History at Dusk, Then Five Bars for Dinner

Four and a half hours in the evening, of which the first ninety minutes are walking and looking rather than eating.

You meet in the lobby of the Hotel Londres, on the promenade above the Concha, and start with the bay in front of you. The city as it now stands is younger than it looks: almost all of it burned in 1813, and the elegant nineteenth-century quarter came later, built because the royal family began summering here and everyone with money followed. Your guide fills in the anecdotes that only get told locally.

Then the food. Five pintxos and five drinks, and the route is decided for your group rather than fixed: the guide chooses the bars after hearing what you like and what you cannot eat, so no two departures are identical. At each stop they suggest what to order and which glass belongs with it, and explain the mechanics, how to order, how to pay, when to move on, which in a crowded Basque bar is not obvious.

Eight guests at most, with a bilingual guide. It ends at the taxi rank on the Alameda del Boulevard.

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