BASQUE CHEESE and TXAKOLI WINE - Private Gastronomic Adventure
BASQUE CHEESE and TXAKOLI WINE - Private Gastronomic Adventure
We Basques maintain a very strong bond with our surroundings and, as children, many of us develop a very special connection with the sea or the mountains. Throughout the day, we’ll explain the reasons for this idyll and how it relates to the other great Basque passion: product-based cuisine.
Book This ExperienceA glimpse of the journey
Your Itinerary
A curated journey through the experience
Aia
We’ll leave the ‘big city’and travel to rural Gipuzkoa to learn the secrets of Idiazabal cheese production in a traditional farmhouse. A kilo of this cheese usually goes for around 20 euros, although a competition is held every year to select the best cheese of the season, sometimes reaching up to 14,000 euros per ½ kilo! We’ll do a tasting, and you’ll hear the secrets of Basque cheeses. You’ll taste traditional cheeses, all made with unpasteurized sheep's milk. This is the Real Thing, the Real Cheese.
1 hour 30 minutesGaintza Txakolina
There’s a Spanish expression that roughly translates as, ‘With bread and wine you walk the road’. We’ve already eaten the bread and cheese. We’ll find the wine on the coast, in the hills overlooking the Cantabrian Sea, the ideal place for growing the grapes from which txakoli is born - a typical Basque white wine with a slight acidity, ideal to pair with fish. We’ll visit a small sustainable winery that uses traditional methods and grapes called Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Beltza. Thus you’ll learn the intricacies and power of txakoli.
1 hour 30 minutesBasque Country
All this will take place near Getaria, the coastal town through which we’ll take a short walk before eating. Getaria is not only the home of a mountain with a mouse-shaped profile, but it’s the hometown of two of the most well-known Basques: Juan Sebastián Elcano (the first to go around the world) and Cristóbal Balenciaga (the international designer known as the Prince of Fashion). More: our coast is famous for its charcoal-grilled fish, omnipresent in the streets closest to the port…so it makes sense to have lunch here. Do you need a more compelling reason?
1 hour 30 minutesMonte Igueldo
It’s a dream road for two reasons: you can take a good nap after lunch and dream of sheep (latxas, of course), but we don’t recommend it. The road back to San Sebastián is one of the most beautiful on the Basque Coast. It would be a pity to miss these winding roads (splashed by waves during heavy storms), or the cows grazing alongside quiet farmhouses on Mount Igeldo. You've been warned.
Included
- Private guide and driver
- Private group
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Traditional lunch (grilled fish)
- Visit to Txakoli winery with wine tasting
- Cheese farm guided visit and tasting
- All transportation costs (petrol, parking and toll)
- Entry/Admission - Gaintza Txakolina
Not Included
- Meals, drinks and tickets that are not listed above
- Gratuities
Good to Know
- Wheelchair accessibility is extra paid - contact for details
- Wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Near public transportation
- Infant seats available
- Transportation is wheelchair accessible
- Surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Please advise any specific dietary requirements at time of booking
- Most travelers can participate
- Face masks provided for travelers
- Hand sanitizer available to travelers and staff
- Social distancing enforced throughout experience
- Regularly sanitized high-traffic areas
- Gear/equipment sanitized between use
- Transportation vehicles regularly sanitized
- Guides required to regularly wash hands
- Regular temperature checks for staff
- Paid stay-at-home policy for staff with symptoms
- Contactless payments for gratuities and add-ons
- Our vehicles and offices are cleaned and disinfected in accordance with the cleaning and disinfection protocol certified by the Institute for Spanish Tourism Quality (ICTE). We also use an ozone air purification treatment in our vehicles before every tour.
- This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Tickets & Cancellation
You can present either a paper or an electronic voucher for this activity.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours in advance of the start time of the experience.