Help me plan a trip across northern Spain

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
41

Alex, we got back from our trip two weeks ago, I will write up our experiences at some point, but can give you some thoughts. I’ll preface by saying that as an american, I put high value on places that are old and historic, something we don’t have much of here, and nothing going back as far as europe (apart from some ancient native american sites).

A week is definitely not enough time to do a comfortable trip across the entire north. We had 14 nights between Pontevedra and San Sebastián, and were still pretty limited in what we saw. We stayed in

Pontevedra
Santiago
Oviedo
Santander
San Sebastián

Of those, my favorites were Pontevedra, Santiago, and San Sebastián. All have lovely old town centers, plenty of restaurants, shopping, etc. Oviedo is also a very nice city, with a nice old town district, and more modern surroundings (true of all of these places). Santander is distinguished by being right on the water (as is San Sebastián), with a beautiful beach area, and interesting and scenic inlets. But it lacked a true old town district, and we struggled to find better restaurants there. I’m sure with better
research we would have done better.

We stopped in Bilbao on our way from Santander to San Sebastián. With the caveat that we were only there a few hours, most of that at the Guggenheim, I probably would not go back and spend time there. That’s just a very quick first impression, which could be way off the mark.

We loved Madrid, it is an extraordinary city, full of energy, easy enough to navigate, plenty to see and do.

Unfortunately, my recommendations don’t make it easy for you lol. Santiago and San Sebastián are 6 hours driving apart (no idea if training is possible, or how long that would take). Since you want to end up in Madrid, something to consider would be splitting your week between San Sebastián and Madrid.

If you decide to go farther west and drive, the roads are excellent, and driving is easy. Be prepared to pay some tolls.

Hope that helps a little.

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42

Thank you Alan for this very thoughtful note - this is indeed very helpful. May be biting off more than we can chew…will reflect and report back!

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43

No surprise if I say I am partial to Galicia, and would advocate for a loop from Madrid to and from there by car (see my first post in this thread about how that can work), but understand if you really want to hit San Sebastian, which we also love (I am actually there now). I’d skip Bilbao, and pretty much agree with Alan about Santander.

If you want to hit beach towns on the northern coast, Ribadesella is the obvious choice. There are several of the very best restaurants in the north of Spain there (Casa Marcial, La Huertona, Guyeu Mar), though most of the eating establishments right in town are resort town standard mediocre. To be fair, that’s true of most beach towns, so research is required. Salinas is also quaint and pretty, with some good eating options.

My main advice would be to focus, and let go of FOMO. If you try and move around too much, you’ll short change everywhere.

Adding - even if you decide to do only San Sebastian, I would strongly consider driving rather than flying. There are a least 4 towns I can suggest to break up the drive, either overnight or just for lunch (at superb restaurants) Connecting in Madrid is a challenge. The airport is huge, and especially with EES issues right now, you need to leave yourself a long connection time. The drive is 5 hours - not short at all, but you would spend at least that much on your connection, plus you would have to deal with security again (bags can go directly to final destination, though, unlike the US) and the time connecting is 100% wasted, whereas the drive is through gorgeous countryside on excellent roads, and you can take it at whatever pace you like, without airport crowds and lines and nonsense. Same applies to getting to Galicia, though the drive is a little longer.

As always, please feel free to DM me with questions. I am happy to try and help.

44

I echo Sarah in driving from Madrid to SS. In addition to her recommended stops, I’d also suggest Logroño (for a nice meal and/or overnight for ir de tapas), or, Ezcaray if you’d like to have a very nice meal. Ezcaray is a sleepy place with nothing really to do other than have a nice meal at Echaurren. The drive from either to SS is about the same, just around 2 hours or less, depending how one drives.

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45

Well, there is Fabrica de Mantas, a current obsession of my girlfriend.

46

If stopping in Logroño, you need to visit Sal de Añana. That salt from their natural spring is amazing.

47

I’ve heard about the salinas from a couple of friends there (locals); but never thought to visit. Whenever I’m in La Rioja, I base myself in Logroño and drive around visiting wineries and restaurants (except for Franco-Españolas, my wife and I just walked). When back in Logroño, we generally just rest and have dinner or ir de tapas.

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48

They sell these large stalactites of salt with a hand held grate that you use to put salt on your food. So cool! I am so PO’d at myself for not buying it to take home.

49

Got it. “Artisanal” local salts are also sold here in “crude” looking cone-like form from Philippine provinces/towns as well. May check out the Logroño salinas next I’m there.

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50

Salt is one thing I can’t get overly excited about lol. Kind of interesting to try local products, but in the end it’s mostly… salt lol.

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51

Try it. Adding various salts in my kitchen has been fun.

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52

Oh sure, I have, and I have several interesting, sometimes exotic salts. But I haven’t found that they make enough difference to get into it too far.

53

This salt is very different from sea salt. It has a much brighter flavor and is more sharp. The flakes of fleur de sel are the size of dimes and pennies. The perfect finishing salt for steak.

We found out about it because the fleur de sel they produce was listed on a lot of menus in Bilbao and San Sebastian. We then spotted the boxes for sale in the Mercado de la Bretxa. It was those retailers who told us about the facility and since it was on the route back to Madrid, we had to stop.

