The Centro stretches along La Concha beach in a display of Belle Epoque confidence. The grand hotels — the Maria Cristina, the Londres — face the bay with facades that belong in a Wes Anderson frame. The cathedral of Buen Pastor rises above the shopping streets with a spire visible from most of the city.
Boulevard de Zurriola and Avenida de la Libertad provide the wide, tree-lined promenades where the city breathes between the density of the old town and the residential calm of Antiguo. The Centro holds the upscale shopping — Calle San Martin, Calle Hernani — along with the city hall, which was originally a casino and still looks like one. The Paseo de la Concha traces the waterfront, and the changing rooms of La Perla thalassotherapy centre have been serving bathers since 1912.
This is San Sebastian at its most composed: elegant, well-maintained, and conscious of the role it plays as a resort city that has been attracting visitors since Queen Maria Cristina chose it as her summer capital in the nineteenth century.