If I were to choose between spending the month of July in other of these Spanish cities, what reasons would I give for my choices?
I have only been to San Sebastian but it was a nice coastal town and there was a good Jazz Festival in July. Good food as well, due to the Basque influence.
ETA: The Jazz Festival 24-28 Jul.
I haven’t spent any time in Alicante, but I loved San Sebastian. The food was really good, and there were a lot of bars in a small area so there was a lot to do at night. Temperature wise, it was nice although if you were looking to spend a lot of time at the beach, it might not be your best bet.
They’re about as opposite as they get.
Alicante: HOT, hot, hot; if you go in July you will have just missed the “midsummer” festival (San Juanes). Beach, sun, sand. British expats. The green in the hills is thanks to irrigation. White houses. Moorish remnants. It’s on the shores of the Mediterranean, aka “the bathtub” because it’s calm and hot. Touristy food, including quite a few locales which cater almost exclusively to the expats. Valencia a short train ride away, as well as many small towns which are fabulously visitable if you don’t mind the heat and know how to deal with it (keep hydrated, avoid being outside during the hours of greatest heat).Very cool “Moors and Christians” festivals in some of those towns; in many you can see the old fortifications. Sagunto castle (a bit north of Valencia) is quite impressive: the central building doesn’t look very big when you see it from afar, but that’s because the wall is tremendously long.
San Sebastián, aka San Sestabién (Saint A Great Place To Be): bring a raincoat. It can be sunny, it can be rainy; it can be both in the same day. The green in the hills is thanks to the slow, steady rain called xirimiri or calabobos (“drenches dumb people”). Spend at least one day at La Perla, a spa on the beach which is about as old as the concept of vacation. The town’s nickname comes from that time, when the Royal Household would move there to enjoy a cool summer away from that pressure cooker called Madrid. Two local languages: you won’t be likely to confuse Basque and Spanish, but keep in mind that in most street signs the word you need to remember is the one in bigger letters (normally, the one in the middle, due to different word order in both languages). There is a street 1km long which is all bars - the usual way to move through it is by having small glasses of your drink of choice (wine = chiquito; beer = zurito) and to have one or two in each place, as well as pinxos, tapas or subs (bocadillos, bocatas) if you feel like it. The best squid in the world. Bilbao a short train ride away (you may wish to look at Puppy’s House* only from outside and visit the Museo de Bellas Artes instead). Hendaya and Ondarribia also a stone’s throw away.
- Guggenheim. People from Bilbao have a rep for being big mouths and the first permanent exhibit was Puppy, a garden sculpture just outside the museum. “It takes someone from Bilbao to build a titanium doghouse…”