Basque Country

The Basque Country has always done things its own way. Straddling northern Spain and southwestern France, it combines Atlantic coastline, green mountains, industrial cities and fishing villages with a cultural identity and language unlike anywhere else in Europe. Bilbao’s transformation from industrial powerhouse to design destination became an international model for urban regeneration, with Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim providing the famous centrepiece, while architects including Rafael Moneo and Santiago Calatrava added further landmarks. San Sebastián offers an altogether more elegant Belle Époque counterpoint, and throughout the region old factories, farmhouses and industrial buildings are finding new lives through ambitious contemporary architecture and adaptive reuse.

Food and drink aren’t simply attractions here; they’re fundamental to Basque identity. San Sebastián has one of the world’s great concentrations of serious restaurants, but Michelin stars tell only part of the story. Pintxos bars, traditional asadores, seafood restaurants and gastronomic societies make exceptional eating remarkably democratic, while chefs such as Juan Mari Arzak helped change the direction of modern Spanish cooking. Txakoli vineyards overlook the Atlantic, cider houses turn dinner into a ritual, and the combination of exceptional produce, obsessive technique and a deeply social approach to eating makes the Basque Country a destination where lunch can quite reasonably become the day’s main activity.

The Basque Country’s most interesting hotels reflect the same confidence. Belle Époque landmarks, converted historic buildings, rural caseríos, vineyard retreats and contemporary design hotels combine serious architecture with an equally serious approach to food. At DNA Hotels, we curate the places where architecture, gastronomy, culture and the dramatic Atlantic landscape come together—hotels that capture a region where strong local identity has never stood in the way of radical new ideas.