3 weeks in northen Spain by car. A tentative of itinerary.

I’d try to avoid that five plus hour drive from Leon to Bilbao.
Many here like Bilbao more than San Sebastián. You can choose one or the other—it depends on the day trips you want. I’d make this a four night stay and skip Santillana del Mare.
I would keep working on fleshing out the long stays so you can make the short stays in between work better. Nice start, just needs refining!

Thanks !

Google tell me it's 3 and half hour from Leon to Bilbao. Why would you avoid that ?

So you would go from Bilbao to Asturias ?

4 nights in Bilbao seem to be a bit of an overkill no ?

Sorry, don’t know where I got that—three hours is more reasonable.
Four nights is not overkill if you will be exploring the area—that’s what the car is for, right?
I have a bias towards less moving, seeing more in a confined area versus spread-out itineraries, so that’s reflected in my replies. Others with more experience in the region will be by soon for more input.

Two nights in Santillana del Mar seem excessive. Two nights in Bilbao seem one short.

Mikelbasqueguide: Thanks !

Can you tell me if Bilbao can be a good replcament for San Sebastian ? What would we should do with ione more night in Bilbao ?
Santillana would have been our base to go to Fuente in Picos de Europa. We are open to change many things if needed !

I’d use Cangas de Onis or Fuente Dé as a base to visit Picos de Europa before Santillana del Mar. Either is closer to the park and less overcrowded than Santillana. I did enjoy Santillana the times I’ve been there, but it is best seen after the day trippers have departed.

On the drive from Pinhão to León consider a couple hour stop in Puebla de Sanabria to visit the small castle and historic center. The town isn’t very large.

Two places in Galicia that might make for good bases are Santiago de Compostela and Lugo, but it really depends on what you want to do.

You’re going to be doing a lot of driving so research places along your route to stop at to break the driving up.

Santillana del Mar is not a good base for Fuente Dé, much better to find a place in Potes (touristy, as much as Santillana del Mar, but also a beautiful town). Winding roads...

Bilbao has more to offer than Donostia-San Sebastian, but I´m biased as I live in Bilbao. It´s a good point to explore the towns of Bermeo, Mundaka, Gernika, Ea, Elantxobe, Lekeitio...or the medieval Rioja wine area, or the mountains near Durango and Elorrio. Also, close to Getxo and Bizkaia Bridge, Plentzia...But if it´s two nights, plenty to do and see in the city!

jaimeelsabio: thanks for the answers and the ideas !

Being in the mountains to see mountains seem to be the way to go, but we have been in some mountians ain the last years and the weather have often not be good enough to do some walk. Not much fn to be in mountains while not able to be enjoy mountains. We thought that a place like LLanes could offer us some other options if weather is not good enough to do some hiking.

Thanks about the ideas in Galicia. As alaways when we travel we like a mix of cities, small quaint villages and naturals wonders. For Galicia, the coast seem to be not to musiss as wlle as Santiago de Compostela.

Mikelbasqueguide: Thanks again! yeah I assumed that you are from Bilbao...like writtent under your name !

It seem that San Sebastian got better food and is a lot more beautiful than Bilbao, is it right ?

Potes could have been a good idea, but if weather is not good the day or two we have chosen for mountains. My idea was to use LLanes as a base for Picos. Is not in the mountain but I can do an hour and a half to go there. and by choosing LLanes we would have other options if weather is not good enough.

Maybe we could do 3 nights in Bilbao, and only one Santilla del Mar (to enjoy the place when daytrippe have leave) ?

Food in Donostia -San Sebastián is extremely similar to that in Bilbao, not that much difference. D-SS is just more famous as it has more Michelin-star restaurants per capita than any other city in the world. But again, it's practically the same food scene. Donostia/San Sebastian is in a beautiful setting in a bay, with three beaches (beaches are 9 miles from Bilbao city center), but beach weather is not always a thing, as this is a rainy area .

I have not been to all the places you are considering, but I’ve been to a couple (in November 2021), so I’ll give you my feedback.

We loved Picos de Europa NP, and thought the hiking was great. We stayed in Cangas de Onus, which we liked, so we spent most of our time hiking in the Covadonga Lakes area. It is beautiful!

