Pintxos counters, the Guggenheim’s titanium curves, an emerald coastline that locals call “Green Spain,” and cider houses where the bartender pours from above his head — this is the Spain most travellers never see.
Why Northern Spain Is Different
If your image of Spain is sun-bleached plazas, flamenco, and endless tapas under a 40°C sky, the north will throw you off — in the best way.
This is España Verde — Green Spain — a strip of coast and mountain that shares more in common with Brittany, Cornwall, or even Ireland than with Andalusia. It rains here. The cliffs are dramatic. The food is some of the best in the world (Basque country has more Michelin stars per capita than almost anywhere on Earth). And because most international travellers still skip it for Barcelona and Madrid, you get authenticity without the elbow-fight crowds.
Ten days is the sweet spot. Enough to settle into each city, eat properly, drive the coast without rushing, and dip into the mountains. Less than that and you’re skimming. More, and you’ll want to add Galicia (which deserves its own trip).
Here’s how to do it.
Quick Logistics
When to go: Late May through September. July and August are warm but busy with Spanish domestic tourists — book ahead. September is arguably perfect: warm sea, lighter crowds, the start of cider season in Asturias.
How to fly in: Bilbao Airport (BIO) is the obvious entry point. You can also fly into Santander or Asturias (Oviedo) and reverse the route. Madrid is a 4-hour high-speed train from Bilbao if you’re combining trips.
Getting around: Rent a car for the full 10 days. The cities are walkable, but the coast between them — and especially Asturias — is impossible to do justice without a car. Pick up at Bilbao Airport on Day 1, drop off in Oviedo or Santander on Day 10.
Language: Spanish works everywhere. In Basque country you’ll see signs in Euskara (Basque), but staff in restaurants and hotels speak Spanish and usually English in the main cities.
Budget: Mid-range, expect €150–220 per person per day including a decent hotel, two restaurant meals, transport, and one paid activity. Northern Spain is cheaper than Barcelona but pricier than the south — Basque country especially.
Days 1–2: Bilbao
Day 1 — Arrival and the Old Town
Land at Bilbao Airport, pick up the rental car, and head straight into the city — it’s a 15-minute drive. Drop the car at your hotel (most have valet parking; street parking in Bilbao is a war you don’t want to fight) and walk.
Start in Casco Viejo, the old town. This is the original Bilbao before the city reinvented itself around the Guggenheim. The seven streets — Las Siete Calles — are narrow, atmospheric, and lined with pintxos bars where locals stand at the counter from 8 PM onwards.
For your first pintxos crawl, hit:
- Gure Toki (Plaza Nueva) — modern, creative pintxos that have won regional awards
- Café Bar Bilbao (Plaza Nueva) — the classic, traditional spot
- Sorginzulo — small, packed, excellent
The pintxos rule nobody tells you: don’t fill up at one place. Order one or two, drink a small glass of txakoli (the slightly fizzy local white wine) or a zurito (a tiny beer), pay, move on. The point is variety and momentum.
Day 2 — The Guggenheim and Beyond
Most people come to Bilbao for one building, and yes, you should see it. The Guggenheim Museum is genuinely transformative architecture — Frank Gehry’s titanium curves changed how the world thinks about museums and how Bilbao thinks about itself. Book tickets online in advance to skip the queue.
But here’s the thing: spend equal time on the outside as the inside. Walk around the building from every angle. See it reflected in the Nervión River. Photograph Jeff Koons’s Puppy (the giant flower-covered dog at the entrance) and Louise Bourgeois’s terrifying spider Maman round the back. The art outside the Guggenheim is half the experience.
After the museum, walk along the river promenade to the Zubizuri footbridge (another striking piece of architecture, by Calatrava), then head up to Mount Artxanda via the funicular. The view over the city — old town on one side, modern Bilbao on the other, mountains framing it all — is the photograph you’ll keep.
For dinner, leave the centre and book a table at Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo (about 40 minutes outside the city) if you can get one — it’s regularly ranked among the world’s best restaurants and everything is cooked over wood fire. If not, Mina in Bilbao is the next-best move, or another round of pintxos in Casco Viejo.
Where to stay in Bilbao: Gran Hotel Domine (across from the Guggenheim) for splurge, Hotel Tayko Bilbao for boutique mid-range, Hotel Bilbao Plaza for value.
Days 3–4: San Sebastián
Day 3 — Drive to Donostia
The drive from Bilbao to San Sebastián is about 1h 15m on the highway, but you should take the longer coastal route through Gernika (the town Picasso painted) and the seaside village of Lekeitio. Stop in Lekeitio for lunch — there’s a beach, a tiny island you can walk to at low tide, and grilled fish straight off the boats.
Continue along the coast through Zarautz (popular surf town) and arrive in San Sebastián — known locally as Donostia — by late afternoon.
