Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital of the Basque Country and the seat of its parliament and government, a city of about 250,000 on a low hill in Alava. It is also the least visited of the three Basque capitals by a wide margin, which is the whole of its appeal: Bilbao has the Guggenheim and San Sebastian has the beach, and Vitoria has itself.
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One honest note about the photographs. VITORIA'S DEFINING FEATURE IS THE SHAPE OF ITS OLD TOWN, an almond of concentric streets wrapped around a hill, AND NEITHER IT NOR THE OLD CATHEDRAL IS IN OUR IMAGE SET. What you see is the City Hall, the glass-balconied apartments of the newer centre, and a park. The almond is described below.
What Is Here
THE CASCO VIEJO IS AN ALMOND AND YOU CAN FEEL IT WHILE WALKING. The medieval town is built in concentric rings around the hilltop, and the street names still record the trades: Correria, Zapateria, Herreria, Cuchilleria, the saddlers, cobblers, smiths and cutlers. The rings are joined by steep cantons and by modern outdoor escalators, which is an unglamorous and completely sensible civic solution.
THE OLD CATHEDRAL OF SANTA MARIA IS VISITED AS A BUILDING SITE AND THAT IS THE POINT. It was structurally failing, and rather than close it the city opened the restoration to the public under the slogan "open for works": you tour the foundations, the crypt, the triforium and the scaffolding with a hard hat, and the archaeology is explained as you go. Ken Follett used it as inspiration and there is a statue of him outside. BOOK AHEAD; the tours are timed and limited.
The glass-enclosed balconies are the second image, and they are a Basque urban signature: galerias that trap the sun in a cool wet climate.
IT WAS THE EUROPEAN GREEN CAPITAL IN 2012 and the reason is the ANILLO VERDE, a green belt of parks and wetlands encircling the city, linked by paths you can walk or cycle the whole way round. Salburua's wetland has a hide and a herd of deer, and the Atxukale and Zabalgana parks are on the same ring.
The pintxos are cheaper than in San Sebastian and nearly as good, concentrated on Calle Cuchilleria and the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca, which is the city's living room.
RIOJA ALAVESA IS 40 MINUTES SOUTH, the Basque section of Rioja, with Laguardia's walled village, Elciego's Gehry-designed Marques de Riscal winery and some of the oldest vines in the region.
When to Go
May to September. June and September are the most reliable.
THE FIESTAS DE LA VIRGEN BLANCA IN EARLY AUGUST are the city's big event, opening with the Celedon, a doll on a wire that flies across the Plaza at the start, and the city fills.
This is a cool, wet, green city rather than a hot Spanish one. It sits at 525 metres on a plateau between mountain ranges, it rains a great deal, and summer rarely gets uncomfortable. Winters are cold and damp with occasional snow.
The Azkena Rock Festival in June and the jazz festival in July are the other fixtures.
Getting There
By train, about four hours from Madrid and an hour from Bilbao.
By bus, roughly an hour from Bilbao and an hour and a quarter from San Sebastian, with frequent services.
By air, Bilbao is the practical airport at an hour; Vitoria's own airport is mainly cargo.
By car, about an hour from Bilbao and four and a half from Madrid.
Is Vitoria-Gasteiz Safe for Women?
Vitoria-Gasteiz is a prosperous, orderly, very safe city, and is consistently rated among the best in Spain for quality of life. The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Spain, and the country is one of the most straightforward in the world to travel in. Its safety and security page concentrates on petty theft, which is the realistic risk, and on the fact that Spanish police require you to report a theft in person to get the denuncia your insurer will ask for.
The ordinary city precautions are the whole of it: a closed bag in the pintxos crowd, and the usual awareness in the Casco Viejo on a Friday night, which is student-heavy and good-natured.
The cantons are steep and the old town is wet, which is the likeliest cause of a fall: the stone steps between the rings are polished and slick, and it rains often. The outdoor escalators exist for exactly this reason and are not a tourist novelty.
The cathedral tour involves scaffolding, uneven floors and confined passages with a hard hat, and is not suitable for anyone with significant mobility limits, which the city states plainly when booking.
The Anillo Verde paths are quiet at the far side of the ring, which is normal parkland rather than anything to worry about, and the usual sense applies after dark.
The Vitoria-Gasteiz Packing List
Cool, wet and green: a Basque plateau city rather than a Spanish one.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right first layer here because the thing visitors get wrong about Vitoria is the climate: at 525 metres between two mountain ranges it is cool and damp when the rest of Spain is baking, and a layer that keeps working when the air is wet matters more than one that breathes in heat. From October to April add a heavyweight merino base layer, because the winter damp here gets into everything.
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket in every month, which is the single most used item on this list.
Waterproof walking shoes with Darn Tough merino socks. THE CANTONS ARE THE REASON: the steps between the rings of the old town are polished stone and wet most of the year, and smooth soles are how people fall here.
