Your expert guide to exploring San Sebastián with kids
San Sebastián is a magnificently beautiful city in Spain’s lush Basque Country and there are many reasons that make it a perfect place to visit with the whole family.
🛝 Why do I think it’s such a great family friendly destination? Because it’s full of playgrounds, fun activities for kids, the day trips will make every one happy, the cheese cake will wow everyone, and even the family friendly hotels are plentiful. In this article we’ll take a look at the very best things to do and see when you’re in San Sebastián with kids.
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Where to stay in San Sebastián (with kids)
👧🏽 MexicoCassie family friendly hotel recommendation: Hotel Arima & Spa – Located a little outside of the city this gem of a hotel will appeal to families who like to escape the hustle-bustle of city life at the end of the day. With a rooftop pool offering awesome views, family-rooms (and adjoining hotel rooms if you have bigger kids) and car parking, this hotel has it all. And although it’s outside of town, there’s a public bus from right outside the hotel that goes into town.
👧🏽 MexicoCassie family friendly hotel recommendation: Hotel Zinema7 – This hotel prides itself on its family service. With interconnecting rooms, plenty of safety features for your little ones (like bed bars so they don’t fall out of bed), late check out when possible and babysitting services they really go the extra mile for families. They also have books, DVDs and more available to keep kids entertained after a day of sightseeing. Buses and taxis available from right outside the hotel.
⛺️ MexicoCassie awesome glamping recommendation: WeCamp San Sebastián – We stayed in a WeCamp in Almería (Andalucía) and I absolutely recommend them as a great option for a family vacation. The accommodation is excellent and it’s a delight to come home to a spacious property with a pool and other amenities at the end of a day exploring. There’s also a kids’ club, playground and restaurants on site if you don’t feel like going out. Choose between various mobile homes, tents, & glamping-tents.
🏡 MexicoCassie apartment recommendation: Ondaretta Beach & Terrace Apartment – This privately owned apartment closed to Ondaretta beach even comes equipped with a PS2 & DVD player to ensure your teens are never bored. With 3 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms and a well equipped kitchen (and even a play area for smaller kids) this is a perfect family apartment.
🗺 Or use this helpful interactive map of hotels, hostels and apartments in San Sebastian to find the perfect style accommodation for your family.
What to do in San Sebastián with kids
This section covers what the kids will actually want to see and do in San Sebastián. You won’t find stately homes or church visits in this article, I promise, just activities the kids are actually going to enjoy. For more information on the ‘regular’ things to do in San Sebastián, I highly recommend checking out the other articles in my San Sebastián series:
→ Is San Sebastián worth visiting? (includes a good section on Basque language and local names)
→ How many days do you need to explore San Sebastián?
→ Awesome day trips from San Sebastián
→ Read the full MexicoCassie guide to exploring the Basque Country
San Sebastián with kids: beaches
There are 3 gorgeous beaches in San Sebastián and all offer something different to families visiting the city.
🚾 All along the promenade of all 3 beaches you’ll find car parking, showers, changing spaces and bathrooms.
La Concha Bay
This bay is made up of two beaches: Playa de la Concha and Playa Ondaretta – both of these beaches are an absolute delight with children since the bay offers protection, which means calm water to pair with the gorgeous expanse of sand.
Playa de la Concha
The biggest of the city beaches, kids will love frolicking on the sand and playing in the gentle waves close to shore.
🎠 On the promenade, at the beginning of the beach, by City Hall, you’ll find a playground and a gorgeous old fashioned carousel.
You’ll often find beach artists here creating fabulous pictures in the sand that are best viewed from above.
What’s this beach near? This beach has the advantage of being right in town so it’s easy access if you need to nip into a shop or restaurant with the kids.
Playa de Ondarreta
This is the smaller of the 2 beaches that make up the city’s bay. You’ll find many families head to this beach that has playground equipment directly on the sand.
What’s this beach near? This section of beach is near the Peine del Viento and Monte Igueldo (see below for more information about these popular spots).
Playa Zurriola
🏄🏽 If your children are interested in surfing, then they will love Zurriola beach where they can take surf classes and generally chill out and look cool.
Although the beach itself is still delightful, the winds tend to be stronger here, meaning larger waves, more surfers and fewer families playing in the water.
🛝 🛹 At the far end of the beach there is a playground and skate park.
What’s this beach near? The Gros neighbourhood – think cool surf shops, great restaurants & cafes.