We stopped in a fabulous B&B on the northern coast called Hotel Rural 3 Cabos. It’s up on a hill and has fantastic views of the water and surrounding farmland and mountains. It’s beautifully decorated, and the food is to die for. It has probably the best breakfast I’ve ever had at a B&B, and dinner is excellent with the best dessert I’ve ever had (a cream cheese flan). We spent two nights there. On our first day, we went to an awesome Celtic hill fort that was abandoned in 200 BC. It’s quite vast and we had the place to ourselves. It was only a half hour drive from 3 Cabos. We spent the next day in Luarca, a colorful port only a 10-15 minute drive. Not someplace you would drive hours to see, but a pleasant place to spend an afternoon. We also walked around the farms surrounding 3 Cabos. Perhaps this would make a convenient stop on your way to Galicia. We really enjoyed this stop.

3 Cabos is less than 3 hours from Santiago de Compostela, which I highly recommend as a base for Galicia. The first day there, I was lukewarm on it (not sure why), but the second day I fell in love. It’s a nice smallish size with the cathedral, a cool market and fun old town. I was sorry we only had two nights there.

One thing I should also mention, in case it would interest you, is we spent another night in Galicia in the mountain village of O Cebreiro. It’s on the Camino de Santiago, and we wanted to hike just a little of that. It was a good place to do it since the views were beautiful. We walked an hour or so in one direction one day and did the same in the other direction the second day. The village itself is tiny and old and rustic. The accommodations are pretty limited — just rooms for hikers to sleep. Our room was the tiniest room we’ve ever stayed in. It did have an en suite, but that was tiny too. The shower was so small, if you dropped your soap, you’d never be able to pick it up! It was a bit too rustic — and small — for me, but it was a fun experience for one night.

I hope you have a wonderful time in Spain. We loved it!

I agree that O Cebreiro is worth visiting, but an hour is enough to literally see everything. Unless you’re hiking the Camino I wouldn’t recommend spending a night there and the few accommodations that are there are all geared to hikers. It could be visited from Lugo or Ponferrada is you were in that area and driving by. Don’t blink too long as you’ll be past it.

MIkelBasqueGuide: After reading I think we cant pass beside some days in Basque country so we will have 4 nights in Bilbao.

Carroll: Thanks for that long and detailled answer. We are not into religious mystical stuff, but thanks anyways. We also prefer to not have too much one nighters, we prefer to drive an hour to and from a place than having only a night there. We will still read more about all those ideas you have put in the mix. Many thanks !

LLanes is a good base; it's an easy drive to Cangas de Onis from there.

We spent time in a hotel just inland from there and drove into Llanes a few times to walk around and have dinner.
And in the other directions, towards Arriondas and Cangas de Onis; the latter has a good Parador but I imagine it might be a bit more expensive than you want to spend, since your trip is so long..

Personally, I'd not go all he way to Fuente De to get the feel of the mountains and do some walking or hiking.

Arriondas is also used frequently as a base for the mountains and water sports.

I also stayed at HOTEL RURAL LOS TRES CABOS and agree that it is lovely!!
There are two websites for unique accommodations in Asturias; the region has many really lovely small hotels of alll types and in all price ranges..

https://www.turismoasturias.es/en/organiza-tu-viaje/donde-dormir

https://www.rusticae.com/boutique-hotels/rural-romantic-asturias-011273

Another lovely place to spend the night on the coast in Asturias is the travel-poster-pretty town of Cudillero, where there are a couple of very nice small hotels overlooking the little cove..might be a bit touristy in June, though...

I did love very much our time in that region! We even took a drive south into Leon to Astorga, where there is a beautiful Gaudi palace that seems to draw very few visitors in comparison to the famous Barcelona sites..

Two bases in Galicia could be Santiago, and a coastal town--could be Cambados, Muxia (spectacular modern Parador overlooking an idyllic sandy beach) Finisterre or the larger Pontevedra.
Or even a rural hotel slightly inland with an easy drive to the sea. There are many rural properties that look so appealing in Galicia..

Both Pontevedra and Cambados have lovely paradors, as does the one I mentioned, outside Muxia.

