Northern Spain : Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Navarra and the Basque Country

Northern Spain's main regions, cities and airports

Main areas: Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia, Navarra
Main cities: San Sebastian, Alava, Bilbao, Santander, Gijon, Oviedo, La Coruña, Vigo, Pontevedra, Santiago de Compostela
Main airports: Bilbao, Santander, Oviedo, Coruña, Santiago, Vigo, Alava,

Holiday accommodation

Rural houses (casas rurales) and apartments – These abound across the north of Spain. It is a spanish category set up to allow individual proprietors to rent their holiday property and they are fully legal and inspected. There is an incredible range to choose from if you want to rent your own independent house or apartment. They range from the simple and comfortable to the luxurious and well appointed and are all priced accordingly, in line with regional recommendations. All the owners take a great pride in their houses, many have been in the family for years, this is not mass produced holiday accommodation, in 99% of cases you will find beautifully fitted out kitchens, comfortable bedrooms, original features, well tended gardens and an owner who wants to provide you with what you need for a good holiday. Some of the larger houses have been divided up into 2 three or four smaller apartments, but without losing their original charm. They often share the garden and other outdoor facilities but are completely equipped for your own use and are a great economical option for families. On the whole you may find things take a little longer, and are more quaint and rustic than on for example the Costa del Sol, but you certainly won’t just be handed a bunch of keys and left to get on with it.

Rural guesthouses or B&B in the north

The north of Spain has been left with a heritage of beautiful historical buildings and farmhouses as the agricultural life changed and many people went to the cities. While not quite reaching hotel category (by Spanish laws) many of these guesthouses do a lot more than just provide bed and breakfast. As with the rural houses many of the buildings have been in the families for centuries although some are now run by younger people making a real business out of it. You’ll find lovely houses, many with facilities you can use all day, just like in a hotel, gardens, lounges, bar, some have restaurants, some offer use of kitchens for preparing your own food, many will cook your evening meal. They welcome foreign visitors wholeheartedly to this kind of tourism, you’ll find the owners very professional in their approach, keen to adapt to you, offer you special prices for longer stays and make sure you want to come back! It’s a beautiful Spanish experience – ranging from a 200 year old Basque farmhouse – a Cantabrian Inn on a wild coast – or a Galician mill or Pazo (landowners castle like house).

Northern Spain introduction

Northern Spain or “Green Spain” stretches for over 900 kilometres from its border with France and the Pyrenees to Galicia jutting out into the Atlantic and bordering Spain’s only other neighbour Portugal. Culturally the area is quite diverse from the incredibly beautiful mixture of ancient and sophisticated Basque country in the east, to the rolling Cantabrian hills, with its holiday resorts and fishing ports, friendly rural Asturias with its National park, incredible mountain ranges and hidden valleys and finally to the ancient folklore and seafaring people of green and gentle Galicia with its miles of sandy estuaries and easy going way of life.

This is beautifully unspoilt Spain, an area that gratefully missed the Mediterranean boom of the 1960s and has kept its culture, towns, fishing villages, monuments and coastlines carefully intact and while the area is now easy to access and well documented for tourists, whether you are off the beaten track in the northern Spanish mountains, or you choose to stick to the coastal resorts or the historic cities you will never for one moment forget you are in Spain!

Climate

For summer weather this coastline is in a league of its own. Pleasantly warm temperatures of between 20 and 28C from June to September are fairly average. This really translates into sunshine with occasional rainy days and July and August can bring some real scorchers with temperatures in the high 30s. it tends to rain more on the northern Galician coastline than in more eastern basque country, but on the whole summers are relatively dry and hot – remember this is still 1000 km south of the UK and equivalent lat, of the south of France. A clever trick the Spaniards use on the mountainous coastline on a cloudy day – is head for the mountains, only half an hour away, and a few hundred metres up – we are back to brilliant sunshine.
Autumn is a beautiful time of year to visit the area although the days are shorter and few but the less hardy will want to swim. Daytime temperatures still reach 20 degrees and it is generally a dry season with the spectacular autumn colours particularly in the inland natural parks, it is a great season for touring and walking.
Winters can be very mixed often with cold wet weeks and snow in the high mountains. It is a spectacular time of the year to visit the Picos de Europa or the Basque mountains, and for experienced winter climbers and walkers. The cosy holiday houses and bed and breakfasts all remain open, experiencing a cosy winter fire and an asturian stew after a day out in the fresh air – is a very popular winter weekend activity with the Spaniards.
Spring can be very mixed, with March, April and the beginning of May, it’s a case of even the weather man doesn’t know! This is the season that makes Northern Spain green! You may be lucky and find yourself in flowering meadows and watching snow melt in mountain streams or you may have to retire to the museums, restaurants and cultural heritage the towns like Santander and San Sebastian have to offer you.

