Next April, all we have so far are plane tickets in and out of Madrid. Plan is to adjust for maybe 3 nights in Madrid, then head up to Galicia (thinking train), then rent a car and work our way over to San Sebastian over the next 14 days, return to Madrid the night before flying home. If we broke this into 3 or 4 stops, what towns would you stay in? Any particularly scenic drives, along the coast or inland an hour or so? Specific hotel and restaurant recs welcome!
Thanks for any help
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I love Asturias. Wonderful national park (Picos Europa), great fishing villages and seafood. See if I can recall the villages and restaurants that we enjoyed
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Hi Alan - We do this pretty much every year in one form or another. You can basically go north along the coast, or take an inland route. Or what I recommend, is use a couple of days at the start to drive from Madrid through some of the best inland stops, and get to Galicia 2-3 days later, then take the coastal route when you head out. Airport car pick up and drop off in Madrid is very easy, and trains to Galicia are not as quick or easy as you’d hope, though certainly doable.
All the drives are beautiful and the roads very well maintained. I have a ton of restaurant and some hotel recommendations (we tend to go for rental apartments instead), but am traveling for the next few days. Will get something posted over the weekend.
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Sarah, that would be great! No rush, so when you have some spare time 
You’re playing to my strongest suit here. 
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Very interested in great coastal stops north of Madrid!
Thank you.
Near San Sebastian are dozens of caves with ancient carvings; several can be visited with reservations or coordination with the local rangers that oversee the smaller caves. Short visits only (15m or 30m, depending on the cave). There are also museums which exhibit artifacts from some caves, and a reconstruction of a cave that is no longer publicly accessible.
Hi Alan - Here you go. Feel free to DM me. Keep in mind, too, that almost all restaurants, even at the higher end, are BYO friendly for a reasonable corkage. There are places I wouldn’t bother, as the lists are excellent with pages and pages of inexpensive and fantastic local whites (reds, too, but the whites are special), but we’ve brought wine to many places without them batting an eye. Everyone drinks wine, every table has bottles and the bottles are often inexpensive, so why would they refuse an extra 35 EUR corkage? It’s quite nice.
As I said above, I’d start in Madrid and take a couple of days to drive to Galicia, taking as wandering a route as you want. The best restaurants in Galicia are spread out, and you will have to/want to be willing to drive anywhere from 20-40min to get to them from wherever you stay. So you can kind of base yourself anywhere, if you understand there will be driving involved. In my mind it would be a mistake to only be in Santiago, or Pontevedra and expect to walk or cab everywhere. There are not easy taxi services, and no Uber. Taxis exist for sure, but you have to book and sometimes they decide not to work on some days. Driving is best most of the time. That’s part of the reason we book most of the best restaurants for lunch rather than dinner (it’s also my preference since dinner starts so late there), so we don’t have to drive in the dark. Fortunately, lunch is generally the same menu as dinner, and many Spanish consider lunch to be the biggest meal of the day. I don’t have any hotel suggestions in Galicia as we always gets a rental house or apartment.
Then when you leave Galicia, I’d drive through Asturias. There are lots of places to stop along the coast. We usually stay in Ribadesella, either in a house or at a pretty little hotel just outside town called Villadesella. But don’t eat in town! There are a zillion restaurants, like any resort town, and they are almost all awful. Fortunately there are really, really good restaurants nearby. After Asturias, you head into Basque Country, and everything gets very green. All the drives are beautiful.
This is all from memory, so apologies if I have misspelled anything. I should at least be close enough that Google will figure it out. Let me know if you have any questions.
Between Madrid and Galicia (more or less)
El Capricho – there’s a TV show out there that calls it the best steak in the world, which of course is dumb. The steak is good, but what’s really great are the other dishes, which we thought were phenomenal. All my friends in San Sebastian restaurant world agree. If you go here, I’ll give you the details. It also has a massive and very impressive wine list, priced much better than it would be in the US, but not total steals.
El Ermitano – old school, been around forever, has one of the best sherry lists in Spain. The food is also excellent, especially the lechazo (baby lamb). We love cool sh-t in the middle of nowhere.
Restaurante Lera – specializes in game. amazing food, beautiful restaurant, aslo in the middle of nowhere. Also a very good wine list, and they are very nice. Some rooms attached to the restaurant are basic and inexpensive. You can also stay in Zamora, not too far. We’ve been to Lera several times, highly recommended.
Mannix – the best baby lamb of all times. Period, full stop. Huge room, almost like a banquet hall, but they turn out perfect food over and over. Absolutely worth the trip.
In Galicia
Casa Solla (Pontevedra) – a favorite of ours. Pepe is probably the best chef in Galicia. We have been there at least 10 times. Over the course of that many meals, there have been dishes that weren’t as good as others, of course, but never a less than great meal. Also a very good wine list with quite sharp pricing. Lovely room with a nice view, too, so we prefer it for lunch. He is also running a little casual wine bar with snacks out of the front of the restaurant now. Haven’t done that yet.
Culler de Pau (O Grove) – 2 stars and deserves it. Also a beautiful room and view. It is elegant, not fancy, not fussy. The food is terrific. A very good wine list, though not as extensive as Solla. We often rent a house walking distance away, which makes it a no brainer.
