San Sebastián: The capital of the Gipuzkoa Province is a beautiful resort town at the mouth of the Urumea River, near Irún. It is one of Spain's most fashionable and popular seaside resorts. It has a fine beach known as La Concha, and it is also a major fishing port. A model of good urban design, the centre of town is easily walkable and has plenty of interesting architecture (website: www.sansebastianturismo.com).

Gernika (or Guernica): Gernika (website: www.gernika-lumo.net) is the small Basque town that on 26 April 1937 was razed to the ground by German aircraft sent by Hitler to support Franco's troops in the Spanish Civil War. It was an experiment for the blitzkrieg tactics and bombing of civilians seen in later wars, and it prompted Pablo Picasso to paint his most famous work named after the town itself. Gernika is the traditional heart of Basque nationalism. The famous Tree of Gernika, under which democratic assemblies were held from medieval times up until the 19th century, has been adopted as the symbol of the Basque Country as a whole, and the Biscay Parliament sits in the house next to it.