Getting around

Roads driving – the last five years have seen vast improvements to the infrastructure in the whole of the north of Spain. Crossing the north from one main town to another used to be a treacherous nightmare with lorries on the roads. All this is now over with the almost completed A8 motorway which goes from the French border to the Galician border at Ribadeo. The north coast of Galicia is still slower so needs more time allocating but there is far less traffic on its roads. The motorway is expensive but well worth, the safety and all the time saved, it is very well signposted and one of the newest roads in Spain. The Galician motorways which run along the western coast serve all the holiday areas well. Inland driving in this area on minor roads can be slow, with rural traffic, but extremely pretty, so allow time and be patient.

The coastal roads are all usually well kept and well signposted. The roads to the popular beaches can get very busy with holidaymakers in July and August so expect queues from about 12am to midday. Inland most rural roads and mountain roads are now well surfaced, although signposts may only direct you to the next couple of villages, so buy a proper map and don’t rely on a small tourist one from the hotel. In winter it is not advisable to venture up into the high mountains without chains and always carry a mobile.


Trains and buses
The northern coast is served by a train line FEVE – which is ideal for getting from town to town and visiting different areas along the coast. However if you want to move quickly from one large city to another the coach service is the only real option for speed. All major towns in the area are served by several bus routes daily. All smaller villages in Spain now have at least one bus service per day linking them with their nearest town but this usually can’t be relied on for holiday transport.

Eating out

What a delightful area – this is one area where there is so much and such variety – even the vegetarians (usually hard to please in meat eating Spain) will come home sated. From the deliciously cooked fish with sauces and 100’s of varieties of Basque tapas, to Cantabrian, vegetable and meat stews, Asturian hearty mountain cooking, Galicia more simple in its preparation of its dishes but with an abundance of seafood, fish, and local dairy products at incredible local prices. Restaurants and bars of all types are easy to find even in small towns and villages. One advantage of the northern areas is that they will often make you things the way you like them too! Or if you are on holiday with children or have a vegetarian in a group you’ll find they have time to do the chips and egg, or come up with a nice local dish, while you enjoy something from the menu.

The language and the people

On the whole even if you don’t speak any Spanish you won’t find it much of a problem to get by in the North of Spain. many of the owners of the small rural houses won’t speak much English if they are more than middle aged – but knowing the “foriegners” are arriving they are usually prepared with son, neighbour friend as interpreter to welcome you. The friendliness of the northern Spaniards far makes up for any language problems you may have and their desire to welcome newcomers to their country. The people in the larger Rural inns and guesthouses will usually have someone around who speaks English – but it may not be fluent – so you have to do your bit too and keep your language simple. Most of the time it is good fun and obviously if any major problems arise on your holiday there are emergency services with English speakers in every town and no one is likely to leave you stranded in this part of the world.

Prices across the region – budgeting for your holiday

The Basque country cities with their modern sophistication and up to date restaurants, shopping, museums and facilities tends to be the most expensive area of the north for eating out and drinking for the holidaymaker. Surprisingly once you move away from the coast and modern cities to the inland areas it becomes one of the cheapest. This is maybe because the inland Basque country is relatively unused to tourism and you really are paying local prices.

Cantabría and Asturias whether coastal or inland are great value for money for a family on holiday. This is an easy place in summer to find great value bars and restaurants, portion sizes are huge for the price you pay, and there is a great deal on offer. Very sophisticated restaurants are harder to find than in the Basque country, but that’s not to say that each medium size town doesn’t have one. It’s not really an area for shoppers except for the capital of Santander which does have some exclusive shops. Great area for groups of walkers, and energetic students who would like to eat out well on a budget at any time of the year.

Accommodation in Galicia can sometimes seem expensive in some of its beautiful rural hotels and houses, probably because of the investment that has been put into some of them. But you will probably find your holiday budget more than compensated for by how inexpensive everything else in this region is. it is one of the lesser developed areas of Spain and for the holidaymaker, eating out, boat trips, local transport, adventure activities, museums, wine and seafood, are the least expensive of the whole of Spain.