Santander to Santiago and Back (Camino del Norte Circular)

Two weeks following the north coast of Spain west to Santiago de Compostela and back again, which is the Camino del Norte done by car rather than on foot. Caminos arrange it as a fly-drive with the car included, or with the ferry and your own car.

It opens in Asturias with the Picos de Europa, the Mirador del Fito and the dinosaur footprints on the beaches around Ribadesella, with the river Sella to paddle and Oviedo’s pre-Romanesque churches inland. The coast then runs west past the fishing villages and up onto the Costa Lucense, the Lugo coastline, which is wilder and emptier than anything east of it.

Santiago is the turning point, and arriving by car after a week of driving the same coast the pilgrims walk gives the cathedral a different weight. The return follows the shore back east, with the Picos never far inland.

Fourteen nights, out and back from Santander, priced per person for two sharing on a bed and breakfast basis with an economy hire car included; flights are extra and the ferry option costs more. Two things worth settling with Caminos first. They have only published the first three days of the fourteen, so most of the plan is unconfirmed, and their own page describes it both as out-and-back and as a circular tour, which are not the same thing. Ask which it is and where you sleep. It suits anyone who wants the full length of the north coast rather than a region of it, and prefers the Atlantic end of Spain to the Mediterranean one.