What to see in Sebastian with kids
Peine del Viento
You may not think your kids will be especially interested in this famous sculpture that’s located at the far end of Ondaretta beach but I really think they will have a blast here. It’s super fun for the kids to stand over the ‘blow holes’ in the ground and feel the wind push them around. I watched kids of all ages spend ages playing here when I visited. (Don’t worry, it’s completely safe)
Monte Igueldo
Everyone will enjoy riding the vintage funicular railway up to the top of Monte Igueldo (especially if you tell them the other option is to climb up 😉).
🎢 Once at the top, younger kids will love the Monte Igueldo amusement park where you’ll find small rollercoasters, bumper cars, the Mysterious River ride, a haunted house and fabulous views over the city of Donostia-San Sebastián.
🌳 For older children, walk on through the amusement park to Canopy Donostia & Aventura, a tree top adventure park where they can enjoy ziplines, rope swings through the trees and more.
Boat trip to Santa Clara Island
Take a boat ride across La Concha Bay to check out the tiny Isla Santa Clara – in the warmer months, people love to jump from the island’s walls into the sea. There are no facilities here so if you plan on making use of the picnic benches, best bring your own food.
→ Book your boat to island now
Monte Urgull
On the top of Mount Urgull you’ll find the ruins of Castillo de la Mota – kids might moan about climbing up here but it isn’t a long walk I assure you, and if your children are still into imaginative play, they’ll have a wonderful time running around in the trees and examining the small cannons.
Culture in San Sebastián with the kids
Of course, you’ll want to share some culture with your little darlings, while in San Sebastián but if your kids are anything like mine then they’re not going to be interested in visiting the churches or history so how do we make this fun?
🚂 For the smaller ones, why not take the tourist train around the city? It takes its passengers around the old city (parte vieja) and all along the beach front.
→ Book the San Sebastián city tourist train
📲 For bigger ones, why not use a scavenger hunt app to make exploring more fun (and more mobile phone friendly 😉)
→ Download the scavenger hunt app (and an e-sim should you need one)
⭐️ If you do want more on culture in San Sebastián then I’d like to direct you to my general article on things to do in San Sebastián.
Museums the kids won’t hate
You could include a museum or two on your itinerary:
Aquarium of San Sebastián – learn about local marine life
San Telmo Museum – this is actually an excellent museum if anyone is interested in local life, culture, history and traditions. (free on Tuesdays)
Eureka! Zientzia Museoa (Science Museum) – with hands on experiments, a planetarium, 3D simulator fun and a miniature city to explore, everyone will have a brilliant day here. Located in the Miramon Technology Park.
Parks & playgrounds in San Sebastián
There are plenty of playgrounds for small children around the city as well as some fabulous green spaces as you get further out of town. We’ve already mentioned the playgrounds alongside the 3 beaches. It’s also common to find playgrounds on plazas:
Plaza de Cataluña (in Gros, photo above)
Plaza Zuluaga (in front of Museo San Telmo)
Plaza de Gipuzkoa – this plaza has a fascinating meteorological clock to show the kids
Cristina Enea Park – behind the Tabakalera building is a large park with playgrounds, ducks, peacocks and plenty of grass for kids to play
Aiete Park – a slightly longer walk (or bus) gets you to Aiete Park where there is a cultural centre, a cave to explore and even a rain forest to explore.
Miramon Park – here you’ll find a Roman style amphitheatre, a forest and nearby is the city’s sicence museum.
San Sebastián’s culinary scene
You might not be able to make the most of the incredible food scene in San Sebastian if you’re visiting with young children as the pintxos bars get very busy at night but by visiting earlier in the day, over lunch time you’ll find it less stressful.
Eating with kids in San Sebastian
Breakfast: Spanish breakfast is generally bread with cheese, ham or jams. Children will enjoy a cup of cola-cao – this is what all Spanish children love to drink (essentially it’s Spanish Nesquik). It’s also perfectly acceptable to eat a pastry or churros and chocolate for breakfast when in Spain.
➕ Most hotels offer buffet breakfasts, where you’ll always find something the kids will eat.
Lunch: The biggest meal of the day is lunch, which is taken between 2 pm – 4 pm.
Merienda: Spanish children will often be given a snack around 5 – 6 pm. This is called ‘merienda and it’s a light offering, perhaps a sandwich and an apple.
Supper: People start coming out again to eat around 9 pm and it’s perfectly normal to see groups eating at 11 pm. Children are more than welcome in restaurants this late and it’s common to see kids playing on plazas late at night while parents eat and socialise.