San Sebastián might be the most beautiful city in Spain. La Concha beach curves in a near-perfect crescent between two green hills, the old town sits behind it, and the whole place glows at sunset. Walk the length of La Concha promenade in the evening — every local does this — and end up in the old town, Parte Vieja, for the best pintxos in the world. (Yes, better than Bilbao. Bilbao locals will fight me on this. They’re wrong.)
Pintxos hit list for tonight:
- La Cuchara de San Telmo — slow-cooked beef cheek that ruins all other beef cheek
- Bar Néstor — show up at 1 PM or 8 PM sharp to put your name on the list for their famous tomato salad and txuleta (rib steak). Yes, just for those two things. Yes, it’s worth it.
- Borda Berri — risotto, beef cheek, the best pintxos that aren’t on a counter
- Bar Sport — for the cazuela de hongos (mushroom dish)
- Atari — by the church, great atmosphere
Day 4 — La Concha, Monte Igueldo, and a Michelin Lunch
Morning swim at La Concha if the weather plays along — the bay is calm, the water clean, and joining the locals for an early swim is one of those small travel moments you remember.
Walk up Monte Urgull (the hill at the east end of the bay) for the views and the small castle on top, then take the antique funicular up Monte Igueldo at the western end for an even better panorama. There’s an old-fashioned amusement park at the top that feels frozen in 1925, in a charming way.
For lunch, this is the day to splurge on a Michelin-starred meal. Three legends are within 15 minutes of the city:
- Arzak — three Michelin stars, modern Basque, a pioneer
- Mugaritz — two stars, more experimental, polarising
- Akelarre — three stars, with a view over the Bay of Biscay
Book months in advance. Lunch is significantly cheaper than dinner and just as memorable.
Spend the afternoon walking the old town again or taking a short drive out to Hondarribia, a colourful fishing village on the French border. Dinner: more pintxos, naturally.
Where to stay in San Sebastián: Hotel Maria Cristina for grande dame elegance, Hotel Lasala Plaza for old town location, Pensión Aida for great-value boutique.
Day 5: The Coastal Drive to Santander
This is one of the best driving days in Europe and most travellers skip it.
Leave San Sebastián after breakfast and head west along the coast. The drive to Santander is about 3 hours direct, but plan a full day with stops:
Getaria (~30 min from Donostia) — tiny fishing village famous for grilled turbot. Even if you’re not stopping for lunch, walk the harbour.
Zumaia (~10 min further) — home to the Flysch cliffs, a UNESCO Geopark of dramatic, layered rock formations. If you’ve watched Game of Thrones, you’ve seen them — Dragonstone was filmed here. Walk the Itzurun Beach path along the cliffs.
Bilbao bypass — skip back through, you’ve already seen it.
Castro Urdiales — pretty harbour town, good lunch stop. The seafood here is excellent and cheaper than in the bigger cities.
Santoña — anchovy capital of Spain. Buy a tin or three to take home.
Arrive in Santander by early evening. Park, walk the seafront, and eat somewhere casual — you’ve earned a low-key night.
Days 6–7: Santander
Day 6 — A Different Kind of Spanish City
Santander surprises people. It feels less Spanish and more like a wealthy northern European seaside city — wide boulevards, art nouveau buildings, sweeping bay. After a fire destroyed much of the city in 1941, it was rebuilt with planning and money. The result is genuinely lovely.
Start at the Centro Botín — Renzo Piano’s contemporary art centre that hovers over the harbour. The architecture alone is worth the visit; the rotating exhibitions are usually excellent. Walk through the Pereda Gardens and along the seafront to the Magdalena Peninsula.
The Palacio de la Magdalena is a former royal summer palace on a peninsula jutting into the bay — Edwardian, English-inspired, surrounded by parkland with sea lions in a small bay below. You can tour the palace or just walk the grounds. Pack a picnic.
For lunch, El Sardinero beach area has good options. Bodega del Riojano in the old town is the classic for traditional Cantabrian food.
In the afternoon, head to El Sardinero beach itself — long, wide, less famous than La Concha but quieter and just as beautiful. Swim, sit, read.
Day 7 — Day Trip to Santillana del Mar and Comillas
Drive 30 minutes west of Santander for one of Spain’s most preserved medieval villages: Santillana del Mar. The local joke is that the name is a lie three times over — it’s not holy (santo), it’s not flat (llana), and it’s not on the sea (mar). What it is, is gorgeous: cobbled streets, sandstone palaces, no cars. Get there early before the tour buses.
A few minutes further is Comillas, where you’ll find El Capricho de Gaudí — one of only three Gaudí buildings outside Catalonia. It’s small, weird, fully wonderful, and a fraction of the crowds at his Barcelona work.
If you have energy, drive 30 more minutes to the Cabárceno Natural Park (animals roaming a former mine site, dramatic landscape) or the Altamira Caves Museum (the original caves are closed to protect the prehistoric paintings, but the replica museum is genuinely good).
