Igeldo

Igeldo is the green headland at the western end of La Concha, a hillside of farmhouses, sea views and a creaking funicular up to its old amusement park. It is rural and residential where the bay below is urban, the kind of place you drive up to for the horizon rather than the foot traffic. The reason the world climbs it is Akelarre, Pedro Subijana's three-star perched over the open Atlantic, where the dining room hangs above the water and the cooking is as Basque as the view. It is a destination in the truest sense: quiet, elevated and built around a single extraordinary table.