Getting Around San Sebastián
San Sebastián is compact. According to the city's convention bureau, the Old Town is 350 m from the centre, the Kursaal 450 m and La Concha beach 500 m. The Kursaal, home of the San Sebastián International Film Festival, has an auditorium of 1,806 seats. The restaurants are spread wider: the tourist office counts 19 Michelin stars within 25 km of the city hall, among them the three-star Akelarre, Arzak and Martín Berasategui.
Long-distance trains from Madrid and Barcelona arrive at the Adif station on Paseo de Francia, beside the bus station, about 900 m from the centre. The Euskotren line runs from Amara to Irun and Hendaye. Include your train details and arrival time when booking so we can arrange your pickup at the station.
For a full working day at the Kursaal or at the Basque Culinary Center in the Miramón technology park, hourly service reserves one chauffeur and one vehicle for the hours you book. Send the plan for the day with the booking.
The city's low-emission zone covers about 1.2 km² of the centre around the clock, with cameras checking plates against the DGT label register, and without a permit vehicles may enter the Parte Vieja only in the morning loading hours. Send the full address with your booking; the confirmation then tells you where the car will stop.
Airport Transfers in San Sebastián
San Sebastián has three airports within reach, and each has its own use. San Sebastián Airport is at Hondarribia, about 21 km east, a drive of 30 to 40 minutes; Aena lists routes to Madrid, Barcelona and London City among its few destinations. Bilbao Airport, about 105 km west, is the one for the wider European network, at 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes. Biarritz, across the border in France, is about 48 km away, 45 minutes to 1 hour 5 minutes, with flights to Paris all year.
To Bilbao the route is the AP-8, and to Biarritz the road continues past Irun onto the French A63. Journey times vary with traffic and weather.
Book with your flight number. For airport pickups, your chauffeur monitors your flight and adjusts the pickup if your arrival time changes. Your booking confirmation shows where to meet the chauffeur. Leaving San Sebastián, allow for the drive to the airport when choosing your pickup time: 30 to 40 minutes to Hondarribia and 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes to Bilbao, longer in heavy traffic. You set the pickup time yourself, and the confirmation shows it.
Long-Distance & Cross-Border Travel from San Sebastián
A stay can carry on inside the Basque Country and beyond it. Bilbao is about 98 km west, Pamplona about 84 km south and Vitoria-Gasteiz about 100 km, each near enough to go for a meeting and be back by the evening. Logroño, in La Rioja, is about 170 km away. Each of these is a single booking, with the car leaving from your hotel in San Sebastián and ending at the address you give.
France is close enough to be part of the stay. Saint-Jean-de-Luz is about 35 km away, Biarritz about 50 km and Bayonne about 55 km, and Bordeaux, about 240 km north on the A63, is a journey of several hours by road. Each is booked from your hotel to the address you give, with the same chauffeur and car from start to finish, with no change of vehicle at the border.
At its internal borders, France has notified temporary checks. Carry the travel documents your nationality and itinerary require.
Groups & Congress Travel in San Sebastián
The Kursaal gives San Sebastián a steady congress calendar. In 2025, for example, it hosted 149 congresses and meetings with 124,749 attendees, according to the Kursaal. Delegates attending these events can come in from three airports: some on the Madrid flight into Hondarribia, some from Bilbao, some from Biarritz.
Whoever organises the meeting can keep all of it in one account, and every transfer is booked and confirmed as a separate journey: the speaker landing at Bilbao, the delegation coming in from Biarritz, the party booked for dinner outside the city. Where a group moves together, a Sprinter van carries up to 12 people with their bags, and bigger groups go by coach, with up to 56 seats.
The dates to book early are January, for the Tamborrada; July, for the Jazzaldia; August, when Semana Grande closes the Boulevard to traffic in the evenings; and September, for the Film Festival. Local vehicles and drivers are booked up early for those dates. If your plans go beyond a standard booking, write to support with the dates, addresses, number of passengers, flights and luggage, and the team will arrange it.
