North – Northeast Spain May

Hi appears like there are some pretty big leaps here, like from Vic to Alquezar to Laguardia, with little time for more than just driving. I'm also not a fan of the 1 night stays. May be reaching too far with too little time to enjoy the journey in between.

Have you considered just focusing on Catalonia, Aragon, and Basque Country? I'd be tempted to cut out everything in between San Sebastian and Madrid and then reinvesting those nights in a more logistically sound manner. Instead of Potes and the Picos de Europa mountains, have you considered the many charming villages and equally impressive Pyrenees mountains, that way you don't have to stray so far west?

Just off the top of my head Aínsa, Benasque, or Vielha could be good home bases to explore the Pyrenees mountains and Aigüestortes National Park. You're also missing out on places like Olite, Tarazona, Loarre Castle, and Zaragoza all worthwhile if in the area.

Then you could drop off your car in San Sebastian and take the train back to Madrid.

You can't go everywhere, so don't feel bad about places you don't have time for.

I will say, however, that I preferred Bilbao to San Sebastian. The former is much, much less touristy and has a larger historic district. Another major factor in that preference is that I'm not a fan of making a meal off of pintxos consumed in a standing position in a very crowded bar. That's just not my sort of thing. I'd have been happy with a day trip to San Sebastian; I stayed in both cities for multiple nights. I do like Hondarribia, and there are other side trips to be made in that area, including Zarautz/Getaria/Zumaia and Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Santillana del Mar is also very touristy during day-tripping hours. A short visit would probably be sufficient to see the sights in the small town.

As a Bilbao local, here are my suggestions for the area I know better:

2 nights Laguardia: if you´re interested in visiting a winery, try to avoid the impersonal, big names, and look for those small, family owned wineries with centuries-old cellars. Visits in English may be just once or twice a day.
3? nights Donostia-San Sebastian or Hondarribia - For the food? Food is paramount all over the Basque Country. Just been to Hondarribia today and I love the place, and it´s much easier to park than in Donostia-San Sebastian!
3? nights Santillana del Mar or Comillas - For some caves (not Altamira) and day trips. Just take into account that all visits to caves are in English (unless you buy all tickets, 5 x 12eur per cave, for a private English visit, need previous booking for any visit), and there are many, many caves to visit. My favorite ones are El Castillo, Las Monedas, Covalanas and Hornos de la Peña, with amazing cave paintings inside. Altamira is closed to the public and what you visit is a (not too good) replica and a museum. Santillana is beautiful but sometimes maybe too touristy...Comillas is a great place to stay by the sea (although water temperature will be too cold and beach weather is not always an option)...do not miss its cemetery and the Avenger Angel on top of it!

Bilbao has a beautiful old quarter, great arquitecture of all styles, and there´s much more than the Guggenheim. Bigger than D-SS, it has many more things to see and do, in a very walkable city.

If you decide to stay in Santillana del Mar, it has two Paradors in the town center. One parking lot is shared by both Paradors. We stayed at the Gil Blas Parador. While Santillana is overrun much of the day with tourists, at night it is very pleasant. I haven’t been to Comillas so can’t comment on it.

Since you are aware of the Paradors, hopefully you’ve joined its free Amigos program. One benefit is a free drink (beer, wine, or soda) every time you check in at one. The Parador in Hondarrbia is very nice, but pricey. Our friends stayed at the Lerma Parador and enjoyed it, but there’s not much else to see there.

Near Lerma (33km) is the Desfiladero de La Yecla. It’s a walk with a hanging walkway allowing views of pools and nesting vultures in a narrow limestone gorge. Its website says it’s an easy walk, even suitable for children. If you’re a fan of the movie The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, the location used as Sad Hill Cemetery is 8km from the walk. The road to it, as least coming from the north, is dirt with very slow driving. We’re glad we visited it since we like Clint Eastwood movies.

On the road back to Madrid is Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. It would be a short stop just to look at and take a few photos. Other sights en route to Madrid include, Castillo de Pedraza and Ermita de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios and the recreation area at it. A smaller, but very nice castle, where there’s a wine museum is at Peñafiel. You can’t miss the castle from the road and the museum is in the castle.

So much to see, so limited time.

I'd spend 2 nights in San Sebastián instead of 3, add Bilbao for 2 nights and then FLY to Madrid. It seems to be me that you only want to stay at paradors and I get that, but you are spending a lot of time driving, instead of "seeing".

Much as I hate early departures, I'd go for the 7 AM train that gets to Madrid at 11:30 rather than dealing with a flight. There are later trains that take longer. There's also a 9:02 AM departure from San Sebastian that gets to Madrid in just under 5 hours. (This info from trainline, because Renfe is behaving badly for me at the moment.)

