Four days at the table,
and in the woods.
Donostia in November with eight to twelve people, built around the last harvest, the first game, and the weeks the elvers return.
Quoted per group. Rooms, host and private tables vary.
Eight to twelve places. The waiting list is open.
November is Donostia at its calmest — no queues, and a table in places that turn people away in August.
Some of this weekend cannot be repeated in any other month. Elver runs from November to March. Game enters the autumn menus. The txakoli is from the harvest just brought in. The dates are set by the season.
Over four days a small group forages, cooks and eats its way through San Sebastián, guided by the people who work here. You will walk beech and oak woodland with a mycologist and take home what you find, then cook it the same afternoon in a professional kitchen.
Arrival
old town & pintxos
Arrive at your own pace. The weekend opens at half past seven with a guided walk through the old town: five bars, two pintxos and a drink at each. Dinner, the way Donostia does it — standing, and moving.
Base — one hotel, three nights, in the city
Woods & kitchen
what you find, cooked
Beech and oak woodland in the morning, a professional kitchen in the afternoon. Easy walking, permit included, and you take home up to four kilos. The mycologist decides what is worth picking and what is worth leaving.
Base — the same hotel, no bags moved
Getaria
embers & txakoli
The coast road west to Getaria, a txakoli cellar, and fish grilled whole over embers at the harbour. The day runs early on purpose: lunch at the harbour with the whole afternoon still ahead of you.
Base — checkout Sunday at twelve, departures at your own pace
November, and not August: the same counters, without the queue. Elver runs from November, game is on the autumn menus, and the txakoli is from the harvest just brought in.
The group is capped at twelve — the most a pintxo bar takes comfortably, and the most the kitchen has bench space for.
One hotel for the whole weekend and no bags moved after Thursday. Saturday lunch is at one so the afternoon belongs to you.
A place is held with a deposit, and the terms in full reach you in writing before any money is taken. The weekend is confirmed no later than sixty days before it begins, while the fares into Bilbao and Biarritz are still worth having. If it does not run, every deposit is returned whole.
Tell us who is travelling, and we will write back.
Price on enquiry. Every weekend is quoted for the group that takes it — rooms, the host, and which tables are held privately. We answer within two working days, by letter or by telephone — and the weekend is confirmed sixty days before it begins, so no flight need be booked before then.