A Columbia Fast Trek II fleece for the evenings, which are cool even in July.
Not linked and worth packing: AN UMBRELLA, which in a compact city with arcades is more useful than a hood; A SCARF for the cathedral works, where it is cold underground; A BOOK OF SMALL NOTES for the pintxos bars, though cards work; and A BICYCLE PLAN, since the Anillo Verde is best ridden and the city's hire scheme is good. Book the cathedral tour before you travel.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Vitoria-Gasteiz
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile. In the Basque Country the Ertzaintza is the regional police force and 112 reaches them. A theft needs an in-person denuncia to produce the document an insurer requires.
The Santa Maria cathedral is toured as a working restoration site, with a hard hat, scaffolding, uneven floors and confined passages, and the city says plainly that it is not suitable for anyone with significant mobility limits. The tours are timed and limited: book before you travel. THE CANTONS BETWEEN THE RINGS of the old town are steep polished stone and wet most of the year, which is the likeliest cause of a fall; the outdoor escalators are a civic solution rather than a novelty and are there to be used. THIS IS A COOL WET CITY AT 525 METRES, not a hot Spanish one, and visitors routinely pack for the wrong climate. THE FIESTAS DE LA VIRGEN BLANCA in early August fill the city.
US State Department travel advisory: the Spain advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: the Hospital Universitario de Alava has a full emergency department across its Txagorritxu and Santiago campuses and is the referral hospital for the province. Dial 112 for an ambulance. A farmacia posts the duty rota. Spain is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident. That is not the same as free, it does not cover repatriation or a private clinic, and on the islands and the costas many clinics aimed at visitors are private and will bill you, so check before you are treated. Spanish public hospitals are good and a farmacia handles minor problems without an appointment. Tap water is drinkable across the mainland and the Balearics. Heat is the realistic summer health risk rather than anything exotic.
Official health authority: the Spanish Ministry of Health. covers Osakidetza, the Basque health service
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Madrid.
Official tourism authority: Turespana, the national tourism board. runs the Santa Maria open-for-works tour booking and publishes the Anillo Verde route maps and the Virgen Blanca festival programme
Takeaways
Book the cathedral tour. You visit it as a building site, with a hard hat.
Walk the almond. The street names are the medieval trades.
Pack for cool and wet. This is not hot Spain.
Cycle the Anillo Verde, and take the escalators up the cantons without embarrassment.
Solo women safety assessment: Vitoria-Gasteiz is among the easiest and most pleasant cities in Spain for a woman travelling alone, and it is consistently rated near the top of Spanish cities for quality of life, which is visible in small ways: good lighting, wide pavements, a working green belt, and a civic culture that put escalators in a medieval hill town because people needed to get up it. It is the Basque seat of government with a large university, almost no international tourism, and a pintxos culture that fills the Casco Viejo with ordinary people of all ages until late. A woman eating alone at a bar here is entirely unremarkable. 112 REACHES POLICE, AMBULANCE AND FIRE free from any phone including a locked one and connects to the Ertzaintza, the Basque regional force, and the Hospital Universitario de Alava is the provincial referral hospital. SPAIN'S ADVISORY CONCERNS ARE PICKPOCKETING IN THE BIG TOURIST CITIES AND THE BALCONY AND ALCOHOL PROBLEMS OF THE RESORT STRIPS, and neither has much purchase in a Basque administrative capital; a closed bag in a crowded pintxos bar is the sum of the precaution required. WHAT ACTUALLY CATCHES PEOPLE OUT IS THE CLIMATE AND THE GROUND. The climate first: this is a city at 525 metres on a plateau between mountain ranges, it is cool and genuinely wet, and visitors who have packed for Seville arrive underdressed in August. The ground second, and it is the commonest injury: the old town is built in rings around a hill and the cantons connecting them are steep, polished stone, wet for much of the year. Wear something with a sole and use the outdoor escalators, which exist precisely because the city understood this. ONE BOOKING POINT WORTH ACTING ON BEFORE YOU ARRIVE: the Santa Maria cathedral is toured as an active restoration with a hard hat, scaffolding and confined passages; the tours are timed, limited and the best thing in the city, and the city is clear that they do not suit significant mobility limits.
Reading On
Vitoria-Gasteiz is the Basque Country's capital and the other two cities are an hour away. The Bilbao packing list covers the Guggenheim city north and the San Sebastian packing list the beach and the pintxos capital north east, with the San Juan de Gaztelugatxe packing list for the islet hermitage on the Biscay coast and the Pamplona packing list for Navarre east. Across the French border the Bayonne packing list, Biarritz packing list and Saint Jean de Luz packing list cover the same coast. South, the Burgos packing list and Valladolid packing list cover Castile, and west the Santander packing list and Comillas packing list the Cantabrian coast. For the country the Spain travel guide for women and the Spain packing list carry the regions and the transport in full. For why wool suits a cool damp climate, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