On the Santillana del Mar v Comillas question, I’d go with Santillana if the caves are of prime import There are a host of caves nearby in Cantabria and Tito Bustillo in Ribadasella (Asturias) is said to be a close rival to Altamira. Having to both (the real cave at Altamira) I would not disagree.

I agree on the paradors and the Amigos program You also get better rates, and if you are over 55, better still. Otherwise, I liked the Hotel Altamira in Santillana del Mar.

I agree on the paradors and the Amigos program You also get better rates, and if you are over 55, better still.

Not necessarily. We are in the Amigos program and have stayed in two Paradors in the last 10 days. The one we booked through the Amigos program using their winter promo code was significantly cheaper than the over 55 rate (Leon). The other one we booked through our airline hotel partners program as that was cheaper than booking through the Amigos program (Caceres). I always check hotel prices through multiple sources before booking.

Wow. You guys are fast and with lots of good input. Thanks!
Given all your comments we are changing up our thinking a bit. Not going west of Bilbao and thinking two nights in Ainsa , a night in Olite before the two nights in Laguardia, then Hondarribia for three nights, two nights in Bilbao and then to Madrid for our last two nights.

4 nights Barcelona
2 nights Girona
2 nights Parador de Vic- Sau
2 nights Alquezar
2? nights Ainsa
1? Night Olite
2 nights Laguardia
3? nights Hondarribia

2? Nights Bilbao
2 nights Madrid

I know it’s a fast pace and want to spend three nights somewhere to slow it down a bit. We currently have that in Hondarribia but are not sure that’s best. So, I’m open to further suggestions about reallocating the nights in Ainsa, Olite, Hondarribia and Bilbao.

@Carlos: You make so many places sound so good. If it wasn’t for some things you said on other posts about Potes and the Picos I probably wouldn’t have been distracted to that area! So thanks for nudging us back to the Pyrenees.

Yes there are a couple of longer drives. We are kind of used to that and see those not as chores but as one way day trips. It seems like lots of people take day trips where the transportation is 1-1/2 To 2 hours each way so in comparison a “one way” day trip of 3 to 4 hours driving is not too big of a deal. For example we could drive from Alquezar to Laguardia with a stop at Olite in 4 hours driving time (if google maps can be believed). So we could leave Alquezar at 10 AM, stop for 2 hours in Olite and get to Laguardia by 4 PM (theoretically). But we’ve changed that up a bit as described above.

@acraven: I hear you about Bilbao vs San Sebastian so think we’ll stay in Hondarribia and Bilbao.

And THANKS for actually checking possible train schedules for us. That’s going above and beyond the call of duty! If we leave for Madrid from SS the train might be the way to go.

@MikelBasqueGuide: Thanks so much for taking the time to provide all the good info.
We certainly prefer smaller vs larger when it comes to things like wineries. We spend some time in The Sonoma California wine area and the smaller places are definitely more fun. We debated about not seeing any wine districts in Spain because we can do that here but decided it would be interesting to compare things. Language may definitely be a problem but we will muddle ourselves through.

Your comments about the food, and Hondarribia vs San Sebastian, are well taken and we’ll stay in Hondarribia and make a visit to SS.

I know you do this for a living and so I am a bit reluctant to ask for free advice but now that it looks like we will be in Bilbao for a couple of nights can you perhaps provide some personal insight to restaurants there and your thoughts about any particular areas of the old town to stay and some of your favorite sights. No offense taken if you save this for paying customers!

@ jaimeelsabio: Thanks for the insights to the Santillana Paradors. Even though we so far are only staying at one we have joined the Amigos.

Now it looks like we won’t be staying in Lerma but it would have been fun to see that cemetery and pretend I was Sergio Leone telling Clint what to do for those scenes. “Now snarl and look mean”!

Good tips for possible sights on the drive back to Madrid. We may end up taking a train but will probably drive and need some breaks.

@derek: Thanks. We have added Bilbao and are debating on 2 vs 3 nights in Hondarribia. I don’t think flying to Madrid would save us any time. We can drive from Bilbao to Madrid in 4 to 5-1/2 hours and avoid airports at each end. It looks like a good road. It’s shorter than going from Los Angeles to San Francisco and I almost always drive that rather than fly. I can see a lot from a car but nothing from a plane.
We don’t have any particular affinity for Paradors except where they seem interesting and reasonably priced.

continued:

I got cut off!

@Archimedes: Thanks for that info. I will miss seeing some of those caves but it doesn’t look like that area is in the cards now.

