficult to choose what to have. I went for a nourishing Buddha bowl called the ‘Mapa’, a nice mix of quinoa, chickpeas, cauliflower, sweet potato and sprouts on a bed of fresh lettuce leaves. It was a beautiful rainbow of delicate tastes and everything tasted really fresh. Thanks to the San Sebastian tourist website I had my dessert all planned out. In my pre vegan days, tiramisu was my favourite dessert, so there was no stopping me from ordering the vegan tiramisu in Mapa Verde, and it did not disappoint. Creamy and rich, with an aesthetic slither of chocolate and pistachio on the side. Perfection.
Silken Hotel Amara Plaza
Breakfast always had fresh bread, cereal, fruit, salad, olives, cooked asparagus and green beans, with oat and soya milk also available for coffees.
4 course dinner was varied, first course was vegetable soup, second course was mini tacos with avocado, red cabbage and mild tomato salsa; main course was my favourite, roast sweet potato accompanied with gravy, potatoes, mushrooms and grilled courgette. Dessert was fresh fruit, all the fruit was really flavoursome and even some of the omnivores were envious of my options.
Drinks in the sunshine
There is an abundance of cafes and bars serving fresh coffee and also fresh orance juice, it’s a pleasure to sit in the sunshine with good company and watch the world go by and chatter in the ambience of the classical architecture.
At the airport – Exploring the world from Bilbao
This is a bar at Bilbao aiport where we flew into and from. It was great to see 2 or 3 vegan sandwich options.
Things to do
There is so much to do in San Sebastian, it was hard to choose what to do in the time I had. The following is what I had a taste of in the couple of days I was there.
Walk up Mount Ulia
There are three hills to choose from that can be walked up from the town, Mount Ulia, Mount Urgull and Mount Igeldo. My lovely colleague and I chose to tackle Mount Ulia. It was a scenic route through woods, and past some donkeys and an unexpected bamboo forest. We got almost to the top but ended up turning back due to some loose aggressive dogs – beware! I’m glad my room-mate was there with me, as she is much more sensible than I, I would have stubbornly kept going and probably got myself mauled by dogs. However! We still had some stunning views, saw some sights and had a good walk.
Evening walk along the river
The river Urumea originates in the Basque mountains, snakes through San Sebastian before its final destination, rushing out to the Bay of Biscay. A beautiful stroll at night took me along the Bizkaia Pasealekua, the streets are lined with trees interspersed with Victorian-esque street lamps. Particularly alluring was one of the landmark bridges – the Maria Cristina bridge, this stone version opened on 20th January 1905 in celebration of San Sebastian Day and has 4 huge sculptures on each corner, that were lit up spectacularly. I walked down the other side of the river which was more pedestrianised and walked over the Lehendakari bridge leading back to our hotel.
Public sculpture, art and architecture
San Sebastian boasts links to many artists and architects. This is evident taking a stroll and wander around. There are large public sculptures such as the sculpture above, which is a homage to people who have suffered in the time of covid 19, I couldn’t find the sculptor’s name though unfortunately. I, also started noticing the little things, the beautiful details, such as hand painted tiles on planters, the incredible beauty and attention to detail is one of the things that make it so special. The Lehendakari bridge, next to our hotel was pretty cool, at first I walked across and was oblivious, and then I read about it and had to go back to see its 45,000 slabs in 8 colours in a specific design by the architect Manu Muniategiandikoetxea, who hails from the Basque himself. I wish I’d had chance to see the Chillida’s in person, essentials in my art history part of my education.
Zurriola beach
There are 3 main beaches, I went twice to the Zurriola Beach, the middle of the three, it had lovely views of the surrounding area, nestled between Mount Igeldo and Mount Urgull, it is the cleanest beach I have been on in a good while. The sea was a bit chilly, but lovely for a paddle and there was plenty of people swimming properly too.
Kristina-Enea Park
I stumbled on this park whilst looking up my route for my failed visit to KM 0. And I am so glad I did, with parts of the park being left to rewild itself, and then parts with incredible redwoods and a 100 year old gingko tree, bridge, peacocks, there was lots to see and take in.
There is so much to do in San Sebastian, yet it could be a place I could easily have enjoyed just mooching around the streets and seeing the beautiful architecture and sipping good coffee. I would love to revisit and try more of the vegan food, especially those vegan pintxos! This city totally blew me away, very unexpectedly and I have barely stopped talking about it since.
Follow The Greedy Herbivore on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with my latest blog posts, reviews and ramblings, or follow through WordPress to receive notifications of new posts direct to your inbox.
The Greedy Herbivore 