AKELARRE, SAN SEBASTIAN
So it was back to another easter egg hunt in looking for somewhere that offered something instead of the pintxos that we have been eating for the past few days. Again we just went from place to place and after filling ourselves up with Bread and cured meat, we made our way to La Vina which apparently has the best cheese cake in all of San Sebastian.
27 DIFFERENT COURSES
Coming into the restaurant you want to see the amount of cheese cake sitting prepared and ready to serve, it’s incredible! None of us are huge fans of cheese cake, I’m all about the chocolate but it didn’t stop us getting stuck in. If anything it gave us a nice break from the Pintxos
WHERE IS AKELARRE?
We have a big night tonight in one of the nicer restaurants so that’ll be the last bite we have until around 21:00 when we go to Akelarre.
FINE DINING
Neither I or my parents are regulars of fine dining and when asking for recommendations on holiday we tend to specifically request not to be directed to a Michelin star restaurant let alone one with 3. We are all about restaurants which are relaxed and have a buzzy atmosphere where we can drink, laugh and chat without the danger of creating too much noise!
AKELARRE
Akelarre is around 20 minutes outside the town and situated on the most impressive setting you will find. Now also a hotel with 22 rooms, you are able to enjoy your 9 course meal with uninterrupted views of the Bay of Biscay, its truly unique. I would recommend to book 12months (yes 12 months) ahead to guarantee you a window seat. If that fails you could arrive 30minutes ahead of your booking and enjoy a drink in one of their booths to enjoy the same view outside (weather dependent of course!).
THE MENU
I’m not going to take you through each course, between the 3 of us there was 27 courses and 16 different meals. There are 3 tasting menus to choose from, Aranori, Bekarki and the Classics of Akelare. I opted for the classic menu and my parents went for the Aranori.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME
These dishes will be nothing like what you have ever tried, and it was a great experience just to come, certainly a once in a lifetime. For sure you couldn’t come every week, even if you could afford it and for me there is still nothing like having good old fillet steak….or a pizza, shoot me!
HOME
Flying home form Bilbao today so we have agreed to leave a few hours early and see what the city has to offer. Not sure there is a lot but always keen to make the most of a few free hours.
As like yesterday it was lashing so we were not for doing any walking so headed to the impressive looking Guggenheim Museum. Opened in 1997, The museum exhibits modern & contemporary art by Frank Gehry, an American/Canadian. Considering I’m not a huge lover of contemporary art it was definitely worth the visit.
Top tip for anyone flying out of Bilbao with no hotel. The museum can store your luggage, so we were able to go Coppola Bilbao for a pizza without the hassle of carrying our cases around!
FINAL THOUGHTS
An experience worth doing I think.
From a corner food stall in Burkina Faso to a 3 Michelin Star restaurant on the cliff in San Sebastian, its safe to say this trip had everything. Read the Reflection post here.
NEXT UP
Reflection post time and then off to France as part of my Algeria trip in June. Click here to read episode 1 of The Algeria Series.
SAFE TRAVELS, DS x
133/229
This post is part of the West Africa Series, pt1, click to explore or for episode 1 click here.
To watch the video of my trip, head to my highlights on my Instagram.