Albanta Cocina de Lena (Pontevedra) – A recommendation from the owner of Malauva wine bar. I almost don’t want to tell you about this one because no one knows about it and I kind of want to keep it that way. Very good food, not as refined as Solla or Culler, but holds its own. We immediately put it in our rotation. Solid wine list, too.
O Pazo (Padron) – This year was our first visit. They call it the Etxebarri of Galicia and I see why. It is in a weird place, sort of a rest stop, but the room is elegant, if a little dated, and the food is very good. It’s a little fancier than other places, but like most restaurants, it’s effortless elegance rather than stuffiness. A huge selection of wine is available, mostly local. We will return for sure.
D’Berto (O Grove) – the best for pure seafood, order whatever Berto tells you is best. Casual but elegant. I think it’s best for a group because you can get a whole fish and a whole lobster, which you should do.
Abastos 2.0 (Santiago) – in the market, with ingredients sourced from the market. If you like markets, this is one of the best there is, especially on a Saturday. The food at Abastos 2.0 punches way above what you’d expect for where it is. Get a few big orders of razor clams, a bottle or two of albarino, and spend a few hours watching people. Remarkably inexpensive for what you get.
Malauva (Vigo) – excellent wine bar, one of the best lists you’ll ever see, and some quite tasty small plates to go with it. Like almost everywhere, the list used to be better, as many of the older vintages have been consumed, and as the prices have crept upwards, but it is still very, very good.
Laguina Lieux Dit (not sure what the small town is called, somewhere between O Grove and Padron) – wine bar and lovely garden with very good food, a strong list, and really nice people.
Near Ribadesella
Not really close, but on the way between Galicia and Ribadesella is a great restaruant called Casa Gerardo. Surprisingly elegant, this is where you go to eat Fabada, Asturian bean stew. Nice wine list. Get the a la carte classics here, as they do those better than their more refined tasting menu.
Gueyu Mar – one of the best seafood restaurants in Spain, and also one of the best makers of conservas. I think it’s currently only open for lunch.
Casa Marcial – a 2 star at the top of the mountain, with stunning views and truly top notch food. A very good wine list as well. It’s not stuffy at all, quite comfortable, and absolutely worth the windy drive up.
La Huertona – another truly special place, more casual, but with some of the best grilled fish I’ve ever had, and a good steak as well.
Santander
Bodegas Cigalena – THe owner as a LOT of wine. A LOT. But most of it isn’t on his list. He wants to have a conversation with you about what to drink, but don’t ask him for recommendations, because he is really into natural wine now, so he’ll recommend that even though he has Raveneau and Dujac. The food is good, not great, with a few really good dishes like the morcilla.
Between Santander and San Sebastian there is a really good, again middle of nowhere place, whose name I am not remembering right now. We haven’t been in years, and I still remember how good it was. I’ll try and think of it.
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Please please try! I’m headed there in November.
Thank you!
Restaurante Cenador de Amós
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Sarah, thank you for this impressive set of recommendations! I’ll be researching all these
Enjoy!
All I’m gonna do is add to Sarah’s amazing list!
I would happily include Anaco for Santiago
Loaira for Pontevedra
Detapaencepa for Vigo
Vinoteca Jaleo in A Coruña
The train from Madrid to Santiago will take you through Ourense which can be a nice stop for lunch and to. It’s a touch more inland and offers up some lovely Mountain Views. There is a retail place/restaurant called Sybaris 2.0 that was excellent and you can find plenty of Ribeira Sacra there
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Love Loaira. We stopped there almost every night when we stayed right in Pontevedra. There is also a new and ambitious place called Marna opened by the former somm from Casa Solla. We only stopped in for a glass and snack, but it is promising.
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Settled our itinerary and booked all the hotels a few months ago. Maybe a little too much relocation, oh well lol.
Arrive Madrid
Madrid 3 nights
Pontevedra 3 nights
Santiago de Compostela 2 nights
Oviedo 2 nights
Santander 2 nights
San Sebastian 4 nights
Madrid 1 night
Depart
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Looks like a solid plan. I’m eager to hear where you will be eating!
We are just finalizing our May trip. A nice 2 weeks, with a truly awesome array of restaurants, almost all for lunch. Given the timing of meals there, it’s even more of our preference than usual. Leisurely morning, lunch from 2-5 or 6, get back to the apartment or hotel with 4-5 hours of light left to sip vermouth and nibble on olives and anchovies. I’d much rather do that than start dinner at 9.
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When I was 25 years younger, I loved the late nights in Spain. Dinner, then bar hopping until 2 a.m. or later, etc. It was probably the novelty of it compared to the States, but that wore off years ago. Now I love the extended, leisurely 3+ hour lunches, then a few hours of our own personal siestas, then maybe back out for some strolling, drinks and light tapas before heading to bed by 10 or 11. It’s a good fit for an American tourist to experience the Spain lifestyle without the late night revelry.
If you’re driving from Santander to San Sebastián, I’d recommend a short detour to the Gernika Museum of Peace.
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Just outside of San Sebastian is Casa Julian in Tolosa. Steaks worthy of the hype and the beautiful drive for lunch.
We caught it on the way back to San Sebastian from a day trip to Haro.
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If dinners in May started at 9, I could possibly adjust. But restaurants that say they open at 9 look at you weird if you actually show up at that time, and you’re likely to get handed menus at 9:30 and not get food until 10.
Yes to lunches!
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