The best hiking routes in Autonomous Community of the Basque Country

The Basque Country divides its walking terrain between the humid, northern Atlantic ridges and the drier, limestone-dominated south. In the north, ZEC Ordunte KBE offers walking on peat, sandstone, and grassy ridges where livestock grazing keeps the paths open. This is a landscape of deep green valleys and forestry plantations, where the ground underfoot is often soft and muddy, especially during the autumn rains in October.

Further south, the terrain changes to dramatic limestone cliffs and high, dry plateaus. In ZEC Entzia KBE, you walk across flat, rocky pastures and through beech woods where the paths are often stony and hard. Nearby, the sheer cliffs of Gorobel mendilerroa BBE and ZEC Monte Santiago present dramatic drops where the plateau ends abruptly, with paths running close to the edge over bare rock and thin soil. These southern limestone areas do not have the deep, lush valleys of the north, but instead offer karst pavements and sinkholes.

For those seeking a transition between these two zones, Arabako hegoaldeko mendilerroak BBE-KBE provides a mix of Mediterranean oak forests and rocky crests. Here, the paths are a mix of clay and loose gravel, reflecting the drier climate of the Ebro basin. This region lacks high alpine peaks, offering instead long, continuous ridges and forested slopes that are often quieter than the famous coastal routes.