I experienced many conversation-starting moments during my time in San Sebastián, but above all it was food that brought me to the city. To guide my gastronomic journey, I was fortunate to have the recommendations of Tomos Parry, chef and founder of beloved London restaurants Brat and Mountain. Anglesey-born Parry found his love of the Basque Country through a sense of shared Celtic patrimony. “When you go and visit there, it almost feels like you’ve gone to Wales,” he tells me. “It’s very green, very cold seas, and the people have a strong sense of identity.”

Parry’s restaurants are inspired by Basque cuisine, and he brings his entire staff to San Sebastián twice a year: almost always to visit the same restaurants; a kind of Ur-text to be revisited and revised. “It just serves as a reminder for the teams to stick to what they do, because these restaurants have been doing the same thing for years. And there’s nothing wrong with doing that, because you just perfect it and perfect it.”

Certain boldface name restaurants have helped to make San Sebastián a culinary capital: , , . But I wanted Tomos’s tips to the city’s pintxos scene. San Sebastián has become a major foodie destination, but it hasn’t become wildly expensive, nor has the ethos around eating really changed. Why? Per Parry: “The number one person is still the local. They know that that’s the most important person – the local – and the rest will follow.”

The first place I visited was , an old school pintxos place covered with posters of its most famous visitors, followed by , where it’s not easy to get a spot at the counter and the overworked waiters are a bit short. At Tomos’s behest, I order their , five or six different types of grilled mushrooms on a plate with a raw egg yolk in the middle. It’s such a voluptuous dish, forcing you to reckon with the fact it’s just fungus and egg yolk: butter-rich, with an almost beef-dripping like savouriness; it’s unforgettable for those of a mushroomy persuasion. It’s worth knowing, too, that the restaurant downstairs from Ganbara has an outstanding and cheap wine list.

Visit for a simple plate of beef and tomatoes. is a very good option for gambas, and Cuchara de San Telmo is an all-round standout from a pintxos point of view, with some really inventive cooking. , which is constantly brimming with locals, is the place for what is now famous as Basque cheesecake, and more or less its origin point.

I’d recommend swimming in the cold waves at the surfer’s beach, Zurriola, before an indulgent lunch at Andoni Mugaritz’s – an offspring of his famous three-star . Nestled in the corner of the cultural centre where the San Sebastián Film Festival takes place, it serves modern Basque dishes with a vegetable focus – including excellent , or garden peas. It’s a beautiful place to sit after an hour on the beach.

If you have enough time, San Sebastián-born sculptor, Cristina Iglesias, whose forthcoming show at the Serpentine opens next spring, tells me about the area’s best walks, like the Flysch rock formations around 35 minutes outside the city, or the Jaizkibel ridge hike – a place of elemental Basque drama. She also points me to the Sanctuary of Arantzazu in Oñati, a much-loved holy site about an hour’s drive from San Sebastián.

The Nobu Hotel is on the best stretch of La Concha, one of the most expensive corridors of real estate in Spain. A natural concern is that staying in an outpost of Nobu could feel nothing like you’re in San Sebastián, but in a sense the location compensates for this: you are so in the heart of the town, it’s hard to feel you are missing out. My beautifully folded-together room on the corner of the hotel felt like a private apartment; the whole suite communing with the bay and the sea beyond, with little sense of the rest of the hotel at all – except, of course, when you need something; then, the international cast of staff are brilliantly attentive. The rooms are full of light-touch Japanese prints, lacquerware and smart carpentry. The food was very good – and perhaps you might want a Nobu negroni or a plate of sashimi – but most people visiting this particular destination will prefer to eat out.

The marble palace that is Hotel Maria Cristina is a flourishing reminder of San Sebastián’s last heyday, in the Belle Époque. The property is right in the centre of town, and a truly personal place run by people who are as loyal to the hotel as the hotel has been to San Sebastián. The Eduardo Chillida suite, named for the Basque sculptor and decorated with images of his creations, has a canopied bed from which you can glimpse the sea as you drift off.

Neat and low-key, the interiors here are smart, with artisanal flourishes like hand-painted wallpapers in the lifts. The best suite is the panoramic suite on the top floor, which is not big but hangs above the sea with an arched glass front, sitting just above the La Concha weather station. There are plenty of cosy nooks to retreat to, the whole place leaning toward an adults-only feeling. But there is still an air of San Sebastián’s courtliness – grandfather clocks and parquet floors which make the hotel feel regal and slightly elevated.

If you want to see more of the Basque Country, take a car out of San Sebastián and head for Canfranc Estacion, one of the most dramatic hotels in the region, which connects to the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. Splayed across the valley, it’s a perfectly symmetrical converted train station that could have been lifted from a Wes Anderson film. The place is a cathedral to an old Europe: the memory of rail travel, war, spying – a dash of or . It’s a fantastical place to stay but also very comfortable: the rooms spacious and modern with smart woodwork and mountain views.