Artistic Tourist Map of Donostia / San Sebastián

Geogram in figures

Since

2025

Projects

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Donostia / San Sebastián is a well-established tourist destination, internationally recognised for its cultural heritage, natural beauty and outstanding gastronomy. With a diverse and steadily growing number of visitors each year, the city has developed a range of visitor information tools to enhance the tourist experience. Among these, the tourist map has long been a key resource for presenting the city’s main attractions in a clear, accessible and visually engaging way.

However, the tourist map previously used by San Sebastián Turismo – Donostia Turismoa, S.A. had limitations in terms of size, graphic clarity and information layout, making a comprehensive redesign necessary. To address these shortcomings, the organisation commissioned Geograma to develop a completely new tourist map.

Challenge

The objective was to redesign the tourist map from the ground up so that it better reflected the way today’s visitors explore the city while showcasing not only its iconic landmarks but also the attractions distributed across its different neighbourhoods.

The priority was to improve both the functionality and the visual appeal of the map, creating an attractive, practical and easy-to-read guide suitable for both local and international visitors.

“We are extremely pleased with Geograma’s work. It has been a real pleasure working with the team—the collaboration was agile, approachable and highly professional. The new tourist map of San Sebastián has exceeded our expectations. We are already using it at our visitor information centres, where it has received an excellent response from visitors.”

Carmen Baz
Head of Marketing
San Sebastián Turismo – Donostia Turismoa, S.A.

Solution

Geograma developed a completely new tourist map that combines cartographic accuracy with a modern, attractive and highly functional design.

The project included:

Inventorying and updating all tourist attractions across the city, including monuments, museums, parks, leisure areas and practical visitor services such as railway stations, taxi ranks, car parks and public toilets, together with pedestrian access routes and walking itineraries.
Creating an accurate and up-to-date urban cartographic base using official geographic data.
Designing a completely renewed visual style featuring:
- Artistic illustrations of the city’s most important landmarks.
- Custom icons for each category of tourist attraction.
- A layout specifically designed for quick reading and easy use while exploring the city.
Incorporating QR codes that provide direct access to additional digital content that can be kept continuously up to date.

The result is a tourist map that significantly enhances the visitor experience while increasing the visibility of attractions across all neighbourhoods of Donostia / San Sebastián.

Key achievements include:

A more detailed map scale and improved readability compared with the previous edition.
Greater visibility of tourist attractions through artistic illustrations of iconic landmarks and category-specific symbols.
A clear and attractive design that makes it easier for visitors to navigate and plan their visit.
A hybrid print-and-digital solution using QR codes, connecting the printed map with dynamic, continuously updated online information.
Comprehensive quality control throughout every stage of the project, from concept development to final printing, ensuring the accuracy and consistency of all content.

Click here to view the map in high resolution

Results

The project resulted in the production of a completely redesigned and fully updated tourist map, aligned with the current needs of the destination. A total of 250,000 copies were printed in two bilingual editions: Basque/Spanish and French/English.

This new map delivers significant added value by improving the accuracy, readability and visual quality of the city’s tourist cartography, strengthening Donostia / San Sebastián’s tourism promotion and providing Donostia Turismoa with a practical, up-to-date visitor guide that makes it easier to discover key attractions and essential tourist services.