There are very often children’s menus available and if there isn’t, it’s worth asking if meals can be made plain for children. Generally the answer is yes.
🍔 Read more about finding food kids will love in Spain 🍅 Read more about vegetarian options in Spain
🫒 Pintxos Bars
In Spain, kids are always welcome in bars and pintxos bars are no exception. Your only issues will be finding something the kids want to eat and ensuring you can find a table when it’s super busy.
❌ My kids don’t love pintxos bars when there aren’t any seats and we have to stand to eat.
👣 When looking at the guided tour options for pintxos tours I noticed that many of them do not offer drinks for younger family members. I recommend checking the small print of any tour carefully to ensure you know what you’ll be supplementing if you take the kids along.
Devour Tours (a company I know and love) explicitly state that children are welcome on day time tours and that children under 5 who won’t be eating can come for free – but of course, you’ll need to pay for any child who wants to eat.
🥮 Burnt Basque cheese cake tasting
Invented right here in San Sebastian, this cheesecake is going to knock everyone’s socks off. It’s absolutely delicious and the slices are enormous! (see photo above)
⭐️⭐️ My kids’ favourite activity in San Sebastián was definitely the cheese cake tasting – over our time in the Basque Country we ate multiple slices including a good few in San Sebastián. Slices tend to be between €5 and €7.50, not cheap but the slices are large.
3 good places we ate burnt cheesecake in San Sebastián:
La Viña – this is the bar that ‘invented’ this cheesecake so it’s where everyone wants to go. We queued even in the rain to get a slice (ok, ok, 2 slices). It was good.
La Zaragozana Pastelería-Heladería – just opposite La Viña, this cake shop sells its own version, and you won’t have to queue and it’s just as yummy
Bassk Cheesecakers – there are a 2 locations, slices are generous and delicious
➕ the multiple others you’ll see everywhere.
🍦 Ice cream
There are ice cream shops and stalls around town and the beaches. Make your kids’ dreams come true and let them eat ice cream every single day!
Fast food, supermarkets and regular restaurants
All of these exist, don’t worry. No one is going hungry, even the kid who only wants McDonald’s and microwave pizza.
Awesome day trips for the whole family
There are numerous day trips available from San Sebastián. In this article I’m only discussing the day trips that will most excite the younger members of the family.
You can read more about other day trip options in my dedicated “Day trips from San Sebastián” article.
🐉 Game of Thrones adventures
Older kids who like Game of Thrones will be excited to know that this is a very Game of Thrones-y region.
You could either book onto a specific Game of Thrones tour like this one or con your kids into ‘culture’ by taking regular tours that visit places the Game of Thrones was filmed. Tell them they’re following in Jon Snow’s footsteps or something.
➡️ Zumaia – Dragonstone Beach – this is actually a tour to the 3 gorgeous villages of Zumaia, Zarautz and Getaria
➡️ San Juan de Gaztelugatxe – Dragonstone Castle – this tour visits the gorgeous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the old city in addition to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe site.
Cross the French border to eat pain au chocolate
(which are actually called chocolatines in this part of France). My kids definitely think the idea of crossing a border for cake is hilarious and of course, there’s plenty to do in the delightful Hendaye, once you are in France.
The fun thing about crossing into France is that there are multiple ways to do it:
🚗 It’s an easy thirty minute drive
🚌 Approx 50 minutes by bus from the San Sebastian bus station
🚆 40 minutes on the train from the Amara-Donostia train station
🚤 From Hondarribia (on the Spanish border) you can take a small boat across the river to France
🚶🏽In Irun, a small Spanish border town, you can walk into Hendaye in France simply by crossing the bridge in the photo above
Or, you could take a day trip to the beautiful city of Biarritz
Nature trips
🚲 E-mountain Bike Mount Igeldo tour – cycle along easy and scenic gravel paths and trails along the coastline of Igueldo Mountain, all the way to the Kukuarri Cross, clearing a part of El Camino de Santiago.
→ Book now
🐴 Horse riding through the Peñas de Aya – 3.5 hour tour riding in the hills. Experience breathtaking views over both Spain and France before heading to a Basque mountain inn for a traditional lunch. Children over 8 can ride.
→ Book now
🎉 So now you can see why I think a trip to San Sebastian with kids is a great idea. There are so many wonderful ways to entertain the whole family in and around the city. Let’s get booking!
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