Northern Spain with Michael and Tara Gallina

Ongietorri! Welcome to Basque country, one of Europe’s most ancient cultures, and home to more Michelin stars than any other region of the world. After checking into our hotel (and admiring the titanium-winged Guggenheim Museum just outside our windows), we’ll meet up with the Gallinas for a welcome copa, or cocktail, before heading to dinner at Gure Toki, an iconic restaurant famous for its pintxos and local wines.

Nestled under the graceful arches of the 19th-century Plaza Nueva and buzzing with energy, this sleek spot is famous for reinterpreting classic Basque tapas, adding deft global touches like tempura and curry. This is a perfect manifestation of what’s known around the world as the Bilbao Effect: a seamless blending of old and new, local and global, historic and contemporary. There’s no better place for us to start our adventure together.

Even if you’d never heard of the Googen, as locals affectionately call it, you’d recognize it instantly, its shimmering silver wings and sails arching sleekly skyward like a mythical creature poised for flight. This morning, we’ll enjoy an exclusive insider’s tour of the iconic Frank Gehry–designed museum, getting our fill of giants like Rothko, Warhol, and Serra, as well as visiting areas generally off-limits to the public.

Our next stop will be equally dazzling: a jaunt out to the cliffs of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. Translating literally as “castle island,” this medieval stone castle is connected to the mainland by a narrow, 241-step stone bridge that zigzags back and forth to form one of the world’s grandest staircases. The setting is so stunning and cinematic, we’ll feel like we’ve been here before — and in a way, we have, thanks to HBO’s Game of Thrones, which was filmed here.

After drinking in our fill of sea air and watching seagulls circle over the shimmering blue waters of the Bay of Biscay below, we’ll head to a local winery to sample traditional txakoli wines. Txakoli may translate as “cottage wine,” but these light, dry sparklers are anything but humble. Lunch is the main meal of the day in Basque country, and ours today will be a “km zero” — meaning that every ingredient has been harvested within less than a mile of where we sit.

Our final stop of the afternoon will be the town of Gernika, the seat of Basque culture. In 1937, during the height of the Spanish Civil War, this little village was bombed by German and Italian warplanes and inspired Pablo Picasso to paint Guernica, his vast black-and-white masterpiece, which quickly became one of the world’s most compelling and enduring anti-war images.

We’ll be saying farewell to Bilbao this morning and heading off to Rioja Alta, one of Spain’s most storied wine regions. Our first stop en route will be at the Conde de los Andes winery, whose traditionally cultivated old vines clamber up from the river toward the sandstone cliffs of the Toloño mountain range, producing silken, citrus-forward whites and plummy, aromatic reds. Conde de los Andes also boasts one of the country’s oldest cellars, a vast, kilometer-long network painstakingly carved by Galician stonemasons back in the 17th century.

Tonight’s dinner will be at the nearby Michelin-starred Venta de Moncalvillo, located in a tiny village of 50 inhabitants nestled amid lavender-scented pine groves. Former blacksmith Ignacio Echapestro oversees the kitchen here, turning out deceptively simple dishes showcasing just one or two ingredients (artichokes, quince) straight from his biodynamic gardens. This sustainable kind of cooking is very much aligned with Michael and Tara’s food philosophy, and before dinner we’ll have an opportunity to explore the restaurant’s vast gardens with him and pick up a few tips on how to really capture seasonal vegetables and herbs at the peak of their flavor.

Crisp, cool mountain air will greet us this morning as we depart Rioja Alta for the mountain hamlet of Santa Cruz de Campezo. Our gentle hike will take us through forests of linden and yew trees, winding past rushing streams, craggy summits, and fields pocked with grazing cattle and small chapels and hermitages.

Now that we’ve worked up an appetite, it’s time for us to add another Michelin star to our belts. Arrea! chef Edorta Lamo comes from a long line of hunter-gatherers, and his menu is an homage to his ancestors who, lacking land of their own for growing crops or rearing animals, turned instead to the mountains to hunt.

We’ll gather in the evening for a very special Basque experience: a txotx, or cider tasting at one of the region’s many cider houses, ancient wood-beamed taverns where big wooden barrels stand propped up against stone walls.

Cider is such a beloved tradition in this part of the world that back in the 16th century, the Basques built sailing ships around their cider barrels, allowing their sailors to drink cider every day at sea and fend off scurvy. We’ll learn more about the history and finer points of cider-drinking, then enjoy a classic cider house meal—think heaping platters of smoked meats and creamy sheep’s-milk cheeses served with seasonal nuts and fruit.

After breakfast, we’ll take a short trip up to the top of Mount Igueldo, which rises over San Sebastián and offers panoramic views of the city below. Next, we’ll head back to town to explore the San Martin Market, established in 1870, where many of the city’s best chefs shop daily. With Michael and Tara as our guides, we’ll inspect local delicacies like live snails and smoky Idiazabal cheeses, then select a few to take with us to our next event: a cooking class where we’ll try our hand at preparing traditional Basque dishes.

After a sumptuous lunch dining on our own creations, we’ll have time to wander the winding cobblestoned streets of the Parte Vieja on our own.

In the evening, we’ll meet up with our local guide for a txikiteo, an epic pintxo crawl in search of the best of the region’s world-famous, toothpick-skewered tapas. We’ll stop here, there and everywhere to sample the likes of plump boquerones, glistening tuna carpaccio, and white asparagus with truffle mayonnaise. Pintxos in one hand and a glass of crisp cider just pulled from the tap in the other, we’ll perch cozily at little standing tables before moving on to the next venue (and the next, and the next).

Today starts with a leisurely drive out to a local sheep milk farm, where we’ll visit the herd and learn more about traditional cheese-making practices.

After an extensive sampling (accompanied by a little cider, of course), we’ll be ready for another only-in-Basque-Country lunch at Elkano, a World’s 50 Best Restaurant that rewrites the script on Mediterranean seafood.

After returning to San Sebastián, we’ll have the balance of the day to ourselves to continue our wanderings, perhaps embarking upon our own self-directed pintxo crawl tonight before ending the evening with a gin cocktail and a midnight stroll along the promenade.

Today we’ll bop across the border to France to visit the “other” Basque Country. We begin with wine from Irouléguy, a small wine appellation—with just over one square mile of vines, some of its slopes are so steep and difficult to hand-harvest that they’ve achieved “heroic appellation” status.

Next, we’ll head on to Biarritz, making a beeline for the markets of Les Halles, where an extravaganza of oysters, escargots and prawns awaits us. Les Halles has something for every mood: it’s not uncommon for locals to swing by for an early breakfast before work, then return later in the day to slurp back oysters or enjoy a slice of cherry jam- and cream-filled gâteau basque.

We’ll return to San Sebastián in the late afternoon to rest up before our very special dinner tonight at a txoko, one of the region’s 200-odd private gastronomic societies. Membership in these societies traditionally passes from father to son, making this a very coveted invitation seldom available to outsiders.

As we raise our glasses to toast our hosts and each other, we’ll understand exactly why the Basques say Adiskide onekin, orduak labur. With a good friend, the hours are short.

Alas, our time together has come to an end. After breakfast and perhaps a farewell morning stroll (including a mad dash for one final pintxo – hey, no judgment!), we’ll bid farewell to San Sebastián, our new friends, and the magic of Basque Country.