Zarautz
Year: 2026
Population: 23496+
Zarautz, located in the Urola Coast region (composed of Zumaia, Getaria, Zarautz, Aia, and Orio with around 77,083+ inhabitants), of which the people from Zarautz, or zarauztarras, are 23,496+ inhabitants. The meaning of Zarautz is "pure rockrose." The rockrose is a shrub, which gives us an idea of the landscapes of Zarautz. This municipality has two official languages, Euskara (Basque) and Spanish, and it has been a fishing town, famous for its whale fishing in the Cantabrian until they became extinct. A reminder of this is its coat of arms, which we will show at the end, containing the image of a whale. Its main historical significance has been fishing and its shipyard, which no longer exists today. In that shipyard, the ship on which Elcano circumnavigated the world was built. Juan Sebastián Elcano was born in the 15th century in Getaria, a neighboring town 4 km away from Zarautz. The province is Gipuzkoa. Zarautz is located approximately 21.2 km from its capital, San Sebastian, and 38.7 km from the airport named San Sebastian (located in Hondarribia). Among public transportation options, we find the metro (narrow-gauge train (Euskotren)), taxi, buses, and train. Although you can also go sailing or use a parachute, for example, jumping from the top of the Gran Camping de Zarautz, which is where we will start our tour today.
Before starting the tour, it is worth mentioning that Zarautz has two campsites, Camping Talai-mendi and the large Zarautz campsite, and we start from the latter.
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| Parapente. | Mollarri | Mollarri island |
We parked the car up top and headed on foot through the area called Mollarri. We crossed part of the Gran Camping de Zarautz and walked along a path parallel to the coast. A stone building surrounded by a trail signals the end of the route, Mollarri. We retrace our steps, this time without losing sight of the sea, and we catch this unforgettable view, the town of Zarautz at our feet.
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| Zarautz beach. |
A beach of about 2.5 km can be seen, and there we go. Along the way, we came across the other Talai-mendi campsite and a golf course, which is the 4th oldest golf course in Spain, located in the Iñurritza area, a protected biotope, as it is the most extensive and best-preserved dune field on the Basque coast, home to a diversity of wildlife, migratory birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, small invertebrates, and flora adapted to high salinity and sand.
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| Name of the monument: Vaiven. | Part of the protected biotope. |
A walk along the beach takes us to the Narros Palace. A small palace that hosted Queen Isabel II and Father Coloma. Built in 1536, 16th century.
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| Narros Palace. |
We entered the interior of the town of Zarautz and will highlight two churches, the Church of Santa Maria la Real and the Franciscan parish.
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| Santa maria la real | Altarpiece | Grave |
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| Window to the world. | Santa MarÃa la Real Gate. | Window to the world. |
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| Franciscan Parish. |
We will finish with a bit of hiking as we started, heading to the Zarautz tower, a magical place.
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| Zarautz Tower. |
And with this we say goodbye, we know there is more to tell, but we have given you the foundations, the principles, so that you can write the endings. See you soon.
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| Coat of arms of Zarautz. |