Real Sociedad

Real Sociedad are San Sebastián's club, known locally as La Real, or the txuri-urdin, the white-and-blues. They play at Anoeta, in the Amara district south of the city center, and for a visitor they come with San Sebastián's pintxo bars attached, a 30- to 40-minute walk from the ground.

For most of their history they were, like Athletic Club an hour along the coast, a Basque-only club, until they signed the Irish striker John Aldridge from Liverpool in 1989. They won back-to-back league titles in 1981 and 1982, and the Copa del Rey twice in recent years: the 2020 final against Athletic, played a year late because of the pandemic, and the 2026 final against Atlético Madrid, won on penalties in Seville. The academy at Zubieta is the club's pride, and it produced Xabi Alonso, Antoine Griezmann, Mikel Oyarzabal and Martín Zubimendi.

Anoeta itself was rebuilt in 2019. The old running track went, the stands came down to the edge of the pitch, and a stadium where the football used to feel far away now puts about 40,000 people close enough to hear the players.

Getting there

Anoeta is a straightforward walk from the center: 30 to 40 minutes from the old town, the Parte Vieja, heading south through the Amara district. If you'd rather not, city buses 21, 26 and 28 run to the stadium from the Boulevard and from Urbieta, and the city bus company adds a special FT line from the Boulevard and Urbieta before the game, with extra buses back to the neighborhoods afterward. The Euskotren regional train goes one stop from Amara station on Plaza Easo to Anoeta station, a couple of minutes from the ground, and puts on extra trains for the bigger games, which helps if you're staying out along the coast or coming in from the French border at Hendaye. A new underground stretch of the line through the city center, with a stop near La Concha, is due to open by the end of 2026, so check which station is closest to where you're staying.

After the final whistle, the square in front of the stadium is closed to traffic for 15 minutes while the crowd clears, and the buses back to the neighborhoods leave after that.

If you're flying in, the realistic airports are Biarritz, just over the French border, where the bus to San Sebastián takes about 45 minutes, and Bilbao, where a direct bus takes about an hour and a quarter. The small San Sebastián airport at Hondarribia is about 45 minutes out by bus. Athletic Club at San Mamés in Bilbao is about an hour away by road, so you can do both in a weekend only when they play on different days.

Making a day of it

The best pre-match in San Sebastián is in the old town. The Parte Vieja is packed with pintxo bars, and most visitors eat their way through a few of them in the afternoon before walking or riding out to Anoeta.

Closer to kickoff, the club runs its own fan zone, Topagunea, on the south esplanade next to gate 13. It started at the Copa semifinal against Athletic in March 2026 and has run before home games since. It opens a few hours before kickoff, though the hours vary, with a txaranga (a Basque brass band) and food and drink trucks. It's the easiest place to get a sense of the crowd before you go in. On matchdays the club's Gastrogune space in the stadium building also opens with a big screen.

Inside, and where the noise is

The singing comes from the Grada Aitor Zabaleta, the lower tier behind the south goal, filled mostly by members who signed up for it. It's named after a Real Sociedad supporter who was stabbed to death near Atlético Madrid's old stadium in December 1998, before a UEFA Cup game between the two clubs, and his name is still sung at almost every match. The rebuild put that end right on top of the pitch, so the noise carries in a way the old Anoeta never managed.

The long stand on the west side is the main stand, with the press box, the tunnels and the boxes. The north end has the family stand in its lower tier. Away fans go in a fenced block high in the north end. After visiting fans threw flares and seats during European games, the club put up nets and screens around that section, and the view from it is restricted. Away tickets are sold only through the visiting club, and the club warns that away fans who buy elsewhere, or turn up outside that zone, can be refused entry.

Gates opened an hour before kickoff for the September 2026 league game against Celta. If you're coming for the atmosphere, the upper tier of the south end or the side stands nearest it get you closest without a seat in the singing section itself.

This is the tamborrada, the city's San Sebastián Day drum parade, taking over the pitch before a home game against Barcelona in January:

Watch on YouTube ↗

The songs

The anthem is "Txuri-urdin," written in Basque in 1970 by Ricardo Sabadie, and it's the one everybody in the ground knows. Around 20 January, San Sebastián Day, the city's drum groups march through the streets for 24 hours in the tamborrada; many of them play the club anthem, and before the home game against Barcelona in January 2026 the drummers and a choir brought it onto the pitch at Anoeta.

Merch

The official club shop is inside the stadium and is open on matchdays, and stalls outside the ground sell scarves and other gear, which is the quicker option if you just want something blue and white for the evening.

Getting a ticket

Real Sociedad have a big membership, and most of Anoeta goes to season-ticket holders, so plan ahead. The club sells single tickets on its official ticket site a few home games at a time, and members can hand their seat back to the club when they can't go, which is where many of the public seats come from.

The main tickets link on the club site opens the hospitality shop, where seats for the same games start around €80. The ordinary sale is a separate section of the ticket site. As of September 2026 three league games were listed there: for the game against Deportivo on 11 October, ordinary seats from €35 to €70 were available four weeks out, and another of the three started at €25. If nothing's listed for your game yet, the site has a waiting list that emails you when sale opens, and if seats remain on the day, the stadium box office sells them. The club's ticket forms ask for your name and ID or passport number, so bring the document you bought with.

Don't book flights around a listed weekend. LaLiga confirms exact days and kickoff times only a few weeks ahead, two of the three games on sale in September 2026 still had no date, and Real Sociedad's Thursday Europa League games can push league fixtures to Sunday or Monday.

The Basque derby against Athletic Club is the hardest ticket of the season, and the big visits from Barcelona and Real Madrid go fast too. Real Sociedad are also in the Europa League in 2026/27, and European nights are sold separately.

Buy from the club's own site, and the general advice for tickets abroad holds here. If you're building a Spanish trip around it, planning a football trip to Spain covers how the fixtures and kickoff times get set.

One last thing

Use the ordinary sale, not the hospitality shop, and join the waiting list if your game isn't up yet. Then aim for a seat near the south end, and let the old town take care of the rest of the evening.

Ticket rules, prices and matchday arrangements all change; check anything time-sensitive the week you travel, and only buy through the club or an official seller.