Two Week Northern Spain Itinerary Help

With just two weeks it may be difficult for art-lovers to get beyond Madrid and Barcelona and their orbits. If you like modern art, a trip to Cuenca (via AVE from Madrid) should be considered. It's a very picturesque hill town built along a ravine that just happens to have two nice, small modern-art museums. Outside Barcelona you have Girona (art museum) and Figueres (Dali Theatre and Museum).

If you can make the timing work, Bilbao (art) and San Sebastian (food) in the Basque Country are good choices, but I think you may not have sufficient time. It will help if your group isn't interested in the Barcelona's modernista architecture, but it seems unlikely that would be the case for any group of seven people.

Thank you Acraven for your reply. We have explored Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, Granada and the Costa Brava enjoying a lot of fine art along the way but this time we're focused on Northern Spain. Appreciate any further ideas of special towns to visit in the north regardless of fine art.

I'm also thinking of Northern Spain for about 2 weeks in September or October. I met a fellow from Bilbao this year who said that's the best time of year for the area. He suggested flying into Madrid, then a somewhat long overland trip to Bilbao for 2-3 days, then rent a car and travel west along the coast, looping down to Santiago de Compostela and then continuing east on an inland route to San Sebastian. My understanding is that rail service in Basque country and Galicia is nothing like in the south. I find that the problem with planning a trip to Spain is what to skip, not what to include.

Have you thought about La Rioja?
September 21st is San Mateo, and it is part of a week long harvest festival in Logroño. But during the whole month there are activities and events related to wine going on in Rioja.

Briones is a good place to stay. It has been named one of the pueblos con encanto in Spain. From there you can easily visit the Dinastia Vivancos, Haro, Logroño, and Laguarda. If you want some history you can also visit San Millan, a UNESCO heritage site.

I'm basically an is-it-pretty? person. But I really enjoyed these places during a trip across northern Spain. This would add up to more than two weeks.

In no particular order:
Zaragoza
Olite (few tourists)
Vitoria-Gasteiz (Laguardia) - art
San Sebastian (Hondarribia, Zarautz/Getaria/Zumaia)
Bilbao (Bermeo) - art
Burgos (Berruguete's Annuciation at Cartuja de Miraflores) - pilgrims
Picos de Europa (not sure about conditions in September)
Santillana del Mar (very touristy)
Comillas - modernista architecture
Leon - more pilgrims; very lively bar/restaurant district
Astorga - modernista architecture
Oviedo (Gijon)
Santiago de Compostela
A Coruna (Betanzos)
Pontevedra (Combarra, Cambados--both touristy)

I found Santander comparatively dull and thought Pamplona was nothing special.

I feel northern Spain is best experienced with a car, which allows you to stop at the more off the beaten path sites like Loarre Castle or the Olite Royal Palace.

Here would be some of my top picks for cities and day trips (East to West). I have bold places to spend some nights and later radiate out to explore the region. Day trips are un-bold:

Zaragoza (2-3 nights) - Capital of the Aragon region. More than 2,000 years of history including Roman ruins of the city walls and amphitheater and the Aljafería, an 11th-century Moorish palace. It also has the famous pilgrimage site of Nuestra Señora del Pilar basilica, housing the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary.

Royal Palace of Olite - For me, one of the most impressive medieval castles in Europe. The seat of the Kings of Navarre. There is a also pretty good Parador hotel next door.

Loarre Castle - One of the oldest castles in Spain, it was featured in Ridley Scott's epic film Kingdom of Heaven. The Loarre Castle is very picturesque as it sits high on a cliff overlooking the southern foothills of the Pyrenees.

San Sebastián (2 nights) - an International culinary capital, it's elegant art nouveau buildings flank its picturesque sandy seashell beach. Feel very Belle Époque... maybe a bit too posh. Of course the main attraction are those famous Pintxos bars that line every street.

Bilbao (2 nights) - Winner of the 2018 European City of the Year, Bilbao is the more grounded brother to San Sebastián. With its contrasting old and new architecture and nice riverside area, I actually like Bilbao better than San Sebastián. The main draw is the Guggenheim, one of the leading contemporary art museums in the world.

Santillana del Mar - Well preserved medieval town in the Cantabrian region. Known for its medieval towers, Renaissance villas and the Romanesque Santa Juliana Collegiate Church.

Altamira caves - UNESCO world heritage site located near Santillana del Mar with numerous Paleolithic cave paintings. The real caves are closed to the public but there is a pretty good replica cave and museum there too.

Potes - (2 nights) an atmospheric medieval town located high up in the Cantabrian Mountains. Makes for a great place to explore the Picos de Europa National Park in depth.

Picos de Europa - Mountain range between Cantabria and Asturias offers some of Europe's most spectacular and breath taking mountain scenery.

Oviedo (2 nights) - The capital of Asturias. Known for its Gothic medieval old town, apparently Woody Allen's favorite city in Spain.