One thing I would absolutely recommend is booking your accommodation in Santiago as soon as possible. I had quite a difficult time finding a good hotel for my dates last June, and I attempted booking as early as January. There are so many tourists arriving from their Caminos and they tend to book out hotels in all categories, from the Relais Chateaux and the Parador to the well-reviewed less expensive properties. (I ended up putting my name on the wait list for the Parador and a room became available within a few days....but I'm not sure to you want to splash out for that hotel, as important as it is...). I'll just mention that we will be back in September and I have already booked my stay in Santiago...

The things we did may not be your cup of tea, and of course you should do what works for you. But I did want to say there was nothing mystical or religious about our trip. We enjoyed history, beautiful scenery and atmospheric old towns, which floats my boat. Maybe if we hiked the Camino for more than a few hours we might have felt differently, who knows.

Oh, I agree! I don't go to Santiago for religious reasons!! It's such a vibrant cool city now...there's a lot going on the has nothing to do with pilgrims or the cathedral, although I thought it was fabulous to see both the pilgrims and the cathedral, if that makes sense.. For one thing, it's a city of fabulous restaurants and a wonderful food market..one of the best medium-sized markets I've been to in Spain. And there are lots of students living there so it's far from somber.

Oviedo is very small/quaint and requires a day trip only. Galicia is beautiful and make sure you eat plenty of seafood there. I stayed in the countryside of Santiago in a stone cottage. Loved the decor but the other guests were very loud (walls were not soundproof at all). Therefore, I do not have a recommendation for accommodation. Happy travels!

Agree...you could spend a day in Oviedo. I liked the Bellas Artes museum (those fabulous cat painting by Leonard Foujita--worth going to the museum to see those!! (I had never heard of this artist before I went to Oviedo).

And yes..the seafood in Galicia is second to none!!

Barkinpark: Would you let us know where that stone cottage was located? Did you like the town/area, if to the hotel?
I've booked a night outside Santiago for September (we've been before so this is just a quick overnight on the way to Isla de la Toja). There are so many of those cottage-like accommodations and they look so appealing...I've found a few in Padron but they were all booked when we were in Galicia last spring, so we just went to Padron for lunch at Asador O'Pazo.

Santillana Del Mar, for me, would be a stopover but not an overnight. The architecture is glorious but the town is very oriented towards tourists..like an open-air museum without a lot of local life..that's just based on only one visit there, when we spent a night in one of the Paradors.

ekscrunchy: I checked booking.com website and couldn't find that booking anymore. The trip took place about 7 years ago.

In general, most of these stone built B&Bs or country inns have noise issues. Ditto for Alpine chalets built of wood.

EDIT: found the name of the inn--Casa Gasamáns.

An Oviedo story.

When took our children to Spain in 1994 we spent a night in Oviedo. Beside the hotel was a pastry shop with a bunch of delicious looking pastries. In the morning when we went to it for breakfast, for whatever reason, it was closed. Also, outside the shop was a gentleman who considered himself to be the self anointed pastry connoisseur of Oviedo. He too was disappointed the shop wasn’t open but told us to follow him and he’d direct us to the next best shop in the city. He got in his car and we in ours and followed him through the city until we all arrived at the shop. The pastries were good and our children loved the adventure.

That’s my memory of Oviedo.

Then, there’s the story of my daughter disappearing after a small town bullfight just so she could get the autograph of one of the matadors, or the two trips where we spent a night in Tudela del Duero only to find out that it was during the town’s asparagus festival on each trip.

Thanks, Barikinpark!

They look so charming from the outside. I never would have thought of noise.

Jaime: Did you stay in the NH hotel in Oviedo? Because I do recall a wonderful pastry shop a few steps from that hotel. Happily, it was open when we were there!!

There are two favorites of mine in Oviedo: Camilo de Blas (absolutely beautiful pastry shop) and Rialto (a classic). Carbayones, Moscovitas and Casadielles are the three typical pastries to order while in Asturias (as you may know, each region in Spain has its own sweet products...and not only that, some are only had on certain dates and not available on the rest of the year).

@ekscrunchy - no idea which hotel it was. Whichever it was couldn’t have been very pricey since we could only afford budget hotels back then. For part of that trip we camped in tents.