The Infinite Manifestations of Taste
I’m embarrassed to admit, when a colleague recommended Donostia-San Sebastián in Basque Country Spain for the final stop of my 5 city - 3 country - 2 continent tour I was completely oblivious to its very existence. It is still wild to me to think that just seven years ago, a place that has come to mean so much to me, that has revealed so much to me wasn’t even a dimly pulsing set of coordinates on my bucket list. And so, as I set out to write this dedicated tribute piece to San Sebastián, one part love letter, one part thank you note, I somehow sense before I even put pen to paper, San Sebastián has one more thing to say to me.
From over 4,000 miles away, its transatlantic pull has the same revelatory effect on me as when my feet are firmly planted on the ground there. As I start to contemplate what it felt like to experience the taste and temperament of San Sebastián, I already feel it pulling my story back to a more universal and accessible starting point. It is from here that I can not only more profoundly articulate why San Sebastián means what it does to me but also more generously share what happens when we find that spot for us – that one place in this world - where we suddenly make perfect sense because this place does too. It’s a homecoming of sorts but not before it is first a story of self-discovery and acceptance.
And so, my love of San Sebastián is best served up as colorful testimony alongside and in support of one of my favorite formative but rebellious dimensions of untethered travel – booking without restraint, restriction or regret. Unbound booking as I call it is to put our time, money and energy into seeking out and exploring only those places that call out to us. And when we in turn book one of these places with mindfulness and intent, we embark on the kind of journey that best positions us to purposefully pursue our genuine passions, to unabashedly reengage our malnourished interests and to reconnect with depths of our identity and soul we reluctantly or unknowingly buried in self-preservation. This type of travel starts with resisting among other things: temptation to conform, convenience to go along for the ride and groupthink but ends with maximizing time away from home so when we return to it, we are revitalized and determined to live as authentically as we travel.
If that sounds selfish – it is and it isn’t. Consider the rationale behind one of travel’s most universally accepted rules of engagement - Put your oxygen mask on first before assisting other passengers... If we don’t make a conscious sometimes seemingly mutinous commitment to take care of ourselves, to nurture our inner child and to listen to what we need to live a more complete life, then how can we possibly show up in the best shape to take care of others? To be an untethered traveler isn’t permission to be a self-centered, self-indulgent diva, it is a motus operandi to re-center and liberate us from the weight of diminishing and confining social norms, societal pressure and our own self-inflicted barricades.
When I discovered the seaside culinary oasis of San Sebastián, I wasn’t midway through a transcendental journey of self-discovery, I was living large with friends approaching the end of an epic trip through treasures like Lisbon and Porto in Portugal, Marrakech in Morocco, and Seville in Spain. Each magnificent in its own way and each taking on my quenchless love of taste through their food – Pastel De Natas, tajine and tapas; their design – Moroccan rugs, espadrilles and Claus Porto soap the most lovely soap shop!; and their natural beauty – the Atlas Mountains, the orange trees of Seville and the rolling Douro Valley. There were palatial stays at esteemed hotels like Seville’s Hotel Alfonso XIII and San Sebastián’s Hotel Maria Cristina, a 3-star Michelin tasting at Pedro Subijana’s Akelarre and glamping in the cinematic Sahara Desert.
As extraordinary as all this was from start to finish and it was, San Sebastián was the place that left the lasting impression. Arguably, the level to which it captivated me and redirected my course of travel was nothing short of prolific. In just a few short days, its seductive powers would come to furtively but profoundly fortify and enrich me. While I wouldn’t feel the seeds of change it had sewn somewhere deep within until fate brought me back in 2025, I did instantly feel we were two kindred spirits. It only makes sense to me then that when it came time to take stock of my pursuits and passions, I’d come back to a place that by all accounts personified every last single one of them.
And herein lies how travel can be so restorative and healing. If we travel with intent meaning a clear why, we can magnify passions and isolate self-truths that need our attention. We do this, I did this, to step away from the deafening noise and expectations of home, to give our inner voice room to speak up and to act on the longings of our heart and what it pulls us toward. The most obvious reward of untethered travel is freedom, not just freedom to eat what, when and where we want, to sleep as we wish, and to wake up when the world stirs us, but freedom to simply be with ourselves in such a way that we can revisit those things that move us – sunrises, a good aperitif, journaling, a good sweat, the sound of the waves crashing to the shore and so on.
If we fully embrace untethered traveling, my experience has shown me one day we will inevitably wake up in just the right place, with just the right open heart and mind, and with just the right fire in our bellies to finally action the growth and change we’ve been hungry to affect. In my case, I was searching for a way back to myself. Led by both soul and gut, I would embark on a most creative and flavorful journey of self-discovery, intentionally on my own and nonnegotiably in countries known for their exquisite beauty and taste.
I fell in love with San Sebastián for its delightfully split personality and three-dimensional complexity. This charming, tidy city by the sea showcasing architectural styles from the Middle Ages, the Belle Époque, and Neo-Renaissance is amusingly all at once a surfer town and a culinary capital of Europe. It is modern yet traditional, quaint yet cosmopolitan but more than anything it is bursting with flavor. Quite frankly, any number of pintxos at the town’s most creative bars and counters could take credit for forever changing how I think about food and travel. My mind drifts immediately to Atari’s Grilled Foie Gras with White Chocolate and Sweetcorn Cream... the perfectly roasted peppers and simple, melt in your mouth fresh tomato salad at Bar Nestor… the Bell’s Taco, its artichoke…honestly anything at Bell’s Taberna…the beef tartare at Gerald’s Bar… the charming service and spot-on recommendations at Casa Urola.
But nothing, nothing compares or competes with the creamy but fluffy Basque Cheesecake at La Vina… except maybe any combination or all of the pastries at Otaegui Pasteleria.
MY TRAVEL MUSE & KINDRED SPIRIT
When we find that special place for us, it’s as if we tap into a supernatural energy source that feeds our creativity, strengthens our convictions and fuels our purpose.
San Sebastián inspired me to reroute the rest of my life’s travel toward more fulfilling, worthwhile and meaningful ports of call. For that awakening, I will be forever grateful. It fed me flavors that I still dream about. And most of it all, it opened everything up – my eyes, ears, heart, mind and gut to the realization that my calling and my purpose will always faithfully orbit around the infinite manifestations of taste in this world.
As my travel muse and kindred spirit, San Sebastián is most certainly the backdrop for bites and sips still to savor and for a purpose-filled life still to unfold. When each of us comes to find our place, its benefits won’t just wash over us; they will ripple back out into the world quite fittingly right where they came from and most naturally right where they belong.