Covadonga - known as the "cradle of Spain", a pilgrimage site dedicated to the Battle of Covadonga of 718 AD which set off the Reconquista. There is also a Holy Cave, where lies Kings Pelagius and Alfonso I, the first kings of Asturias.

Hopefully these give you a few ideas :)

Sorry for a non-answer, but with the time available before your trip, it would be worth looking at some guide-books since there is a lot up there. DK have a book on Northern Spain which is useful reading.

For a specific recommendation, consider Asturias (though I am biased in favour of Spain's small regions!). It has a great coastline and beautiful interior. There are a couple of "large" towns, including wonderful Oviedo - though very attractive, it isn't big like Sevilla or Barcelona and more "low key" in terms of sights. I'm not sure if there are any major art galleries, although Gijon has a bagpipe musem, which is something you don't come across everywhere. But the best of the Asturias comunidad is there are plenty of charming villages and small towns in the countryside around the picturesque valleys and lakes. We drove and to explore properly, I suspect you need a car, but there will be some public transport.

Personally, I wouldn't choose where to go in Spain based on food. There will be lots of great (and some awful), food wherever you go.

Thank you all for your spirited and excellent ideas! The thought of renting an Airbnb type accommodation in Briones for the wine festival is most appealing. It could also split up the trip from Madrid to Bilbao by train. One great travel resource that we depend on over and over again is rome2rio.com to help plan transportation. If you don't know it, you should. I discovered we could go from Madrid to Zaragoza (train 1 hr. 21 min.) Stay there a couple of nights. Continue by train to Briones (3 hours) in time for the wine festival for a little longer stay. Then continue from Briones to Bilbao (2 hr train.) From there perhaps pick up a couple of cars and head west along the coast. This seems to becoming more clear. Please feel free to add anything else you might recommend such as hotels or restaurants. It's all appreciated!

That is one thing I forgot to mention about La Rioja, it is easy to plan going through. You can hit it on the way up to the coast or going back to Madrid

Yes, after checking rome2rio, I found that out!

If you do decide to stop by Picos de Europa National Park for a few nights (requires a car), nearby the medieval town of Potes, you will find the Fuente Dé Parador (http://www.parador.es/en/paradores/parador-de-fuente-de), which is a historic hotel that sits below a string imposing vertical mountains. From there you can take numerous nature hikes and even a cable car that takes you all the way to the top of the mountains.

If you are looking for a place to eat around the area I would heartily recommend Mesón del Oso (https://www.hoteldeloso.com/), which is a rustic tavern/hotel in a picturesque forested valley. They serve the Cantabrian/Asturian traditional mountain cuisine.

This sounds terrific and a "must include" destination. Thank you for the great suggestions.

Thinking of my own trip, how do you keep it to only 2 weeks?

For your stay in Zaragoza, I would heartily recommend Hotel NH Ciudad de Zaragoza (https://www.nh-hotels.com/hotel/nh-ciudad-de-zaragoza). Its extremely well located, right next to the river and Basilica, it was recently remodeled last year, and the pricing is very reasonable. Because of its location, this hotel has some of the best views of the Pilar Basilica, old Roman city walls, and Moorish watchtower. Make sure to ask for an east facing view of the Basilica. I always stay there when I'm in town, as I have some family who live in Zaragoza.

I have no idea how one could stick to 2 weeks in that area. I spent about 44 days there; I didn't list every little place I visited in my earlier post. Mine was sort of a round-trip since I began that northern leg in Burgos and ended in Puigcerda after a detour down to Zaragoza. It would have been faster with a car, and my route was not the most efficient possible, but still.

Thank you Carlos for your great recommendation in Zaragoza..

Yes, two weeks does not do it justice which is why we're starting now to plan and eager for everyone's suggestions. Perhaps we need to expand this trip in the north to 3 weeks and leave Ronda for another visit.

It's often a bit awkward to get to northern Spain. You don't have the super-fast AVE trains like you do for Barcelona-Madrid-Cordoba-Seville. You may luck out with affordable flights directly to or from Bilbao or Vigo, but not necessarily. Therefore, I think focusing on that area to maximize what you can see is a good strategy.

I failed to mention earlier that, aside from the Picos de Europa area, I thought the Basque countryside was the prettiest, followed by Galicia.

Zaragoza is in a different climate zone from most of the places you'll probably end up visiting. It can be utterly miserable in mid-summer, and I think you may need air conditioning even in September.

We went to northern Spain for 15 days in July 2017. My original idea was that we would start in the Basque region and work our way to Galicia, but once I started planning I realized that we did not have enough time to cover so much territory.

We spent about a week in Galicia. A car was very helpful to visit smaller places. We particularly enjoyed the Roman gold mines near Ponferrada, the deep gorge east of Ourense (did some hiking here), prehistoric ruins on the west coast. Food was good. I still dream about the octopus! We also visited Leon, Astorga and Segovia.

Spanish high speed highways were a delight! We had little traffic and the roads were in good repair.

Do allow enough time. We just happened on a few small towns that turned out to be wonderful experiences!