I'm still planning my trip to visit Spain and Portugal for the solar eclipse and am still deciding on where to explore afterwards. From Leon I was wondering about whether to take bus directly to Santiago where I planned to spend the evening and do day tour to Finisterre, Muxia & Costa da Morte. But I saw there was also bus that had two hour layover in Oviedo and ongoing to A Coruna so was wondering if exploring either or both of these places for a few hours would be an alternative to spending the half day in Santiago which was mainly the cathedral. Neither of these towns are mentioned in the Rick Steves guide so wondering if a quick peek was worth it or which one would take priority if I could extend stay to half a day. Might be contigent on having place to store suitcase or finding guide that does short tour like that. Actually rethinking stopover in Santander which could possibly replace with Oviedo to take day trip to Picos.
Also wondering about whether to take direct bus from Santiago to Lisboa or whether could take half a day to explore Porto or Coimbra along the way.
Thanks in advance
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
8659 posts
Where you go should depend on what you like to see, not just a place you saw on a map. You don’t mention how many days you have to play with, so it’s difficult to answer your question. Couple hour stops in A Coruña, Oviedo, or Santander seems more like checking a box rather than taking time to explore the cities, Santander is out of the way for everyplace else you mentioned. if you’ve never been to Santiago de Compostela it is worth no less than a full day.
A couple towns where you could get by with short stopovers and feel like you’ve seen most things in them are Astorga, Ponferrada, and Lugo.
Remember to take transportation times and connections into account as they can eat up a lot of time.
Good luck with your planning and hope you already of lodging reservations to see the eclipse.
Posted by
new york
1701 posts
Santiago has much more than just the Cathedral..it's a great small city to explore for however much time you have.
That day tour sounds good--to Muxia, etc.. Wee stayed about 3 nights in Muxia last year and enjoyed our stay...the port is very pretty.
Posted by
OP
Denton, TX
4 posts
RIght. So I fly into Bilbao and was going to spend a few days there. My tentative next steps were going to Santander for a few days so I could take a day trip to Picos of Europa (though was considering doing that from Oviedo instead) and another day trip to Capricho Gaudi house and the Altamira caves. Two days in Burgos and two days in Leon are set in stone because of the eclipse and then have a few days to play with before ending up in Lisboa to do an earthwatch program and fly out so definitely am going to Santiago and maybe some of Northern Portugal. I won't have a car and am planning taking bus and day tours for most days.