Pamplona’s airport is small and most of the year it is quiet. What it does have is position: San Sebastián is 90 km north, Logroño 92 km south, and both are among the best places to eat in Spain. In July the region belongs to San Fermín and the beaches; in January it belongs to whoever is prepared to wear a coat, and it is far better for it.
San Sebastián: the pintxo, done properly
A pintxo is not a tapa. It is a small, constructed thing, usually served on bread or a skewer, ordered one at a time and paid for at the end on trust. The rule is one pintxo and one small drink per bar, then move on — the crawl is the meal.
In the Parte Vieja, the old town between the bay and the river, the bars are three deep at the counter by eight in the evening. Look for:
- The gilda — olive, anchovy and guindilla pepper on a stick, invented here and named after the Rita Hayworth film.
- Grilled txistorra, tortilla still runny in the middle, and whatever the bar has cooked that evening on the plancha rather than the ones sitting under glass.
- Txakoli, the sharp, faintly fizzy Basque white, poured from a height into a flat tumbler.
Winter has a practical advantage: you can get to the bar. In August the same streets are impassable by nine.
Beyond eating, walk La Concha end to end — the bay is at its most dramatic in a winter swell — climb Monte Urgull for the view, and look at the Kursaal cubes lit up after dark.
The Tamborrada, if you time it right
On 20 January, San Sebastián does not sleep. At midnight the flag goes up in the Plaza de la Constitución and the whole city spends 24 hours drumming: companies of cooks and soldiers, thousands of drums and barrels, children’s parades in the morning. It is the city’s patron saint’s day, it is extraordinary, and it is the single best reason to visit in winter. Book beds well in advance.
La Rioja: an hour the other way
South of Pamplona, Logroño is a small city with a street that does one thing exceptionally well. Calle Laurel is a hundred metres of bars where each one has a single speciality — mushrooms with a prawn on top at one, grilled squid at another, lamb chops over vine shoots at a third — and you order that and nothing else.
The wineries are the other half. Haro, 40 minutes west, has the barrio de la estación: a cluster of historic bodegas within walking distance of one another, most of them offering tours and tastings by appointment. Winter is the quiet season for visits, which means smaller groups and more time with whoever is pouring.
Pamplona, between the two
Book your transfer
The city everyone associates with running bulls in July is a different place in winter: a walled old town, an enormous star-shaped citadel, and a covered market. The pintxo scene on Calle Estafeta and around Plaza del Castillo is excellent and a fraction of the price of San Sebastián, and the Navarran wine from the south of the province — plus the piquillo peppers and white asparagus the region is famous for — makes it a serious eating city in its own right.
How to plan three days
- Day one: land, drop bags in Pamplona, walk the old town, eat on Calle Estafeta.
- Day two: San Sebastián. Arrive for lunch, walk La Concha, climb Monte Urgull, then the Parte Vieja from eight.
- Day three: south to Logroño and the Haro wineries, booked in advance, with Calle Laurel in the evening.
It is a compact triangle — no leg is longer than 90 km — which is exactly why this airport suits a long weekend better than its size suggests.
Getting there
Pamplona’s airport (PNA) is 7 km from the city, and both of these trips start there. The transfer from Pamplona airport to San Sebastián is 90 km and about 75 minutes on the motorway. The transfer to Logroño is 92 km and a similar time.
A private transfer earns its keep on this particular trip for an obvious reason: nobody should drive between Rioja wineries, and the bus timetables between these three cities are built for commuters, not for visitors arriving on an evening flight. The price is per vehicle, so a group splits it.
If you are staying in Pamplona itself, the airport transfer into the city takes about 12 minutes.
The short version
- San Sebastián: 90 km, 75 minutes. Pintxos in the Parte Vieja, one per bar.
- Logroño: 92 km. Calle Laurel, then the Haro wineries.
- 20 January: the Tamborrada, the best winter date in the Basque calendar.
- Low season means you can actually reach the counter.
