San Sebastián

San Sebastián (Donostia in Basque, and officially both) lies on the Bay of Biscay some 20 kilometres from the French border, the capital of Gipuzkoa, with 188,487 people as of 2024 and a metropolitan area of around 436,500. Locals call themselves donostiarra. The city is arranged around a near-enclosed bay with a beach in the middle of town, and the hills at each end are walkable for the view back over it. It rains here in a way the rest of Spain does not, which is part of why the green behind the city runs right down to the sea.