Stephanie Mutsaerts did not arrive in Navarra by following the obvious route.
She first came to Spain as a student in Barcelona, but it was the mountains, climbing, movement, and the pull of open landscapes, that eventually brought her north.
In Navarra, she found more than a place to live. She found a rhythm, a community, a family, and a way of seeing the world that would later become the foundation of her work.
Before founding Northern Spain Travel, Stephanie was an English teacher at the Public University of Navarra. It was a secure and respected position, the kind of job many people would never have left behind. But Stephanie had always been able to notice possibility in unexpected places. Alongside teaching, she began buying apartments, renovating them, decorating them, and turning them into spaces where visitors could experience Pamplona from the inside rather than simply pass through it.
What began as intuition slowly became direction.
At first, San Fermín was not a business idea. For Stephanie, it was part of local life, something lived with friends, from within the city, with all its energy, ritual, and emotion. But she soon understood that international travelers, especially from North America, were searching for a different way in. They did not want to observe Pamplona from the outside. They wanted access, context, comfort, and authenticity. They wanted to feel the city without losing the quality and care of a beautifully designed experience.
