La Concha is the brightest jewel in San Sebastian’s crown and one of the city’s major icons, its incomparable setting. Situated in front of Santa Clara Island, La Concha beach is forever featured in magazines and newspapers and has been named the best beach in Europe and Spain. Today thousands of people continue to enjoy the view from the famous railings of its seaside promenade, making their way down for a stroll along the beach or to take a dip in its hypnotic waters. La Concha is a beach packed with history and anecdotes. Isabel II made La Concha beach fashionable in 1845, after her doctors recommended bathing in the sea as a remedy for her skin problems. In her wake, together with the new fashion of going to the beach, came the rest of the court and the high-society aristocrats who gave its origin to the San Sebastian of elegant and distinguished renown. The rest followed suit: the nickname of Pearl of the Cantabrian Sea, the tourists and acknowledgement as one of the world’s most beautiful city beaches.

The water is never very deep in the bay. Although the tides often limit the available beach space, La Concha always offers spectacular views from inside the water and out. The Big Week, with its fireworks displays, turn the beach into an enormous stage where visitors and locals take delight in the extravaganza over an ice cream. The famous regattas, or rowing boat races, also attract thousands of fans to the beach to follow the competition first-hand. La Concha is very well equipped and offers all sorts of services: from the classic blue and white sunshades providing protection from the sun and giving the beach its picturesque appearance, to toilets, showers and lockers for the bathers’ comfort.