Amazing Chalet in the Baztan Valley
Chalet Rental and B & B in the Spanish Pyrenees
A Home with a Human Heart
I feel so privileged to live in the Baztan Valley area. It really is such a beautiful part of the world. Yet the greater joy is to watch the expression on my guests' faces the moment that they walk in the door and behold the views. These views!
Our home, Iaulin Borda, is situated in an enchanted shepherd's hamlet in the Basque Pyrenees, surrounded by mountain villages and river valleys. Its unique situation high above the Bidasoa and Baztan Valleys makes the house ideal for walkers, offering them direct access to more than 10 circular walks - ALL of them starting and finishing - at the farmhouse door.
Guests can forget their carbon footprint the moment they arrive as there is absolutely NO NEED for a car all week.
House Rental
Iaulin Borda is open to guests for the following options:
- Full House Rental (5 ensuite bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room, library, and use of our amazing sunny terraces and landscaped gardens)
- Bed & Breakfast (single/double en-suite rooms with communal access to fridge, dining room, library, sunny terraces and gardens). (Available at times).
- Total Basque Mountain Experience Self-Guided / Guided Walking Weeks.
See Prices Below
Ituren - a Vibrant Basque Village
Ituren is a traditional Basque village in the Pyrenees, not far from the Spanish/French border. The population of about 600 people is spread between various hamlets - of which ours, Ameztia, is the smallest and most rural. Ituren has a robust infant school which teaches some 60 children in Basque. They, in turn, inject life into the village, running about the plaza playing pelota or jumping into the river pools beneath the bridge. In the village is a chemist's and a hairdresser's as well as the village bar, where village lis easily observed from the outdoor terrace. A 10 km river walk, studded with watermills, links Ituren to other Basque villages and to Doneztebe / Santesteban - our main market town. Our hamlet, Ameztia, is 4km from Ituren plaza and there are many country walks into town. More on Ituren.
Georgina Howard
Experienced Writer, Teacher & Guide
Kaixo! As you will be a very welcome guest in my home, let me present myself. I arrived in the Basque Country by serendipity some 30 years ago in pursuit of a dream, and I never left. Until then, I had worked in various countries as a teacher, journalist and cross-cultural awareness trainer; my teaching environments having oscillated between Spanish embassy boardrooms in Copenhagen and the husky-drawn sledges of Greenland, where I trained the Inuit hunters as English-speaking guides. Teaching irregular verbs at -30 degrees has its challenges!
But life turned 180 degrees when I arrived here, almost three decades ago, and moved into Iaulin Borda. Then a tiny sheep shed on a very foreign Basque mountain. Now, after welcoming thousands of guests into my home, I am retiring (or at least trying to); attempting to wind down my company, Pyrenean Experience Ltd, which has organised Basque cultural walking holidays and Spanish immersion weeks ever since I arrived. However, my quirky travel memoir 'In the Footsteps of Smugglers - My Life on a Basque Mountain', published in 2024 by Bradt UK, continues to bring a stream of people, from all over the world, knocking at my door. And so I continue my work in private. Just a little. At times. Apart from our occasional Basque Mountain Experience Walking House Parties - my main area of expertise is the history and escape routes of the WW2 Comet Line (Le Réseau Comète) Resistance Network, and I have led many people on guided walks along the former smuggling routes and resistance trails over the border. There is an amazing tale here to tell.
Prices 2026
Bed & Breakfast
We can offer this only at certain times of the year. Guests are lodged in either single/double en-suite bedrooms with access to our lounge, dining room, library and all our outdoor terraces and landscaped gardens. We offer a free tea, coffee and biscuits bar and guests are welcome to use our communal fridge. Continental breakfast. Three nights minimum stay.
Prices: Single Room 110 euros per night. Double Room 140 euros per night.
Rental of Entire Farmhouse
Iaulin Borda has 5 double en-suite bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen and beautiful, private terraces and landscaped gardens. :
Onr Week (7 nights) 2250 Euros.
Extra Services
Guided Walks, Basque Village Tours (based on my book 'In the Footsteps of Smugglers'), WW2 Escape route walks (Comet Line) and Sailing Tours to Basque fishing villages can sometimes be organised (at extra cost). Please see our TOURS section on the home page menu. Bicycles can also be rented in the village.
Transport
A pick-up service or taxi can be organised from San Sebastian, Bilbao or Biarritz airport (at extra cost). There is also a local bus from Pamplona or San Sebastian to our nearby village of Doneztebe/Santesteban whic is only a 15 minute taxi ride to the house.