Look up Claudia Romeo on YouTube: Inside Spain’s 250 million year old salt valley.

Sorry for the thread drift.

54

I actually bought some in San Sebastián, I’m not a total luddite :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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55

great thread, Im about to do something similar. meeting my wife in bilbao and prob staying in SS 3 nights, then the marques de riscal hotel 2 then we fly to lisbon. any suggestions on wineries to visit? need to get going on those as we sre 10 days out!

56

@Alan_Rath how do you pay the tolls? toss coins in the basket? need a toll tag? person at the booth? i hate being surprised at the toll booth!

57

Tap your card, easy peasy. Once or twice there was an actual toll booth operator, hand them your card. No cash anywhere that I saw. Tolls range between a euro or two, 5-8 more typical, once we paid 16 between Oviedo and Leon, which is a long road up the mountains.

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58

Jonathan - will post a full trip report when back but we are driving out of Rioja as we speak. We only had 24 hours but visited with Abel Mendoza, Allegre Valganon, and Pujanza. All three were amazing visits in their own way - the first two are very small operations, at Allegre we spent time with one of the owners himself. All three you have to email directly for appointments and the first two are definitely well off the beaten path.

59

Back after a lovely 9 days in northern Spain, and having plundered this thread and several others for recommendations, reporting back with our experience / recommendations.

Overall, we spent 3 nights in Cantabria, 3 nights in San Sebastian, 1 night in Rioja, and a last night in Madrid (to take my wife to the Bad Bunny concert) – sticking in the Northeast with this amount of time was a great recommendation from this board. We’ll be back to visit Galicia and Asturias when we have more time.

Cantabria:

Hotel: We stayed at Palacio Helguera Hotel, a lovely, intimate spot. It’s a bit in the middle of nowhere, but we have a high tolerance for driving – we loved it but it’s not the right place if you want to be in / close to town

Restaurants:

  • Our one foray into Asturias, on our first day, we had one of the most memorable meals of our lives at Casa Marcial, a three star in the middle of nowhere. While the food is obviously incredibly high levels of technique / originality, it is also never stuffy, and it often also feels homey – the meal starts with a fried corn and scrambled egg dish that was the first dish the chef ever made for his family. We will be thinking about the signature trout dish for the rest of our lives. The restaurant is in a stunning location in the middle of nowhere at the top of a mountain. Couldn’t recommend it more for a splurge experience.
  • We had very nice meal the night we arrived at El Nuevo Molino close to our hotel
  • We had a good, not great meal at Bodega Cigalena in Santander – the wine list, though, is excellent, and the space as a “museum of wine” is very cool

Beyond the eating, we spent our time really enjoying the region’s beauty. It feels very non-touristed – we went on a couple hikes and did not see another person. The highlight was a hike along the cliffs above the Bay of Biscay during which we found a completely unpopulated, pristine beach and also walked through pastures filled with completely unbothered horses and cows…a very memorable day

Rioja
A quick 24 hour visit, we were fortunate to have lovely visits at three wineries: Alegre Valganon (during which we spent an awesome afternoon with one of the owners, Oscar), Abel Mendoza, and Pujanza. Would recommend all three wholeheartedly both for the quality of the wine and the visits

For our one night, we did a tapas crawl in Logrono, which has an excellent scene that often gets lost vs. San Sebastian. Highlights were El soldado de Tudelilla (tomato, onion, and tuna salad), Bar Travesia (excellent tortilla), Bar Angel (Mushrooms) and Umm No solo Tapas (trendier place – everything we had was done well)

We stayed our one night at the Hotel Santa Maria Briones - a lovely hotel in the very, very beautiful town of Briones, well situated in Rioja

San Sebastian
Hotel: I burned through many well-earned Marriott points at the Hotel Maria Cristina. We were updated to a top floor terrace suite. I wouldn’t pay the cash rates, but it’s an incredible property for redemption

Eating: This is what you come here for…

  • Rekondo: One of our favorite meals of the trip – it’s not necessarily revolutionary, but it felt to us like typical dishes executed extremely well. The highlight is the 100k cellar including some of the most incredible wines you can see…definitely ask for a tour of the cellar after dinner
  • Ganbara: Ate at the restaurant downstairs at the strong recommendation of the board and it did not disappoint. Dreaming of the prawns and of the mushrooms with egg
  • Pintxo – our highlights: Bar Antonio (everything, but especially the egg / potato dish, the oxtail, and the prawn ravioli); Borda Berri (risotto); Bar Sport (foie, chorizo), Zabaleta (Tortilla, tomatoes), and Bar Desy (more modern – awesome burger, cheesecake and, believe it or not, pastrami sandwich)

Outside of eating, we visiting the San Telmo museum in town (small but nice collection) and spent a day at a town around 45min outside of San Sebastian from which my wife’s family left for Argentina ~150 years ago, quite a cool experience for us

Madrid: We were really just there for the Bad Bunny concert (which was awesome), but we had a great lunch at Taberna Jam (memorable falafel and hummus at a tiny spot) and had a so-so stay at the Mandarin (another point redemption)

If not clear from all of the above, we fell in love with the region and can’t wait to return! Feel free to PM with any questions.

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