Our walk from Zarautz to San Sebastian was on the Camino Norte (Northern Way), but, in order to head South, we have to switch to the Camino Vasco Interior (Inland Basque Way). However, the closest point this route gets to San Sebastian is the town of Hernani, 8km away. Though it's probably possible to walk this, there appears to be no official route linking these two caminos, and it looks to be all along busy roads, so we decided to play it safe and get a local BU-11 bus to Hernani from the centre of San Sebastian. Hernani is a nice little town, with some lovely old buildings and a few bars/cafés should you want to stop here for refreshment. As we'd had breakfast back in San Sebastian, we were keen to get going, so just started walking as soon as we'd arrived. The walk today was asphalt for virtually the whole way, whether it was along roads, paths following the railway and river, or through industrial areas. This made it a bit boring and hard on the feet, though there were a couple of more photogenic parts as we left Hernani, plus some nice scenery along the way to keep us going. The first town we passed was Urnieta, though the route didn't actually pass through it, so we have no idea what it's like! We would have needed to go off-route and cross the railway to visit it, but we hadn't been walking very long and therefore decided to continue on. Our first stop was the town of Andoain. It's a similar size to Hernani and also has a similar old town and plenty of bars/cafés. We happened to pass the central Goikoplaza, next to the cathedral, and decided to stop here, at the Xama Andoain café, where we had possibly the best tortilla we've ever had! Perfect Camino fuel! After Andoain, the path loosely follows the river and crosses the railway line a few times as it snakes its way through the several small towns between here and Tolosa. Although we felt the need for a very quick coffee stop at an awful bar in Elbarrena, we thought this and neighbouring Villabona to be not very interesting at all, so didn't bother exploring them. Our next stop was in the small town of Anoeta, which has a few café bars, though we'd arrived during the closing time (around 2:30pm to 4:30pm), so we sat on a bench in the town square. From here it was then a relatively relaxed 2.7km to the Hotel Bidebide, in Tolosa, our stop for tonight. Following a shower we went out in search of food, but after wandering the streets for seemingly ages, and getting increasingly hungry, we realised that none of the bars served food on Tuesdays! Typical! We were eventually recommended a place by a local that happened to be next to our hotel. Despite the food not meeting the town's reputation, we were so hungry we didn't actually care! Tolosa is a beautiful town and a highly recommended stop-over!

Hiking/Backpacking

Autonomous Community of the Basque , Spain

time : Sep 9, 2025 10:47 AM

duration : 6h 9m 37s

distance : 21.4 km

total_ascent : 585 m

highest_point : 159 m

avg_speed : 4.4 km/h

user_id : fineartjones

user_firstname : Neil

user_lastname : Jones

Our walk from Zarautz to San Sebastian was on the Camino Norte (Northern Way), but, in order to head South, we have to switch to the Camino Vasco Interior (Inland Basque Way). However, the closest point this route gets to San Sebastian is the town of Hernani, 8km away. Though it's probably possible to walk this, there appears to be no official route linking these two caminos, and it looks to be all along busy roads, so we decided to play it safe and get a local BU-11 bus to Hernani from the centre of San Sebastian. Hernani is a nice little town, with some lovely old buildings and a few bars/cafés should you want to stop here for refreshment. As we'd had breakfast back in San Sebastian, we were keen to get going, so just started walking as soon as we'd arrived. The walk today was asphalt for virtually the whole way, whether it was along roads, paths following the railway and river, or through industrial areas. This made it a bit boring and hard on the feet, though there were a couple of more photogenic parts as we left Hernani, plus some nice scenery along the way to keep us going. The first town we passed was Urnieta, though the route didn't actually pass through it, so we have no idea what it's like! We would have needed to go off-route and cross the railway to visit it, but we hadn't been walking very long and therefore decided to continue on. Our first stop was the town of Andoain. It's a similar size to Hernani and also has a similar old town and plenty of bars/cafés. We happened to pass the central Goikoplaza, next to the cathedral, and decided to stop here, at the Xama Andoain café, where we had possibly the best tortilla we've ever had! Perfect Camino fuel! After Andoain, the path loosely follows the river and crosses the railway line a few times as it snakes its way through the several small towns between here and Tolosa. Although we felt the need for a very quick coffee stop at an awful bar in Elbarrena, we thought this and neighbouring Villabona to be not very interesting at all, so didn't bother exploring them. Our next stop was in the small town of Anoeta, which has a few café bars, though we'd arrived during the closing time (around 2:30pm to 4:30pm), so we sat on a bench in the town square. From here it was then a relatively relaxed 2.7km to the Hotel Bidebide, in Tolosa, our stop for tonight. Following a shower we went out in search of food, but after wandering the streets for seemingly ages, and getting increasingly hungry, we realised that none of the bars served food on Tuesdays! Typical! We were eventually recommended a place by a local that happened to be next to our hotel. Despite the food not meeting the town's reputation, we were so hungry we didn't actually care! Tolosa is a beautiful town and a highly recommended stop-over!