本物のバスクの道：星の向こうのサン・セバスティアン

Excellent tour of San Sebastián with Margot!

Our Culinary Backstreets tour guide, Gonzalo, was excellent. He was so knowledgable about San Sebastian and food. We tasted so many different things from a Basque breakfast, coffee, chocolate to many different pintxos! I love Culinary Backstreets and always book if they are in the city that I'm visiting. I highly recommend Culinary Backstreets and Gonzalo!

This was our first Culinary Backstreet tour. Our travel companions had done 3-4 other similar Culinary Backstreet tours in other cities. In spite of the wet weather, our group of six had a fantastic time. The tour began at 5pm and it lasted almost six hours. Made multiple stops learning about the local culture, history and of course 5-6 different stops along the way for food and drinks. We had a blast and would do it again. Our guide was fantastic, extremely knowledgeable about gastronomy, and everyone got along great because of the common bond of enjoying good food and drinks. My only constructive feedback is to start the tour at the first place, as opposed at some random place. More efficient that way and could save some time.

Having enjoyed a Culinary Backstreets tour in the past, I was thrilled to discover one in San Sebastián and hoped it would help me understand the city beyond its reputation for great food. I was not disappointed. Margot brings an exceptionally rare perspective as both a former Michelin restaurant chef and food journalist. Originally arriving in San Sebastián to attend culinary school, she speaks about the city with the depth of someone who has not only studied its food culture, but truly lived within it. What stood out most was not only her expertise, but the thoughtfulness with which she contextualized each stop: weaving together the history, culture, people, and evolution of the Basque food scene. The tour moved seamlessly from beloved traditional establishments to more adventurous and contemporary creations tucked into neighborhoods I never would have explored on my own. Along the way, Margot introduced us not just to dishes, but to the craftspeople and stories behind them. When one planned stop happened to be closed, she effortlessly pivoted to another spot I had genuinely been hoping to try. The food and drinks were incredibly generous, and every stop felt purposeful and memorable. As a solo traveler arriving in San Sebastián for the first time, I honestly cannot imagine a better introduction to the city. I would wholeheartedly recommend this tour to anyone hoping to experience San Sebastián with greater depth, understanding, and connection.

We had a fabulous day in San Sebastián with Panos. The day was a perfect combination of culture, history, food and drink. Highly recommended. It gave us a great base of information to more fully enjoy the rest of our stay.

We had a great day with Panos in San Sebastián. We learned so much about the city, the cuisine, and life in this gem of a city. The pacing was just right and everything we ate was delicious!

We have enjoyed several Culinary Backstreets food tours in various cities. This one was as good as any and maintains the excellent standard of Culinary Backstreets tours. We were lucky enough to have our guide, Panos, all to ourselves. Panos was brilliant. As well as taking us to great places, he gave us some fascinating history of San Sebastian and Basque culture, including some interesting political discussions. He made the five hour tour slip by and we could've kept talking with him for hours. Culinary Backstreets tours really take you to interesting places away from the tourist areas. As Panos said, he likes to take people to places he likes to go to. Everything we ate was delicious and the shop owners were all friendly and welcoming. I'd recommend this tour to anyone visiting this wonderful city.

The tour has a price tag that inspires a bit more quality and quantity than what we received. Our guide was nice and polite, but conversation was strained, and we struggled to connect with her. We walked around with a lot of heavy silence, some conversation and information as we walked from bar to bar would have made the experience much warmer. The food also did not meet our expectations. Granted I communicated some dietary restrictions before the tour, it felt like little was done to acomodate my requests, and at two stops I had to forego eating all together because they did not provide a suitable alternative, and another stop saw the guide literally cutting a slice of pie in half to a mere sliver. Dornosti is a city full of food, it was hard to believe there were no food alternatives for someone with a simple dietary request (not life threatening allergy). We left hungry and with no options to eat more since the tour concluded at a time when most bars and restaurants close their kitchens.

An excellent tour! Astrid was a charming, personable and very knowledgeable tour guide. We had an excellent experience and sampled many delicious dishes and beverages while also learning a lot about San Sebastián. We fell in love with San Sebastián and all that it has to offer. A great way to learn about any new place is to learn about its food and we would highly recommend this tour for anyone who truly wants to know more about this lovely city.

Wonderful tour with Gonzalo (aka Gorgonzola). Every bite was delicious, we loved all of the variety, and enjoyed seeing the different neighborhoods. His knowledge of the city and connections he made with us were excellent. It was disappointing that our Saturday evening tour was cancelled, as we wanted to experience the tour on our first day here, and at a time when everything was open, but I really appreciated that our guide tried to make up for what we missed. In the end, we still had a very great experience. A lot was closed but what we did see was really special. I would recommend the tour to anyone who wants to go beyond the surface of the food scene here and get to try some very special dishes all over the city. I have done 5 other tours with culinary backstreets and this one had the same outlook and quality overall.