Bike Tour in San Sebastian
Description
Discover San Sebastian in the most agile and sustainable way with our guided bike tour. An authentic experience that lets you explore more in less time while keeping San Sebastians’s relaxed spirit. Starting in the city center, ride along the cycle paths by the three beaches (Ondarreta, La Concha, and Zurriola) as your local guide shares stories, curiosities, and food tips. See Chillida’s Peine del Viento, the Belle Époque landmarks like the City Hall, Hotel Maria Cristina, and Victoria Eugenia Theatre, then head east toward the Kursaal, the Paseo Nuevo, and the Dove of Peace with views of Mount Urgull and the Urumea River. The mostly flat route includes bike (e-bike option available), helmet, guide, and insurance. A comfortable, authentic, and scenic San Sebastian bike tour that combines the sea breeze, culture, and local life in one unforgettable ride.
Tour Options
Itinerary
The meeting point is on the stairs in front of the main entrance of Good Shepherd Cathedral. Here, we will admire San Sebastián’s largest religious building, which houses one of the biggest organs in Europe. From this spot, we will pick up the bikes and begin our tour.
First, we will explore the different landmarks along La Concha Beach, famous for its golden, fine sands. This beach holds a fascinating history, especially when its beneficial waters made it the preferred bathing destination for royalty. We will tell you the story behind iconic buildings such as the City Hall (Ayuntamiento) and the Hotel de Londres y de Inglaterra. As we cycle along the promenade, we will pass by impressive villas that still evoke the city's Belle Époque splendor.
We have just cycled along the beautiful scenic coastline of San Sebastián and arrived at the base of Monte Igeldo, home to one of the oldest amusement parks in the World. At its foot, we will find one of the city's most iconic landmarks: El Peine del Viento. This striking sculpture attracts many visitors with its spectacular design and the unique water jets that shoot up through its holes during high tide, creating a mesmerizing natural display.
The guide will lead you to Miramar Palace, a historic gem built between La Concha and Ondarreta beaches in the late 19th century as a summer residence for the Spanish royal family. This elegant palace is surrounded by beautiful English-style gardens, offering breathtaking panoramic views of the coastline—a perfect photo opportunity.
We’ll cross the María Cristina Bridge and get close to the María Cristina Hotel, a glamorous landmark where many celebrities stay during the San Sebastián Film Festival, but which also bears scars from the Spanish Civil War.
We’ll also see the Victoria Eugenia Theatre, cultural venues that host some of the city’s most prestigious events every year.
We will observe the exterior of this iconic building, a Congress Centre that hosts the main and final event of the San Sebastián Film Festival each year, attracting numerous celebrities and international attention. From here, we have fantastic views to the Zurriola Beach.
At this point, we will reach the eastern end of Zurriola Beach, a vibrant spot known for its lively surfing scene. Here, you’ll see surfers riding the waves, as this beach is a favorite among locals and visitors looking to enjoy San Sebastián’s surf culture.
We return to the Good Shepherd Cathedral to drop off the bikes and conclude the experience, leaving you with great memories of San Sebastián’s stunning landmarks, rich history, and beautiful coastline.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- A moderate amount of bicycle riding is involved.
- Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately.
- A minimum of 2 adults is required, among all bookings, for the tour to go ahead. If the minimum group for carrying out the activity would not be reached, an alternative date or full refund would be offered. If your booking was below this number we will contact you at least 2 days in advance to inform you in case the minimum group size was not covered by this stage. Please feel free to contact us anytime to confirm the total amount of bookings for your tour date.
- Unfortunately, this tour is not suitable for people with reduced mobility.
Reviews(79)
A great way to explore the beautiful city of San Sebastian. Our guide had perfect English and great knowledge
Outstanding tour of the fascinating city of San Sebastián. Our tour guide Fabien was excellent with an incredible knowledge of the history and culture of the area. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone interested in gaining an insight into this great city.
Great way to see San Sebastian. We covered a lot of ground on ebikes, mostly in bike lanes. Pedestrians noy paying attention and not cars are the major complication! GIlles was an informative tour guide. We stopped multiple times and walked around to see cathedral inside, former palace gardens, sea side sculptures, etc.
Excellent tour and well crafted to see the whole island. Great local guide who made the trip wonderful
The guide arrived late with 30 minutes. It was raining so we did the walking tour..the guide seemed to know little about the city
Good bike tour of the Bay area and old town. The guide was accommodating and very knowledgeable. The guide would stop and provide historical information on the key points of the area. The walking tour of the old town was very informative.
Thanks, Mike! We're glad everything went well and that you took home good memories :)
Our guide Jolen curated a fantastic cycling tour. We saw most of the city’s iconic attractions and learnt a great deal about the Basque culture and language. I would highly recommend the tour
So happy to hear you enjoyed the tour. Hope to see you again on another experience soon!
We booked this tour through Viatour and having done many excellent city tours on bikes and foot in lots of different cities with them would say this is by far the worst. The guide was pleasant enough however her English was poor ( lots of direct translations from Spanish which didn’t work in English and a heavy accent which was tricky to understand) and for a 2 1/2 hour city tour, we only stopped 4 times so we don’t feel much more informed about the city than when we started - we could have got the same info from Wikipedia . Not recommended - save your money, hire your own bikes and do it yourself.
We’re really sorry your experience wasn’t what you expected. We appreciate your feedback and will keep working to improve.
We have done a few Viatour city trips and this is easily the worst. I’d go as far as to say don’t waste your money. A 2 1/2 hour bike tour with 4 stops in total . The guide was pleasant enough but her English was poor and very heavily accented which made the small amount of information she gave very difficult to understand. Sometimes she gave info while we were on bikes and the fellow cyclists took up a system of relating what she said along the way as we cycled. I know no more about this city than I could have looked up in Wikipedia . This tour gives Viatour a really bad name and you may want to reconsider using this company in future
Hi Vanessa, thanks for letting us know. This isn’t the kind of experience we want to deliver, and we’ll take steps to make it better.
Guide showed up late. Long walk to bike store where we were given a low quality bicycle, and the staff person didn’t even know how to set up for the right height (I had to adjust it myself later on as we were already moving). Julien was knowledgeable about the area history but at times it was frustrating because he would be giving tour information while we were moving or while others were away, so we couldn’t hear it. Overall, I felt like we basically rented a bike to take it to the end of Onderetta beach and got a few tidbits about Googleable San Sebastián history. He was nice, though and very friendly, it’s just that we’ve done bike tours in several places in Europe and this was by far the lowest quality bike tour. We couldn’t have gotten the same experience renting a bike from a local bike shop for $8 for 2 hours. Still I would cautiously recommend the expert only because we still believe in bike tours at the beginning of your stay in any European city, to get lay of the land, interesting spots to visit and inspiration to dive deeper into visited sites.
We’re sorry to hear that you weren’t satisfied. We take your comments seriously to keep improving our service.