Back to Santander for dinner. Try La Bombi for traditional Cantabrian seafood.
Where to stay in Santander: Hotel Bahía for views, Hotel Real for grand old-school luxury, Vincci Puertochico for boutique mid-range.
Days 8–10: Asturias
This is the part of the trip people remember most.
Day 8 — Drive to the Coast and First Cider House
Leave Santander, head west into Asturias. The coast becomes wilder — green cliffs plunge into the Atlantic, hidden coves appear around every bend, fishing villages cling to the rocks.
Stop in Llanes for lunch — a historic port with painted breakwater blocks (a public art piece by Agustín Ibarrola) and a great old town. Continue west to Ribadesella (the Sella river estuary, kayaking territory) or push on to your base.
The best base for Asturias is either Cudillero (impossibly photogenic fishing village built into a steep ravine) or Llanes itself if you want to be more east. For this itinerary, base in or near Cangas de Onís, gateway to the Picos de Europa.
Tonight: your first sidrería (cider house) experience.
Asturian cider is poured escanciado — held high above the head, the bottle in one hand, the glass in the other near the floor, with the cider falling in a long stream that aerates it. It’s a show, and you only pour an inch at a time because the aeration only lasts about 10 seconds. You drink it fast, in one go, and tap the glass on the table.
Order fabada (the local bean stew with chorizo and morcilla — Asturian comfort food incarnate), cachopo (two huge breaded veal steaks stuffed with ham and cheese), or chorizo a la sidra (chorizo cooked in cider). Casa Tataguyo in Avilés or Sidrería Tierra Astur (multiple locations) are reliable picks.
Day 9 — Picos de Europa
Today, mountains. The Picos de Europa are some of the most dramatic limestone peaks in Europe, and they’re an hour from the coast. You can’t fully explore them in a day, but you can see the highlights.
Drive to Covadonga, a sanctuary tucked into a cliff (where the Reconquista of Spain began, according to legend), then continue up the winding road to the Lakes of Covadonga — Lake Enol and Lake Ercina. In summer, you have to take a shuttle bus from a nearby parking area; this is for crowd control and is a good system.
The lakes sit at 1,100 metres surrounded by peaks, with cattle grazing the meadows. There are several hiking loops from 1 to 4 hours. Even non-hikers should walk at least to the viewpoint between the two lakes.
Drive back down for lunch in Cangas de Onís — see the famous Roman bridge with the Asturian cross hanging from it. Then choose your afternoon: more mountain time (the Cares Gorge hike is one of Spain’s classics, but takes 5–6 hours and is best done as a separate day), or back to the coast for a beach.
If you want a beach: Playa de Gulpiyuri is wild and bizarre — a tiny inland beach, 100 metres from the actual sea, fed by underground tunnels. Playa del Silencio is bigger and just as dramatic.
Day 10 — Cudillero and Departure
For your final morning, drive to Cudillero. Houses painted in pinks and yellows climb the steep walls of a ravine, with the harbour at the bottom. Sit in the main square, order coffee, eat fresh seafood for an early lunch. Don’t try to do anything here except absorb it.
Then drive to Oviedo Airport (about 45 minutes from Cudillero) for your flight home.
If you have a few extra hours, Oviedo itself — the Asturian capital — is worth a quick stop. The old town and cathedral are beautiful, and the city’s pre-Romanesque churches (like Santa María del Naranco) are UNESCO sites.
Practical Tips
Driving: Roads are excellent. Some toll motorways. Petrol is cheaper than UK or northern EU. Watch for rural speed traps in Asturias.
Food timing: Lunch is 2 PM, dinner starts 9 PM minimum. Don’t show up at a restaurant at 7 PM expecting dinner — you’ll be eating alone, and the kitchen may not even be open.
Reservations: For any restaurant with a name on it, book ahead, especially in San Sebastián. Pintxos bars don’t take reservations — that’s part of the deal.
Cash: Most places take cards now, but small pintxos bars and rural cider houses sometimes prefer cash. Carry €100 in small notes.
Weather: It can rain any time. Pack a light waterproof. Layers beat heavy clothes.
Language: Learning gracias, por favor, and una caña gets you 80% of the way. Eskerrik asko is “thank you” in Basque and earns goodwill in Bilbao and Donostia.
Final Thoughts
Northern Spain rewards the slow traveller. You’re not here to tick off ten cities or chase Instagram landmarks — you’re here to stand at a counter eating five tiny perfect things, drive a coast that won’t quit, walk a beach in the rain, drink cider poured from above someone’s head, and watch the light change on green mountains.
Ten days is enough to fall in love with the place. Most people who come once come back.
Pack the waterproof. Book the Michelin lunch. Take the long way along the coast. And whatever you do — don’t skip the pintxos in San Sebastián.
Buen viaje.
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