Northern Spain 3 week itinerary

Is Madrid strictly a fly-out-of place, or will you be in Madrid for a day or two after Toledo? Segovia, which is actually pretty close to Madrid but between Porto and Toledo, would be a must-see place for me. We enjoyed our stay there on our last Spain Trip.

After leaving San Sebastián on your way to Cudillero, consider a detour to visit the Picos de Europa. Try to stay at the Parador de Fuente Dé. Take the cable car to the mountain top, enjoy driving through the canyons cut by the twisting Deva River, visit the Centro de Interpretación de Los Picos de Europa which explains the geography and ethnicity of the area.

@Cyn... yes, Madrid is strictly fly out, we'll try and avoid having to spend a night. Thanks for the Segovia recommendation - I'll check it out.

@Philip... Picos de Europa looks fantastic, I'll definitely try and work that in. Thanks for the tip.

That’s a large area to cover in 3 weeks with dozens of places to potentially visit. The route you take will help determine where to stop. The road to Boltaña will be a slow drive going through the mountains and being a 2-lane road. Once arriving at Sabiñánigo the road turns into a highway. In that area are Javier castle, the walk through the gorge at Foz de Lumbier, SOS Del Rey Católico, Monasterio Nuevo de San Juan de la Peña, Olite, and Pamplona to mention a few.

A couple places we enjoyed along the north coast are Zumaia and Getaria. Santillana Del Mar is nice but full of sightseers during the day. Further west is As Catedrais beach. Inland, Burgos and León are medium-sized cities worth visiting. Lugo has a Roman wall surrounding the city one can walk along. Santiago de Compostela is the location where most people finish the Camino de Santiago. Further south is Baiona and nearby it is Castro Santa Trega with its Celtic ruins.

About midway between Porto and Toledo are Salamanca and Cáceres. Either would make nice stops as would Puebla de Sanabria. It is a small town with a castle.

There are plenty of other places one could visit. I just provided a sampling.

Porto feels like a bit of an outlier to me and might stretch your trip beyond what is reasonable for 3 weeks. It is still doable, but it forces you to drive through some amazing areas without stopping (e.g. Galicia, Salamanca).
I would consider leaving Portugal for another trip, and heading south from Cudillero with possibly Salamanca as an intermediate stop.

We recognise that it's a lot to pack into one trip, but we may not have the opportunity to get back. Having said that, we'd prefer quality over quantity so we may have to (reluctantly) drop Portugal. Thanks for all the advice - I'll report back on what we decide.

We did Portugal, Spain’s Basque area and ended in Barcelona. It was a six week trip.

When you DO get back to Portugal, be sure to include Evora in the itinerary. It’s a bit farther south than where your current trip is going.