NORTHERN WATERS · 1926 — 2026
A century after The Sun Also Rises.
Ernest Hemingway found in Northern Spain some of Europe’s most authentic fishing waters. A hundred years after The Sun Also Rises, we follow the rivers, towns and silences that shaped his vision of Spain.
A private departure with limited places · Northern Spain
The journey
From the Atlantic edge to Zaragoza. The Spain behind the novel.
BIARRITZ → SAN SEBASTIÁN → PAMPLONA → NAVARRESE PYRENEES → ARAGONESE PYRENEES → ZARAGOZA
Six Chapters
The landscapes Hemingway loved.
Biarritz
Arrival · Ocean · Elegance
This is the coast Hemingway crossed on his way to the fiesta — Paris behind him, Pamplona ahead. The journey starts the same way: one border short of Spain, a dinner at the ocean’s edge, then the road south.
San Sebastián
Gastronomy · Culture · Sea
San Sebastián does not appear in the novel. It appears in the itinerary anyway — a bay of good food and good light, the kind of stop a journey earns before the harder travel to Pamplona begins.
The Pyrenees
Rivers · Silence · Adventure
In the novel, Jake Barnes and Bill Gorton leave the fiesta, take a bus to Burguete, and fish the Irati River for five days. Hemingway did the same, in real life, before he wrote it. This is that river, on the same road out of Roncesvalles.
Pamplona
SAN FERMÍN · TRADITION · CELEBRATION
This is the heart of the book. Hemingway came for the fiesta of San Fermín and stayed at the Gran Hotel La Perla — the same rooms, the same square, the same running of the bulls he turned into fiction. This journey stays there too.
Fly Fishing
ARÉN LODGE · PRIVATE WATERS
Hemingway fished all his life, long before and long after The Sun Also Rises, and wrote about it more than almost anything else. These three days, guided by Teddy Coulter, are not a re-enactment of a scene from a book. They are the sport itself — the one he never stopped writing about.
Zaragoza
EL PILAR · LEGACY · FAREWELL
Hemingway knew this city too, on the road that ran through Aragón toward Madrid and the bullfights he loved. The journey ends here with the same toast he might have raised — to Spain, to the fiesta, to the sun that also rises.
Day by day (From October 2nd to October 11th, 2026)
Ten days, nine nights — rivers, culture and an unforgettable Spain.
Arrival in Biarritz · Private transfer · Inaugural dinner
Basque coast transfer · Historic walk · Waterfront lunch · Michelin dinner
UNESCO Geopark · Txakoli tasting · Coastal lunch · Dinner at LOTU
Hemingway stayed at this hotel. The characters of the novel walk these same streets during San Fermín.
Hemingway’s Pamplona · Bullring visit · Wine, vermouth & five-course dinner
This is the river from the book.
Roncesvalles Monastery · Mountain walk · Iratí River nature tour
Somontano’s oldest winery · El Château de Pirineos · Arrival at Arén Lodge
Highland fishing · Evening hatch · Chef’s mountain lunch · Spa time
Brown trout waters · Guided exploration · Farewell tasting menu
Hemingway knew this city too.
Transfer to Zaragoza · Check-in at Meliá Innside · Old-town walk · Farewell dinner
Private departure transfer · End of programme or optional extensions
The programme is designed so that every stretch of fly fishing has the space, guide and landscape it deserves — integrated into an exceptional cultural journey.
Where you stay
Hotels with stories of their own.
Hôtel du Palais · Hotel Maria Cristina · Gran Hotel La Perla · Arén Lodge Fly Fishing · Meliá Innside Zaragoza
Hotels are subject to availability at the time of confirmation; equivalent alternatives will be proposed when needed.
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Your Spain awaits.
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