4-Nights Tailor Made Spain: Basque Traditions - Luxury Tailor Made Travel — CALL

Abercrombie & Kent: Tailor Made Spain: Basque Traditions

Day 1 BILBAO, SPAIN

Arrive at Bilbao Airport, where you join your expert guide to explore the city. Visit the Guggenheim Museum, the masterpiece of Frank Gehry, with its gleaming titanium structure. Apart from the works that form the Guggenheim’s permanent collection, it offers an array of intriguing temporary exhibits. Visit the historic Siete Calles district, beautifully restored after catastrophic floods. Wander through its boutiques, small bars and restaurants before checking in to your hotel in San Sebastian.

This morning, explore San Sebastian with your expert guide, taking in the fascinating Old Town, the iconic Comb of the Wind sculpture on the horseshoe bay of La Concha, and the promontory of Monte Igeldo. Continue to the nearby fishing village of Getaria. Visit the Balenciaga Museum, dedicated to dress designer Cristobal Balenciaga, who was born in the village. On the hills overlooking the sea are several of the most important vineyards producing small-batch txacolí. Take a tour and enjoy a tasting before returning to San Sebastian. This evening, experience the real soul of Basque cuisine in its small bars and restaurants that throng the narrow streets of the Parte Vieja — the oldest district in town — accompanied by your local guide. Along the way, you may sample a wide variety of pintxos (local tapas), for which the region is known.

The Pays Basque Français is an enchanting area of small villages, lush green landscapes and the rolling foothills of the Pyrenees. First, visit the charming fishing port of Saint Jean de Luz with its unspoiled center of narrow streets, quayside and old churches, a short distance over the frontier. From there, continue inland to explore villages like Ainhoa, filled with quaint stone houses and delightful parish churches. Perhaps continue to the capital of Bayonne, where the beautifully restored half-timbered houses are a superb example of how to bring an old town back to life. You may prefer to visit the coast again and explore the once-exclusive coastal town of Biarritz. Return to your hotel in San Sebastian.

Depart San Sebastian today and drive to the medieval walled hilltop town of Laguardia, little changed in hundreds of years. Here you can visit a bodega where the grapes are still trodden in a great tank and then left to ferment by the age-old carbonic maceration technique. Take lunch on your own in Laguardia before continuing to one of La Rioja's most historic wineries, where you enjoy a tour and tasting, savoring the contrast from the local, homegrown vintage you sampled earlier. Return to San Sebastian with your driver and guide.

This morning, you are transferred to the airport for your international departure.