Money & paymentsBy Clever Tourists · Published
From 1 January 2027, overnight visitors to the Basque Country pay a new tourist stay tax (impuesto sobre estancias turísticas) per adult per night, collected by the hotel, flat or campsite. The provincial laws set a general range of roughly €0.75 to €5 (≈ $0.84–5.6) per night, and big destinations can add a surcharge of up to 50%. San Sebastián's proposed rates run from €1.25 (≈ $1.4) at farm stays to €6.50 (≈ $7.3) at top-category hotels and tourist flats, capped at six nights per stay; Bilbao's reported draft is about €4 (≈ $4.5) for a four-star and €5 (≈ $5.6) for a five-star hotel. City rates were still awaiting final approval in October 2026.
Free toolConvert to your own currency at live rates →Live mid-market rates for all 17 currencies we used, so you can see what a price actually costs.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 (≈ $0.84–5.6) per night, rising to €7.50 (≈ $8.4) with the surcharge.
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 (≈ $7.3) per person per night.
• Agroturismos (farm stays): €1.25 (≈ $1.4).
• Cruise passengers calling at the port: €7 (≈ $7.8).
• Other categories (three- and four-star hotels, guesthouses, hostels, campsites) fall between these; press reports of the draft cited €5.50 (≈ $6.1) for four-star and €3.50 (≈ $3.9) 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's draft takes a middle line: press reports put it at about €5 (≈ $5.6) for five-star hotels, €4 (≈ $4.5) for four-star, €3.50 (≈ $3.9) for tourist apartments and the maximum €6.50 (≈ $7.3) for tourist flats. Vitoria-Gasteiz has signalled the lowest rates of the three capitals, around €0.75 (≈ $0.84) at guesthouses and campsites and up to €4.50 (≈ $5.0) 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.
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.
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 (≈ $13.4) per person per night, a four-star about €8.40 (≈ $9.4) and a tourist flat about €9.50 (≈ $10.6), and the city surcharge is set to rise by €1 (≈ $1.1) 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 (≈ $37) in total.
Yes, from 1 January 2027. The council's proposed rates run from €1.25 (≈ $1.4) at farm stays to €6.50 (≈ $7.3) per person per night at top-category hotels and tourist flats, for up to six nights. Final approval was pending in October 2026.
Bilbao's draft rates reported in 2026 are about €5 (≈ $5.6) per night for five-star hotels, €4 (≈ $4.5) for four-star and €6.50 (≈ $7.3) for tourist flats, from 1 January 2027. Check the final ordinance before you travel.
No. Under-18s are exempt in San Sebastián's ordinance and in the provincial laws, along with some health, study and social-programme stays.
Your hotel, flat or campsite collects it per person per night, usually at check-in or on the final bill, and pays it to the provincial treasury.
No. Barcelona charges about €12 (≈ $13.4) per night at five-star hotels and €8.40 (≈ $9.4) at four-star since April 2026, while San Sebastián's proposed maximum is €6.50 (≈ $7.3).
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