Northern Spain Itinerary

If for any reason you have a car after leaving Bilbao, consider spending a night at the Parador Fuente De in the Picos de Europa. The ride through the canyon is breathtaking as is the view from the top of the mountain. There's also a fine museum explaining the area on the route in.

I encourage you to visit Hondarribia. Aldo you had an extra day you could visit the beautiful villages in Pays Basque, Saré, Ainhoa, Espellette, Ascain. Not far from Hondarribia

Bus to Hondarribia, which may not quite fill a full day, even with a leisurely lunch.

Bus between SS and Bilbao unless you want a lovely but long ride on the local train (perhaps 4 hours?).

Lekeitio was on my list of places to see but I didn't have time for it. I'm not sure how quickly it can be reached without a car. You can start with Rome2Rio.com and drill down till you find the name of the bus company serving the town. Don't trust Rome2Rio's information on travel times and fares, however.

I don't know anything about San Vincente de la Barquera, but Rome 2Rio thinks ALSA has a direct bus from Bilbao that takes a bit over 3 hours. That might or might not be true; check the ALSA website and re-verify once you're on the ground in Spain.

From SVdlB to Santiago deC Rome2Rio says ALSA has a direct bus that takes about 9 hours. Again, that must be verified. The route goes through Oviedo (several historic churches, not as touristy as some other major cities in northern Spain), Gijon (few tourists other than the boating set, but I enjoyed wandering around for a few hours due to the interesting architecture), Lugo (which I haven't seen) and A Coruna, which I enjoyed a lot.

On the way to Portugal, I'd spend as little time in Vigo as possible (not a bad place, just pales in comparison to other options in Galicia). I liked both the small city of Pontevedra and the little town of Tuy. Not suggesting that either has as much to offer as Santiago deC, of course.

From Santiago deC to Portugal there are both train and bus options, but neither is frequent. Be especially careful about planning to do that leg on a Sunday or holiday.

To me, Santiago de Compostela is 2 nights. The historic center isn't overly large and you should be able to see everything in 1.5 days. FYI, the front of the cathedral is undergoing restoration, is covered with scaffolding, and is closed. Entrance is via a side door. Regarding Hondarribia as a possible place to visit, it is nice but the historic center is very small. Unless you planned to spend time on the beach, one full day should be enough to see the historic center and downtown. It is very pretty though. I haven't spent much time in the other places you mentioned. We just returned from northern Spain and had a rental car because of some of the places we visited that were not served by public transportation.

Thanks so much everybody. Thanks for letting me know about the cathedral in SDCompostela being under restoration....very disappointing. That was the major draw for me to go there. Do you think it would still be worthwhile going? It's kind of out of the way given the places I'm mainly interested in.

I would slot in the Asturian capital, Oviedo.

•San Sebastian - 3 nights
(day trip to Hondarribia)
•Bilbao - 2 nights
•San Vicente de la Barquera - 2 nights
•Oviedo - 2 nights
•Santiago de Compostela - 2 nights

Check bus schedules with ALSA for these journeys.

Cathedrals are often bring renovated. You won't see the facade but you can still go in it. When they finish the facade they'll move on to another part.

Yes, it is still worth visiting. The interior of the cathedral is beautiful and Iit would be a shame to skip it just because one side is being renovated. Hopefully, more of the scaffolding will be down when you go there.