Discover Cantabria

A week inside one small region, which turns out to contain painted caves, a cable car, a wildlife park and a Rolls-Royce collection. Caminos arrange it as a fly-drive with the hire car included, or with the ferry and your own car, and Santander and Bilbao are the only two airports you need.

Three nights in western Cantabria start it. San Vicente de la Barquera sits on a tidal inlet, Comillas has a Gaudí building, and Santillana del Mar is the medieval village that fills every postcard of the region. Altamira is next door: the original cave is closed but the replica is exact, and the paintings are seventeen thousand years older than anything else you will see this week. Bárcena Mayor inland is a stone village with no modern building in it.

Two nights in the Liébana valley follow, in the Picos de Europa, with Potes as the base, the monastery at Santo Toribio and the Fuente Dé cable car rising 750 metres up a cliff face.

The last two nights are the eastern highlands, and they are the part nobody knows. The Asón and Miera valleys are limestone and waterfalls, there are more painted caves at Puente Viesgo and Ramales, Cabárceno is a wildlife park built in an old iron mine, and the Torre de Loizaga is a restored castle holding a complete collection of Rolls-Royces. Seven nights, three bases, short drives. Per person for two sharing, bed and breakfast, car included; flights extra. It suits anyone who likes the idea of a week that moves slowly and still surprises them.