The Fiesta de San Fermín, Pamplona, Spain 2010

There are two basic ways to attend the fiesta in Pamplona.

The first, and by far most popular, is to do what tens of thousands of others have done over the years; make your own arrangements. Papa Hemingway did so when he first visited the city to attend the fiesta, but there is one small problem with this method, which is the same now as it was then, unless you are familiar with the city and surrounding area, it is often difficult to decide where to stay. You don’t want to be too far out because of the difficulty of getting into the Old City for the fiesta. Besides a shortage of available rooms, affordable rooms are often difficult to find, even outside of the city center. All of the hotels, hotel-apartments and hostels raise their rates 3 to 5 times the normal rate during the fiesta. Most hotels begin charging this festival rate on the 5th of July, but a few begin charging their festival rate as early as the 4th. Another problem in trying to make your own arrangements is that although a few hotels will accept early bookings, the majority of hotels in the city center do not set their official festival rates until the end of the year and generally will not accept reservations before then unless you are a regular client of the hotel. Response time can also be very slow in some cases.

As you may already be aware, many of the Spanish visitors to the fiesta either stay with friends or family. Younger visitors from around Spain usually end up sleeping on the ground in one of the city’s parks, while most of the younger foreign visitors, many of whom arrive with backpacks, either end up sleeping on the ground along with thousands of others, or, if they are lucky, find an opening at one of the many campgrounds in the Navarran countryside, some of which are “far from the madding crowds”.”

The second, though not quite as popular but undoubtedly the best way for a foreign visitor to experience this unique fiesta, is to book with a professional travel company or tour group providing a full array of services, someone who is actively involved in the fiesta and has a good relationship with the hotels they work with. You can make the arrangements through your local travel agent, one who has the right connections, or directly with a company that specializes in the fiesta and offers the services that we here at Iberian Traveler - Maribel’s Guides provide; a special hotel package at a select hotel in the city, reservations on one of our balconies for the encierro, the running of the bulls, additional festival programs that can add to your enjoyment and experience, restaurant recommendations and other personalized services to make your stay as fulfilling and interesting as possible. We feel that it’s one thing to attend the fiesta on your own or with family and friends, but actually becoming involved in and being a part of the fiesta is something only a specialist can provide.

Of course there is a third way of attending the fiesta. If you know someone who has been there before they might be able to introduce you to some aspects of the fiesta. If you know someone like this, they are usually very enthusiastic, but may not have experienced those parts of the fiesta that actually make it unique and one of the most popular festivals in Europe. But that’s not to say that you still can’t have a good time and go home with great memories.

Many of us who now do this for a living started out this way, building on our experiences over the years, forming relationships and close friendships, as the fiesta became part of our lives. In turn, we try to provide the best possible experience for all of our clients, some of whom have become our friends, returning as often as possible to enjoy the fiesta with us and the people of Pamplona, who welcome everyone to their city.

A little more about the city and the fiesta

The city of Pamplona goes all out for the fiesta, one of the largest in Spain, providing everything free of charge except for bullfight tickets. There are music concerts everyday beginning on the 6th of July with a mix of regional and international musicians, who this year included the Gypsy Kings and our friend and noted Basque musician, Kepa Junkera. The fiesta includes traditional Basque sports, a major international fireworks competition with displays nightly, special days set aside for children and seniors and a separate children’s festival, the magic of the historic Gigantes and Cabezudos (giants and big heads), the kilikis and zaldikos and the traditional Procession of San Fermin, where the people pay homage to one of city’s two patron saints.

The fiesta attracts ten of thousands of visitors from throughout Spain and around the world. The numbers have grown substantially since the early 90’s, but until recently all of the hotels, hotel-apartments and hostals in the city were primarily serving the needs of those visiting the Clínica Universitaria de Navarra (Navarre University Hospital), one of Spain’s premier hospital facilities and medical universities.

With only about 1300 hotel rooms located within the city center, i.e. easy walking distance of the Casa Viejo, the Old City and the center of the fiesta, and an equal number of rooms further out, from 4 and 10 km distance from the city center, Pamplona is unable to easily accommodate such a huge daily influx of visitors to the fiesta seeking hotel rooms or restaurant reservations. If you are interested in attending the fiesta, you have to plan as far in advance as possible. Of the total number of hotel rooms in the city center, less than half are ever available during the fiesta because of the returning clientele. Some families have been staying at the same hotel for generations and their rooms are always held aside for them.

Most of the hotels located within the city center are either 3 or 4-star, but there are a few 2-star hotels. There is one 5-star hotel, the GH La Perla of Hemingway fame, and a couple of new premium hotels scheduled to open soon; one boutique-style luxury hotel in the Casa Viejo and an all-suites luxury hotel early next summer, possibly in time for the fiesta. Two additional boutique hotels are due to open sometime in the near future, one associated with the Tour de France legend Miguel Indurain, who lives in Pamplona with his family, but no one seems to know exactly when they will open, but when they finally do, they are only expected to add an additional handful of rooms to the total. It’s not much when you consider that the city receives an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 visitors a day during the week and up to 200,000 over the weekend, doubling its population.

If you are planning on staying outside of the city center, you will have to rely on public transportation or taxis to get you to and from the hotel as parking in the city can be a problem anytime of the year, let alone during the fiesta. And this is after the city has added hundreds of underground parking places the last few years. The city has been allowing free parking in the blue zones during the fiesta, but these spaces are limited as the cars parked there seldom move.

Travel between Pamplona and the closest cities or villages is difficult if you have to rely on public transportation. The earliest buses from San Sebastian-Donostia, the closest major city, do not arrive in the Pamplona until after the encierro, meaning that you would have to plan on arriving the night before and spend the night on the street or sleeping in the park if you want to be there in time for the running of the bulls.

If you were to drive, you would have to leave Donostia very early in the morning in order to be in Pamplona in time for that morning’s encierro. It’s only a one-hour drive but it may take you awhile to find a place to park, and nearly impossible on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, or on the 6th or 7th.

There is the possibility of arranging a private transfer or taxing a taxi from San Sebastian-Donostia, Bilbao or Logroño (La Rioja), but you will still need to be up very early in the morning in order to reach Pamplona in time for the encierro, and such a trip is expensive unless you are with a larger group. We do provide private transfers from the nearby villages where many of our country homes are located, but these need to be arranged in advance.