Northern Spain: 5 nights to plan between Oviedo, Spain and Hendaye, France

Sounds awesome!!

I've never been but I have the outlines of a similar in the back of my mind for the next couple of years. I'm just going to list some places I have marked down. But, again, I've never been to this part of Spain and I can't vouch for anything first hand.

• Lakes of Covadonga
• Santa Cueva de Covadonga
• Bulnes (town only reachable on foot or by funicular)
• Fuente Dé cable car
• Altamira Cave
• A couple of hotels I've had my eye on staying at, no idea if they're actually good: Hotel Ecos del Sella, Hotel del Oso.

Anyhow, that's my two cents. I'm also interested if anyone with actual experiencing visiting this part of the world has any ideas.

Altamira cave, the real one, has been closed to the general public for a long time. You can only visit a replica, which is inside a Museum of Prehistory. There are many other caves with cave art in the area worth visiting, like Las Monedas or El Castillo, among many others.

A couple of hotels I've had my eye on staying at, no idea if they're actually good: Hotel Ecos del Sella, Hotel del Oso.

Hotel del Oso is also on my “list”, due to it being a hotel used by a self guided walking holiday outfitter that we used multiple times. The hotels they’ve booked on these trips have ranged from very good to excellent so they are usually a safe bet.

I had an excellent stay at Hotel del Oso ~10/12 years ago - it is a very charming place - and reviews are still stellar. The one thing to be aware of is that there is no village to speak of: if you do not eat at the hotel, you have to drive to Potes or to one of a handful of restaurants along the road. It's thankfully not far, maybe 15 minutes.

Hotel del Oso was unavailable for our dates (over 5 months out), but I found another place in a similar location that looks quite nice, the same distance from Potes.

Other than that I decided to book a place in Bilbao for two nights. It has easy access from the highway and parking yet is a 20 - 30 minute walk from the center of Bilbao.

Where is that parking in Bilbao? It seems odd that in such a compact city your parking is so far away.

Parking is at the hotel in what is described to be a multi story underground garage. To be clear the hotel is a 44 minute walk from the Guggenheim according to Google Maps, for us that’s translates into a 30-35 minute walk typically.

The Guggenheim is not really in the center of Bilbao. If your hotel is west or north of the Guggenheim, then it's way out of the center.

I´m finding it hard to think of a hotel which is at at 44 min walk from the Guggenheim. Bilbao is a city where practically everything is at hand and distances are short and kind of irrelevant. What hotel is it, is it really in Bilbao? And I would think of the Guggenheim museum as quite centrally located, just a 15-20min walk to the old town and 5min to the very city center.

It exists. It's called Hotel Grand Bilbao. Prieto Indalecio Hiribidea, 1, 48004 Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain

You are right, it´s at the end of the city, on a steep uphill road (or downhill!) and the walk to the Guggenheim should take around 35min. Just 10-15min (downhill) walk to the Ribera food market in the old town. A very good option is to take the tram, just down the hill, to the Guggenheim (it´s scenic and it only takes 10min).