Want to avoid crowds in Europe? Look for what a destination is missing
San Sebastian doesn't have an airport. I mean, there is a San Sebastian Airport, but it's not in San Sebastian, it's in Hondarribia, on the French border, about a half-hour drive away. And even then, it's only a small provincial airport with flights to a few Spanish destinations and seasonal connections to the UK. The nearest large, international airport is in Bilbao, more than an hour away.
And then there's something else San Sebastian doesn't have: a cruise terminal. Ships can go into Bilbao, again more than an hour's drive away, or they can go into Bordeaux, which is even further. But there are no commercial passenger vessels darkening the harbours of Donostia.
This may seem incidental or even trivial, but it makes a difference. No airport means no mass arrivals of budget airlines. No budget airlines mean no partygoers coming over for the weekend from the UK or Ireland, hordes of people celebrating stag do's and hens nights and whatever else in a place with more bars per square kilometre than any other public facility. In many ways, San Sebastian is made for these sorts of visitors. But they don't arrive.
No cruise terminal, meanwhile, means no large groups of tour passengers making their way en masse through the city's narrow Old Town streets. You get small groups of tourists on local food tours and the like, but there's none of the noticeable ebb and flow you get when a huge cruise ship pulls into the local port.
San Sebastian lacks this connectivity. It's tricky to get to, a little annoying in some ways. And even still, the city is suffering under the weight of its own popularity, as stories of its gastronomic excellence and physical beauty have gone far and wide. Imagine what it would be like with better transport options?
In that way, San Sebastian is luckier than other tourism hotspots around Europe. It's luckier than Dubrovnik, and Prague, and Barcelona, and Venice, and Amsterdam. All those destinations have big international airports or cruise terminals or both.
It's luckier than Berlin and Rome, Santorini and Ibiza, Lisbon and Nice, which are notoriously overrun.
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