FEATURED TRIP REPORT:

Basque History & Heritage in Northern Spain

In partnership with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Boise State University, we took a group to learn about Basque history and culture.

 

We visited Bilbao, Pamplona, & Lekeitio in September 2022

This trip, sponsored by the Boise State Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and organized by Travel Fever Tours, explored the roots of the Basque culture in Idaho by visiting the Basque region in Spain.

Participants visited the areas where Idaho’s Basque population originated from in Spain, gaining an insider’s view of:

  • Basque history up to the mid-1800s when many Basque began leaving for the US

  • The economic and social factors that prompted Basque emigration

  • The Basque’s recent history and the independence movements under Franco

  • The lives of the families and friends that were left behind in Spain; and

  • A look at the lives of people who have returned from the US to the Basque region.

What we did:

The goal of this trip was to learn, but we avoided a stream of university lectures. Along the way, the tour will focused on:

  • Meeting and interacting with people in the Basque region

  • Sampling the renowned Basque cuisine; and

  • Learning about current culture in the Basque region

  • Visiting many beautiful cities and villages and seeing lovely places.

The trip began in Bilbao, a former industrial and shipping hub for the Basque region, and now a growing tourist attraction with its iconic Guggenheim Museum. We then moved to smaller locations, exploring Pamplona and its surroundings before and finishing in Lekeitio, a small fishing town on the northern Atlantic coast. Lekeitio is directly in the area from where many of the Boise Basque originated.

In total, we will spent 4 nights in Bilbao, 3 nights in Pamplona and 3 nights in Lekeitio. We also visited Vitoria and Gernika.

Tour Activities:

We understand that the group’s primary goal in traveling to the Basque Region was to learn. But we didn’t overwhelm them with endless lectures. In our travels, we made extensive use of local guides from each location we visited. And always, we preferred that the group see and experience things firsthand.

Here is a sampling of the things we did together:

  • Toured a picturesque valley north of Pamplona, witches caves and a livestock festival.

  • Ate seafood beside a harbor on the northern coast

  • Visited the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

  • Toured Vitoria, the modern-day capital of the Basque Region

  • Visited the Peace Museum and the public market in Gernika

  • Took a boat tour down the river in Bilbao

Photos from the trip

(Click to Enlarge)