Bittor Arginzoniz's grill house on the square of tiny Axpe, where everything from caviar to butter is cooked over bespoke wood fires: perennially ranked among the world's very best restaurants. Book months ahead; the valley drive alone rewards.
7 km · about 15 min drive
beach
Playa de Laga
A golden sweep of sand below the green pyramid of Cabo Ogono in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, a favourite of Basque surfers.
26 km · about 30 min drive
museum
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Frank Gehry's titanium-clad masterpiece that single-handedly reinvented Bilbao is an essential road-trip pilgrimage for art and architecture lovers.
27 km · about 30 min drive
landmark
San Juan de Gaztelugatxe
A hermitage perched on a tiny tidal islet connected to the mainland by a dramatic stone bridge with 241 steps, made famous as Dragonstone in Game of Thrones.
33 km · about 40 min drive
film location
San Juan de Gaztelugatxe (Dragonstone)
The islet chapel reached by 241 stone steps and a serpentine bridge is Dragonstone's approach in season seven.
33 km · about 40 min drive
natural wonder
Flysch Cliffs of Zumaia
Stunning layered geological formations along the Basque coast that expose 60 million years of Earth's history in dramatic tilted rock strata.
34 km · about 40 min drive
bridge
Vizcaya Bridge (Puente Colgante)
The world's oldest transporter bridge, a UNESCO iron giant that ferries cars and people across the Nervion estuary in a hanging gondola.
35 km · about 40 min drive
cathedral
Santa Maria Cathedral Vitoria
A Gothic cathedral whose 'open for restoration' tour inspired Ken Follett, letting you climb scaffolding through 800 years of construction.
36 km · about 40 min drive
Driving roads near Durango
35 kmVizcaya Bridge (Puente Colgante)The world's oldest transporter bridge, a UNESCO iron giant that ferries cars and people across the Nervion estuary in a hanging gondola.
53 kmMonte IgueldoA vintage funicular hauls you to a hilltop viewpoint and amusement park with the postcard panorama over San Sebastian's Concha bay.
77 kmCorniche BasqueThe wild clifftop D912 between Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Hendaye, running above tilted flysch rock strata with open views across the Bay of Biscay to the Spanish coast.