A Sunday with children in Biarritz: seals in the morning, the calm bay in the afternoon.

This is the French Basque Coast Sunday designed for small children, and it works in the rain too. In the morning, the Biarritz Aquarium, in the Art Deco building at the Atalaye, with the seal tank you see from above and from below the water. You eat at the bar of the Les Halles market and spend the afternoon in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, whose beach is in a bay closed off by breakwaters where hardly any swell enters. Everything is less than an hour from San Sebastián.

The day, hour by hour

9:00 · Departure. From San Sebastián, the AP-8 and A-63 to Biarritz, about 45 minutes. The aquarium has no car park of its own: the Port Vieux one, 240 metres away, has about 40 spaces and fills early; otherwise, the Sainte-Eugénie underground car park, 500 metres away.

10:00 · Biarritz Aquarium. You tour the Bay of Biscay from the coast to the depths and then more distant seas, with sea turtles, sharks, jellyfish and tropical fish. The average visit is an hour and a half. In November 2026 it opens from 9:30 to 19:00; the hours change with the season, so check the calendar on its website. Admission costs €17 for adults and €12 for ages 4 to 12. The seals' feeding time is not published: ask at the ticket office.

12:15 · Les Halles de Biarritz. A quarter of an hour's walk away. The covered market opens every morning until two and around it the bars serve portions and tapas. With children, the practical thing is to buy inside and eat at a high table outside.

14:30 · Saint-Jean-de-Luz and its bay. Twenty minutes south. The old town is almost entirely pedestrian and flat: place Louis XIV with its bandstand and rue Gambetta lead to the beach, in a bay closed off by breakwaters. From June to September it is the calmest beach on the coast for swimming with children; the rest of the year, for playing in the sand. For dessert, the macarons from Maison Adam, on the same square.

17:30 · Return. Half an hour to San Sebastián.

What to eat at the market

Bayonne ham, Ossau-Iraty sheep's cheese, fried fish and tapas at the bars around. It is quick, simple food, good for children who cannot sit through a long meal. Arrive before one: at two the stalls pack up.

With a pushchair, in the rain and with older children

The walking route through the Atalaye gardens is not practicable with a pushchair or wheelchair: the aquarium gives an accessible route on its website that goes round the plateau. In the rain, the aquarium is Biarritz's handiest plan, so arrive at opening. With teenage children, swap the aquarium for an introductory surf lesson at the Côte des Basques, from €45. From April to October, the Nivelle V also does a short 45-minute trip along the corniche from the port of Saint-Jean-de-Luz.