Tours and Tickets to Experience San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

We decided to walk to the church in San Juan de Gaztelugatxe to get the full experience of being in a Game of Thrones shooting location. Tiring but exhilarating! Tour of San Sebastián gave us a glimpse of the place, with just enough time to have lunch or Pintxos and cold beers.

This tour was the highlight of my trip to Bilbao. It was well organized and the agenda was perfect . Out tour guide Aman and driver Verónica we’re the best !!!! Aman explanation were excelente . He’s knowlegenle and very profesional … Verónica is most ajillo drivet i’ve ever seme ….my respecto to them !

Alby was a fabulous guide, 11/10 stars! He was friendly, attentive and knowledgeable about all the areas we drove to and from. We loved that he accompanied us 25% of the way and then gave us time to explore by ourselves to take in the sights and sounds of both Gaztelugatxe/Game of Thrones/Dragon Stone setting and the Guggenheim Museum. In addition to the above I mentioned a musical artist that I loved and he found him on Spotify for the entire ride home. We only wish we were here a few more days to spend more time with Alby on additional tours. Ask for Alby by name you will have a great tour! Alby should be #1 guide of the year, G’Day Mate!

San Sebastián was a beautiful city to see. San Juan was also incredible. Our tour guide, Lur, was incredibly friendly, approachable and humourous!

Nice spots, clean bus, friendly tour guide. The bodega was disappointing: it was not possible to taste and compare different wines, we got just one glas. That was it.

All was good except visit to Gernika. First we were standing in front of the picture on the wall for more than 20 minutes (under the rain) and then went to the tunnel for the refugees, where we caught claustrophobic attack. Moreover, we were forced to listen to the sirens inside this tunnel. I can hardly imagine how would people from Ukraine or Israel who live under the bombing for years would feel in this situation, if they were the part of our group. Such an experience should not be the part of the ordinary tourist trip, but rather a part of special trip, getting informed confirmation from each member first. So the part with visit to Gernica can be easily skipped - or replaced by the visit to any other spot, more psychologically safe.

Though there was a bit of confusion at the beginning as to which group ours was, thankfully everything worked out fine. Our guide, Stephan, provided key information on the places to visit, the order of visits, and so forth. Our first stop was Gaztelugatxe, or as HBO fans will recall “Dragonstone”. Stephan rightly informed us the hike would be strenuous and everyone accepting the hiking “challenge” needed to keep time in mind as the hike out could take 25+ minutes and would be tiresome due to the downward incline and number of steps up to the top while the return trip could easily take 40+ minutes repeating the numerous steps down along with a hike “back up” on a steep incline. He also highly recommended we take water along with. He wasn’t kidding, while it was well worth it for the captivating views, etc., it was grueling work, reminding us we could do for a bit more exercise once we returned home—a great workout for sure. Our next stop was Bermeo, which was a quant little town. While there wasn’t a lot of time to explore the town, we did get to try the local “buns” which had a sweet, buttery taste; hereafter, thereafter, we headed to Gernika, where the visit was informative, but too short…would’ve loved to visit the museum. Hereafter, off to Mundaka we went where the sea fairing town was quant. Again, not a lot of time here, but did enjoy some local seafood, etc. After this visit, we proceeded to our final spot, the Bodega Berroja where we were able to try some of the local wine. By and far, while you always want more time to visit each location, it was an enjoyable experience overall. Would definitely recommend. Also, thanks to our driver, John, we made it to each location and home safely.

This was an excellent trip. We visited various sites around the Basque country with significant historical and religious significance. I got to eat lots of tasty pintxos too. Stephen (our guide) was also very upbeat and shared with us a lot about Basque history. Kudos to Veronica (our driver) who drove us safely through the winding mountain roads too.