Picos de Europa & North Spain Coast (Cantabria & Asturias)

A week in the green corner of Spain, where the Picos de Europa rise straight out of the Cantabrian coast and the beaches have dinosaur footprints in them. Caminos arrange it as a fly-drive with the hire car included, and you drive it at your own pace with a guidebook and directions to every hotel.

Two nights in Asturias open it, with Oviedo’s pre-Romanesque churches, the fishing harbour at Lastres and the Mirador del Fito looking out over the whole coast. The river Sella runs down to the sea here and can be paddled. Then two nights in the Liébana valley in the heart of the Picos, based near Potes, with the monastery at Santo Toribio and the cable car at Fuente Dé that lifts you 750 metres up a rock face to around 1,800.

The last three nights are western Cantabria, which is the quietest and prettiest stretch of the north coast. San Vicente de la Barquera sits on a tidal inlet, Comillas has a Gaudí house in it, and Santillana del Mar is the medieval village everyone photographs. The painted caves at Altamira are next door, and inland there is Bárcena Mayor, a stone village in a river valley with no modern buildings in it at all.

Seven nights across three bases, so you unpack twice rather than every evening. The price is per person for two sharing on a bed and breakfast basis and includes the car; flights are extra, and there is a ferry option if you would rather bring your own car from the UK. It suits anyone who wants mountains, coast and prehistory within an hour of each other, and does not want to drive far to find them.