Five Bars, and the Guide Orders for You

The problem with the Parte Vieja is not finding pintxos, it is choosing. The old town holds more pintxo bars per square metre than anywhere in Spain, every counter is loaded, and from outside they all look equally good. Most of them are not.

This tour solves that by removing the decision. Five bars, and in each one the guide names the single pintxo that bar does better than anyone else, plus the drink that belongs with it: cider, txakoli, or a red. Txakoli is the local white, sharp and faintly fizzy, poured from a height like the cider and drunk young; it exists to cut through fried and salted food and does nothing else particularly well.

The bars are chosen for being off the run that visitors find on their own, which in a town this small means the ones locals still use at seven in the evening.

Between the stops the guide covers Basque customs and how the culture around eating standing up actually works: what you order, how you pay, when to move on.

Three hours, up to ten guests, guided in English. You meet at the taxi rank near the City Hall, in front of the Enso bar, and finish there.

The operator was ranked the tenth best food experience in the world in 2022.