One Day in Biarritz, France

If you’re ideal vacation involves laying on the beach and wandering through boutique shops and outdoor cafes, then Biarritz is the town for you. Matt and I added Biarritz to our itinerary because travel guides we’d seen online painted Biarritz as an idyllic French village on the Bay of Biscay. We stayed at Le Regina Biarritz Hotel & Spa, which was about 10 minutes walk to the main part of town. The hotel itself was stunning and can be found near the Biarritz lighthouse. The weather seemed surprisingly overcast during our visit, and I expected to see a lot more tourists in the summertime. While more sleepy than expected, it was enjoyable to feel that you are getting the town all to yourself.

Biarritz is a great place to visit if you want to wake up to the sound of ocean waves crashing on the shore, while also enjoying a few days at the spa. In addition to being an excellent spa getaway, Biarritz is known for its great surf and is another reason we added Biarritz to our itinerary. Matt is an avid surfer and wanted to experience this surf for himself. He was able to rent a surfboard at one of the local shops on La Grand Plage; however, with poor weather and poor waves, we cut our excursion at the beach short.

After arriving in town we decided to grab a bite to eat at a cafe in the main square. Unfortunately, we weren't too delighted with the quality of food and for this reason we decided to pick up our own baguette, charcuterie, cheese, and a bottle of wine later that evening instead of having dinner at a restaurant. We passed a little cheese shop, Mille et Un Fromages, during our walk around Biarritz earlier that day and decided to circle back. We were greeted by the kindest man upon entering the shop. My high school French was très mal, but the man was incredibly sweet and we worked together through broken french and english to get everything we wanted and more. He let us sample a variety of cheeses and hams and recommended a local wine. Next, we headed back towards our hotel to enjoy dinner overlooking the Bay of Biscay.

Our one night and two days in Biarritz were incredibly relaxing and casual enough to pass up a meal at a restaurant for one we could snack on leisurely throughout the evening. We woke up early the morning we had to say good bye to Biarritz and walked all over town to take in the little city one last time. It was so beautiful to have Biarritz all to ourselves at 7am.

I would only change one thing about our visit - next time a spa treatment will be at the top of my list! Have you ever been to Biarritz? Feel free to add a comment below and let me know what you loved most!