Погода: Сор-Осгор, май

May in San Sebastian is the unstable month - June is the reliable one, and late May is where it starts to settle. Regulars will tell you it can be 30C and sunny or 14C and raining, sunny in the morning and pouring by afternoon, and they quote the Spanish line about not taking your coat off until the fortieth of May. The local word for the default is sirimiri, the fine constant Basque drizzle that is neither shower nor storm; our row's 116mm across 12.7 precipitation days is mostly that. Their packing answer is layers, waterproofs and a swimming costume anyway. The record: 19.6C days, 13C nights, humidity 80 percent, 10.7 hours of sun and a 16.9C sea.

Hossegor-forum posts from regulars living in town describe September and October as arguably the best stretch of the year: the summer crowds and novice surf-camp swarms have thinned out, water is still warm enough for boardshorts most days, and swell size starts climbing from summer's smaller waves toward the bigger, more consistent conditions the Landes coast is known for. Mornings typically run glassy with light offshore wind, occasionally turning onshore by afternoon, though posters say it often holds offshore the whole day on a good stretch. The daytime temperature sits in a genuinely comfortable range for a full day at the beach, but regulars flag a sharp drop once the sun goes down - evenings call for a jacket even after a warm afternoon. The record: 24.6C days feeling like a mild-for-the-season temperature, 16C nights, 103mm across 12 days, a 23.3C sea, 72 percent humidity and 10.1 hours of sun - the evening chill the forum describes shows clearly in that day-to-night spread.