How much is the Basque Country tourist tax in San Sebastián and Bilbao from 2027?

The law: one tax in all three Basque provinces

The Basque Country's three provinces (Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Álava) each set their own taxes, so the tax was created by three matching provincial laws (normas forales). Bizkaia's is Norma Foral 3/2026 of 17 June, published in its official bulletin on 26 June 2026, with effect from 1 January 2027; Gipuzkoa and Álava approved equivalent texts in 2026.

The provincial laws set a minimum and maximum per type of accommodation. Each town council then fixes its own rates by ordinance and can add a surcharge of up to 50% if it has 750 or more tourist beds (or meets a tourism-intensity test). If a council fails to approve an ordinance, the maximum rate applies by default. Early coverage summarised the band as €0.75 to €5 per night, rising to €7.50 with the surcharge.

San Sebastián (Donostia) tourist tax rates

San Sebastián's council gave initial approval to its ordinance on 28 July 2026. Per its announcement, rates vary by accommodation type:

• Top-category hotels and tourist flats (viviendas de uso turístico): €6.50 per person per night.

• Agroturismos (farm stays): €1.25.

• Cruise passengers calling at the port: €7.

• Other categories (three- and four-star hotels, guesthouses, hostels, campsites) fall between these; press reports of the draft cited €5.50 for four-star and €3.50 for three-star hotels.

The tax applies for a maximum of six nights per continuous stay. The ordinance still needed final approval by the full council and publication in Gipuzkoa's bulletin, so check the final figures before you budget. If you are in town for the pintxos bars, our San Sebastián pintxos guide has the eating side covered.

Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz

Bilbao's draft takes a middle line: press reports put it at about €5 for five-star hotels, €4 for four-star, €3.50 for tourist apartments and the maximum €6.50 for tourist flats. Vitoria-Gasteiz has signalled the lowest rates of the three capitals, around €0.75 at guesthouses and campsites and up to €4.50 at five-star hotels and tourist flats.

These figures come from council drafts reported in August 2026, not final ordinances. Smaller towns may charge less, and councils with few beds can reduce the tax by up to 100%. For planning a wider loop, see our Basque Country guide.

Who pays, exemptions and how it's collected

The guest pays; the accommodation collects the tax at check-in or with the bill and pays it over to the provincial treasury. It covers hotels, guesthouses, tourist apartments, campsites, rural houses, hostels, agroturismos, holiday rentals and cruise passengers on port calls. It is charged per person per night, not per room.

Exemptions in the San Sebastián ordinance include under-18s, people with a disability or dependency and their companions, stays for health reasons or for publicly funded study or research, beneficiaries of social programmes and stays forced by force majeure. Under the draft provincial texts, bookings formalised before 5 February 2026 were also exempt. Bring your passport or ID; EU and non-EU visitors pay the same, and Spain's own entry rules are unchanged.

How it compares with Barcelona and Catalonia

Catalonia has charged a tourist tax since 2012 and roughly doubled it from 1 April 2026. In Barcelona, where the city adds its own surcharge, a five-star hotel now costs about €12 per person per night, a four-star about €8.40 and a tourist flat about €9.50, and the city surcharge is set to rise by €1 a year to 2029.

So even at San Sebastián's top rate, a Basque hotel night carries roughly half the tax of a comparable Barcelona night. For a couple spending three nights in a four-star hotel in San Sebastián, the proposed rate works out to about €33 in total.

Frequently asked questions