San Sebastián, Spain

Donostia-San Sebastián was a fishing and trading town on the Basque coast until the second half of the nineteenth century, when the Spanish court began summering here and the city rebuilt itself around the promenade of La Concha. What that left is unusual: a small city with the architecture of a resort capital, a bay that photographs well from every angle, and two hills that between them show it whole. Monte Urgull carries the old fortifications above the harbour; Monte Igueldo, at the far end of the bay, carries a funicular and the view the city is known by. The Parte Vieja beneath Urgull is where the eating happens — pintxos are ordered at the bar rather than the table, and the custom is to take one or two in each place and move on. Beyond the food, the Kursaal on the river mouth, the Miramar Palace on the ridge between the two beaches, and the long curve of the promenade itself are what most visitors remember. May and September are the two best months: the summer crowd has not arrived or has left, and the temperature sits in the low twenties.