In late May 2024, I'm taking a cruise that ends in Barcelona, and have 5 days before I'll be attending a wedding in Saltander Spain. I'm planning on taking a train/bus from Barcelona to Santander, and am looking for suggestions of interesting places on the route to stay for a night or two. It looks as if the train/bus stops are Zaragoza, Logrono, Vitoria Gasteiz, Bilbao, and Laredo. I WON'T be renting a car, and I'll be travelling by myself. TIA for any suggestions of scenic, interesting places to visit!
Posted by
Bilbao
648 posts
Check your spelling in case you´re going to use public transport, so you can find the right place without issues: Santander and not Saltander, and Bilbao and not Bilboa. Zaragoza makes a great stop on the way, as well as Bilbao or Vitoria-Gasteiz. I´m not sure if there´s a direct train from Barcelona to Santander...I would take the bus instead (modern, quick, clean, cheap, wi-fi, toilet...), so you can get to Zaragoza first and then to Bilbao or Vitoria-Gasteiz and from there to Santander.
Posted by
Washington DC
27155 posts
I haven't been to Laredo and have only passed through Logrono on a bus, but the other three options you mentioned (Zaragoza, Vitoria Gasteiz and Bilbao) are all very interesting. From Logrono you could travel by bus to the very atmospheric medieval hill town of Laguardia.
Santander has lovely-looking beaches but I found it less interesting than the places you'll be passing through on the way. Santander had a dreadful fire in the 1940s that wipes out a great deal of its historic architecture.
Posted by
Bilbao
648 posts
Laredo is a town with a long beach, lots of summer apartments and a small, nice old town. It´ll be practically empty in May. Santoña, on the other side of the bay, is much more interesting and it´s a much more livable town. But you´re just half hour drive from Santander.
Posted by
Spain
1 posts
Well, I think Zaragoza would be the best one. Its a pretty big city and there are plenty of places to go: Palacio de la Aljafería, Basílica de la Almudena, the museums of Cesaraugusta and Balcón de Lázaro are the best places in my opinion. If you want to taste local cuisine, just go to "el Tubo", a street full of restaurants. Logroño and Vitoria are small cities and sure they have some places to visit but not as fun. I would prefer Bilbao since the Guggenheim, pintxos and Bilbao's city centre are one of my favorities places in Spain. I think you can go easily from Zaragoza to Bilbao and then to Santander by bus.
Posted by
Denver, CO USA
413 posts
Zaragoza has: origami museum and firefighters’ museum. I loved both. El Tubo for food.
Bilbo for the Guggenheim, pintxos, funicular. For us, day trip to Guernika was very moving.
Posted by
Citizen of the World
1439 posts
If you’re looking for a destination for a couple nights between Barcelona and Santander, beautiful San Sebastián/Donostia is 5 hours on the fastest high-speed train from Barcelona. “Donostia” is the Basque name for the city. Tickets can be as little as €18 if bought 90 days in advance of the train’s departure date. You could stopover in Bilbao’s great Casco Viejo on the way from San Sebastián/Donostia to Santander— it’s only 80 minutes by Alsa bus which also travel on to Santander from Bilbao in another 75-90 minutes.
Have a great trip!
www.Renfe.com. www.TheTrainline.com and www.Petrabax.com.
www.Alsa.com