This place is beautiful. The town is beautiful, the cobalt-blue Cantabrian Sea is breathtaking, and the beach is wide and pretty long. I lived in the town of San Sebastián for almost three months and Zurriola was my almost daily stop for whatever I was doing, taking pics, watching the waves, going to surf school or just staying on the beach and reading.
Zurriola or Playa de Gros is and elegant urban beach in the town of San Sebastián, capital of Gipuzkoa, one of the 7 Basque communities. The final shape of the beach was achieved in the 1990s and it’s the most modern beach of the town. Preferred for water sports except when the waves are too big, Zurriola extends from a long pier that separates the beach from river Urumea and ends at the base of Ulía, a scenic hill.
Kursaal
Looking like a huge alien structure landed right on next to the beach, Kursaal is a modern building made of two gigantic translucent cubes, two beached rocks that resemble the pier more than the rest of the city.
This singular work is designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo and was awarded the Mies van der Rohe Award for Best European Building 2001. It is equipped with cutting-edge technology and multipurpose, versatile spaces, making it the perfect setting for small company meetings or major congresses, product launches, conventions and fairs. I went here for the Film Festival of San Sebastian, 65th edition, 2015, when they invited Benicio del Toro and Ricardo Darín and Javier Cámara got the silver for best actor (for Truman, what a movie).
The Pier
When the sea gets big there’s nothing better than going at the pier and see the waves breaking. Locals also enjoy surfing the river when the conditions are good and the river practically runs backwards because of the power of the sea water.
Travel in Patterns 