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Recommendations for Northern Spain with kids

9 replies

MoreRabbit · 21/04/2026 22:31

What are you favourite places in Northern Spain, specifically between Santander and Bilbao, and inland from there?

We're looking at a trip there in July (with two pre-teens), flying to either of the above two cities and then probably spending some time in the city and some in the countryside/mountains. We love galleries, museums, ambling about and eating good food. We like walking/light hiking but certainly aren't hardcore mountaineers. Basically we'll take trainers rather than boots 😁. We also like swimming so would like a beach day or two, ideally, or maybe river/lake swimming inland.

We'll probably each take cabin baggage (aiming to travel fairly light...) and plan to hire a car once heading away from the city.

We're on a vague budget of about £160 p/n for accom (for self-catering, although open to other suggestions albeit unlikely on this budget!).

Does anyone have any specific recs, please? Or even just vague areas you've liked!

OP posts:
butternutrisotto · 21/04/2026 22:34

Ask AI it’s very good for planning a trip

waltzingparrot · 21/04/2026 22:41

We loved Isla. DH and the kids went kayaking off the beach. We stayed at hotel olympio three years ago. Bit dated but fab location and access path direct onto stunning beach. Five minute amble into town for restaurants.

MoreRabbit · 21/04/2026 23:10

Thanks both. Isla does look nice. I'm wondering whether we fly into one city and out of the other, with some inland time in-between, but a three-base trip might be a bit too much for nine days.

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ZenNudist · 22/04/2026 06:18

The guggenheim is great with kids. Very interactive. The massive spider, "maman" in the sculpture garden is a must.

There's a funicular in bilbao walkable from the guggenheim. Walking round the old town also nice.

In bilbao there's a weird boat bridge thing which was an interesting oddity.

We stayed in getxco. Easy to get into bilbao by tram and lots of restaurants.

There are nice beaches along that coast. We stayed near the labyrinth at villapresente (fab for kids).West of santander and had a couple of good beach days. We also went to see Capricco de Gaudi which was really quirky.

Inland but out of your budget but highly recommend for a couple of nights is natura holiday park. They have padel, football, a pool, little air-conditioned bungalows plus kids activities (and a great bar with live music low key at nights). Such a perfect park. Menu del dia lovely and great value. Breakfast was fab too.

We also went walking along the river near Haro which the kids loved as lots of rocks and steps to play on.

We took the kids to the wine tasting at marques de riscal if you would like to see the Frank Gehry designed hotel. They had grape juice and I drank wine!

Love northern Spain.

San Sebastian has a great city beach, as does Santander.

Must eat: pinxtos! I love Kalimoxto (red wine and coke) try it!

MoreRabbit · 22/04/2026 08:16

Fantasy, @ZenNudist, thank you! The Guggenheim is a definite, the kids will LOVE that.

Was it this place? https://www.booking.com/Share-C58b9qo

Looks good value actually, and we do love that kind of holiday park!

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MoreRabbit · 22/04/2026 08:26

*Fantastic 😂

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MoreRabbit · 23/04/2026 07:23

Does anyone else have any recommendations for accommodation, please? I think we'll fly in to Santander and out of Bilbao, with a few days at/near each. It'd be good to have a change of scene for the middle bit though - the Rivum Natura resort looks nice (although not sure there'd be much to do for our pre-teens other than swimming) but is there anywhere else in that neck of the woods that people would recommend please?

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wizzler · 23/04/2026 08:45

The beach at Poo is nice… and v amusing for pre teens who enjoyed telling their grandparents how they dressed in Poo, slept in Poo etc etc

MoreRabbit · 23/04/2026 09:31

Hah I can believe that @wizzler 😂 at least one of mine would think that was hilarious.

That's a bit further west than we were planning to go (I'm looking at the area between Santander and Bilbao, and inland from there) but I guess we'll play it by ear to some extent and if roads are good/quiet then maybe a nice daytrip!

(We'd initially been thinking of heading towards the Picos d'Europa but given we're not going to be doing any serious mountaineering I think we may as well stick more to be countryside a bit east of there).

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