Cantabria, from the cave to the cable car in an hour.

Cantabria is small enough to fit into a single week, but what it holds is very varied: a coast of cliffs and open beaches, green valleys of meadows and cows, stone villages built by hidalgos and returned emigrants, caves with rock art and, in the background, the Picos de Europa. From Santander almost everything is under two hours away, so it works for Sunday outings as well as for two- or three-night breaks.

Getting there and getting around

Santander has an airport, the Seve Ballesteros, and a railway station. By road, the A-8 runs along the coast from east to west, from Bilbao to Asturias, and the A-67 heads south to Reinosa, Aguilar de Campoo and Palencia. To get out of the cities and larger towns you need a car: Liébana, Cabárceno or Alto Campoo make no sense without one. The exception is Santillana del Mar, which has buses from Santander and Torrelavega.

The western coast: Santillana and Comillas

Half an hour from Santander is Santillana del Mar, a village of stately houses and a Romanesque collegiate church, and two kilometres away the Museo de Altamira with the Neocueva, the exact replica of the bison cave, free on Sundays. The original cave admits five people a week and its waiting list is closed. Twenty minutes further west, Comillas has Gaudí's El Capricho, the Sobrellano palace and the Seminario, with a beach in the town itself and the Oyambre sands next door. The two villages together make the region's best short weekend.

Liébana and the Picos de Europa

To the west, enclosed by mountains, is Liébana: Potes, the monastery of Santo Toribio with the Lignum Crucis, and the Fuente Dé cable car, which climbs 753 metres in under four minutes to the central massif of the Picos. You enter through the La Hermida gorge, where a spa has open-air thermal pools open to day visitors. It is a long day from Santander and a perfect two-night break. In November 2026 the cable car closes for a few weeks for works.

The interior: Cabárceno and Campoo

A quarter of an hour from Santander, the Cabárceno Nature Park turns a former iron mine into enclosures for elephants, bears and giraffes that you tour by car and cable car: the big plan with children. Further south, past Reinosa, Alto Campoo is Cantabria's ski resort, with 23 runs, a day pass at €40 and guided snowshoeing; in summer, routes to the Tres Mares peak and the source of the Ebro at Fontibre.

The coast, end to end

West of Comillas, San Vicente de la Barquera offers a castle, a 28-arch bridge and year-round surfing at Merón. Fifteen minutes from Santander, Costa Quebrada and Liencres are dunes with pine woods and cliff coves. Towards the Basque Country, Santoña and Laredo are linked by a boat crossing and show how anchovies are made.

When to go

From May to October the region is at its best: green meadows, lifeguarded beaches in summer and the mountains free of snow. July and August are expensive and crowded on the coast and in Potes; June and September give long days with half the people. In autumn, the forests of Liébana change colour. In winter, snow reaches Alto Campoo and the Picos, Cabárceno lowers its prices and the villages are left to the locals, although several beach hotels close.

Sunday outings from Santander

Almost everything on this page is a Sunday trip from Santander: Cabárceno is a quarter of an hour away, Santillana half an hour, Comillas three quarters of an hour and Alto Campoo an hour and a quarter. Liébana calls for an early start, because it is almost two hours each way through the gorge. From Bilbao, Oviedo, Burgos or Palencia, the western coast and Cabárceno fit into a day; Liébana and Alto Campoo work better with a night.

What to eat

Cocido montañés and cocido lebaniego, Santoña anchovies, rabas (fried squid), Liébana cheeses, and quesada and sobaos pasiegos. Each destination page lists its checked restaurants, with opening hours when the restaurant publishes them.