Santander > Llanes > Oviedo

Santander, Llanes, and Oviedo... this places a truly off the beaten path for any English language travel media. I was in Oviedo for several days 3-4 years back, I found it pleasant enough, with a historic core and lively gastronomy, a standard Spanish city, makes for a good base to explore the western Cantabrian Mountains or Cantabrian/Asturian coasts.

I would look at Spanish language media like https://elviajero.elpais.com/tag/oviedo/a

We used DK Eyewitness “Northern Spain.” I am not where that book is right now but it was helpful and I would be surprised if those cities are not in the book.

Santander old town burned down in 1941, so the city was reconstructed and it´s kind of "new", although it has some lovely buildings. The area of El Sardinero is nice, as well as the Magdalena peninsula and the park around the Palace of La Magdalena, with an open air zoo for arctic animals. Good seafood restaurants, there´s nothing too special about the city, except its setting in a beautiful bay. Do not miss Bilbao on the way to Santander (one hour drive to Bilbao from Donostia-San Sebastian, another hour for Santander). Oviedo offers the amazing Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo romanesque churches, 9th century, as well as a nice old quarter and good food and natural cider everywhere. Try the "cachopo", you´ll love it!!

Santander and Oviedo have some coverage in the Lonely Planet guide.

We returned from that part of Spain a week ago. Our trip was in reverse order as did Oviedo to Ribadesella to Santander to Bilbao and then Madrid. To me 6 days in Oviedo would be a long time, I would take 2 days for Bilbao at least or if you have already been to Bilbao then have a night in Ribadesella and a night in Santander. I recommend the Museo de Bellas Artes and the Archeological Museum in Oviedo in addition to the churches previously mentioned in prior responses. Walking around you see a number of statutes one of which is Woody Allen. Watching children mug with his statute for their parents' pictures is fun. Rick had something about cider restaurants and we ate at 2 of them on the cider street he mentioned. Huge servings of food and very nice flan. Believe it was Terra Hastur for one of them..

From Oviedo we took the Alsa bus to Ribadesella. There is a one star Michelin restaurant in the old part of town about 3 blocks from the TI. We did not eat there, but you may want to research it since you mentioned best food sites. Its name is Arbidel. There are a number of seafood restaurants in town along the waterfront in the old town area. We went to the town to visit the Cave of Tito Bustillo which has prehistoric art paintings and a museum a short distance from the cave. Advance reservations for the cave are imperative. There is also a walk up the hill from the old town with signs saying to Sanctuary, something like that. There is a closed chapel on top, but the view you get out to the river and to the Atlantic is wonderful. If you continue all the way down to the opposite end you get beautiful views of the beaches and the Atlantic. As you walk along the further end returning to the town are a series of plaques with details of mythological creatures with descriptions of them and what they do in Spanish. On the opposite side of the old town are a number of hotels on or close to the beach with the Malecon to walk along and enjoy the view.

From Ribadesella we again took the Alsa bus, this time to Santander, with a change in LLanes. A 2 hr wait for the next bus so walked into the town, saw the inlet where boats were moored, had lunch, and noticed the adventure sports shops and businesses. Santander has four prehistoric art caves in the small town of Puente Viesgo a half hour away by bus from the main bus station in Santander. Where the bus drops you off is a half hour walk uphill or if you have a car is a free parking lot just before you reach the center. We saw Las Monedas, beautiful features inside in addition to the paintings and El Castillo which is centered on the prehistoric paintings. You may be able to get in without an advance reservation, but no guarantees. There is no functioning cafeteria at the site and the vending machines were broken so bring food and drink if you visit. We had great chocolate croissants at Tony Barros, Calle Rubio 1, Baja and local people were constantly coming in for their Sunday pastries to go. There is a good archeological museum in Santander, which is located underground. We ended up circling around the mercado and saw the sign to it behind the mercado.

Hope this helps, we did not hear much US English in these towns.

I hope I am not too late to reply. I have been to Oviedo, and it was a quaint city. Not many non-Spanish tourists. Very refreshing. It's Woody Allen's fav place in the world. Their cuisine is amazing. During this particular trip, I drove from Santiago d'Compostela to Oviedo, with stops in between. Love these places!

I have not been to Santander and Llanes.