Again, Many thanks to everyone who took their time to respond. Much appreciated

I know you do this for a living and so I am a bit reluctant to ask for free advice but now that it looks like we will be in Bilbao for a couple of nights can you perhaps provide some personal insight to restaurants there and your thoughts about any particular areas of the old town to stay and some of your favorite sights. No offense taken if you save this for paying customers!

I was posting in forums about the Basque Country much before I decided to become a guide, so trying to help is a real pleasure to me. In Bilbao do not confuse the Casco Viejo (old quarter) with Bilbao La Vieja (across the river, it was formerly the mining zone in Bilbao and has been deeply transformed into a the multicultural area). Anywhere in the Casco Viejo will be just fine, but if you want to avoid noisy nights (you´ll find that in Spain we dine late -in fact, we do not understand why you dine so early!- and bars stay open til late), do not stay in Somera or Barrenkale or Barrenkale Barrena streets. The rest will be fine.

You´ll find pintxos in bar counters, it´s not "tapas", it´s a different thing and different culture. And never a meal for us, just one per bar, standing and never seated, and then on to next place. We like to have them before lunch or dinner (lunch is the biggest meal of the day, around 2pm). 300 bars in the old quarter, around 3000 in Bilbao for a population of 354,000...our places to socialize, to meet family and friends...in fact, we actually do not go to bars to drink!!

Some of my favorite restaurants in town (food is absolutely great here)

• Monocromo, for something “different” in a cozy atmosphere---close to the best place for long drinks in Bilbao, Gin Fizz.
• Los Fueros, the oldest running restaurant in Bilbao
• Porrue, for advanced cuisine.
• Islares, brand new one, avant-garde dishes.
• Serantes II, for excellent seafood, fish and meats, can´t go wrong here
• La Bodeguita del Doce, informal atmosphere for light dinners
• Odoloste, advanced cuisine based on pork products, with a modern touch
• Mandoya, a renovated classic in the old quarter
• Salitre, Michelin quality at a much lower price
• Markina, for the classic Basque meals, Product, Product and Product

Near Bilbao, do not miss the Hanging Bridge, a UNESCO World Heritage Monument, unique in the world (aka Puente Bizkaia), the old fishing port of Algorta and the castle of Butron. In Bilbao, Azkuna Zentroa and the funicular train to Artxanda are also other musts. And the place where John Adams and John Quincy Adams stayed during their (absolutely ignored) visit to the Basque Country!

With only one night in Olite, ensure you see its Royal Palace. It is one of the best restored castles I’ve visited. We stayed at the Parador in Olite and enjoyed it. Other than the palace there isn’t a lot to see in town. There are two wineries right in town, Bodega Coop. Cosecheros Reunidos and Bodegas Vega del Castillo if you wanted to do a wine tasting. If you had more time in that area, there are plenty of off the beaten path places to visit.

If in Olite, two must-visit nearby towns are Gallipienzo and Uxue or Ujué ("dove" in Basque), beautiful medieval towns.

Hi, I'm like much more your new itinerary, good job narrowing it down, not an easy task! Going west of Bilbao was a bridge too far imo, with your allotted time. The good news is that Asturias and the Picos de Europa can easily be tacked on to a future visit to Galicia.

With the new more focused itinerary I think you are giving yourself more flexibility for serendipitous exploration when driving from place to place, which is what roadtripping in Spain is all about. Whether its an out-of-the-way monastery, local family owned winery, or half-forgotten castle ruins. I think you'll be happy with Aínsa as a home base, very central to lots of cool sites in the Pyrenees like Ordesa National Park, Jaca, Vall de Boí, Aigüestortes National Park, Vall de Aran etc.

I'll be in the area later in June, but using Vielha as a home base, very interesting place, the capital of a micro autonomous community called Aran with their own language and culture. Here's a good article from the BBC about it if interested about Aran's little known story - https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220117-aranese-spains-little-known-language

Thanks so much. You all have been unbelievably helpful!
I Just spent an hour typing out thanks, comments and questions and somehow it disappeared. Have to go now but here is one maybe unanswerable question: Given what you know about our other stops, if you had five nights on your first (and maybe only) trip to Spain would you spend 3 in Hondarribia and 2 in Bilbao or the other way around?

All my thanks and best regards,

Richard

Hondarribia is small, next to the French border and around 20min drive to Donostia-San Sebastian (or half hour on the bus). If you use it as a base for D-SS and the French Basque Country, it may make sense to spend three nights. But Bilbao has much more to see and it´s also a great base for areas nearby (Bermeo, Gernika, San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, Plentzia...). It´s a city, so it´ll be a decision between staying in a town (17,000h) or a city (354,000h), both of them totally walkable. If it rains, there are more options in Bilbao; if weather is nice, you have very nice walks and sights in Hondarribia.