Northern Spanish Coast - recommendations please!

[curlyLJ]

Hello
We are taking our family holiday in northern Spain this summer and have almost 2.5 weeks there. First part of the trip is sorted, we are taking a Brittany Ferries cruise ship to Bilbao and are driving all the way across - almost to the West coast- to a resort called Laxe where we are meeting up/staying with friends.

After we leave there, we have about 9 days to fill before sailing back (this time from Santander, where we want to allow a day or two to explore) and I am looking for recommendations for resorts/areas to stay, preferably coastal, for a week. Once I've got an idea I can look at possible options for accommodation. Maybe somewhere in the middle where we can base ourselves and get out and about on day trips...but I haven't really explored that area before, so am open to any suggestions.
Thanks in advance!

Sounds lovely, OP! Bumping for some recommendations for you.

Not helpful but my tip is - take a jumper! When we visited the area in the summer, it was cold and rainy.

My brother and sister have both separately recommended San Sebastian

Maybe go East to A Corona, then Lugo, then Picos de Europa National park, then Leon and Burgos, and back up to the coast, have a look at the areas, and back to Santander.
If you can squeeze in SAN Sebastian you will not regret a night there.
Wonderful part of Spain.

Thank you jfw82 but San Sebastián is too far East really and would mean we'd be driving past Santander and would have to come back to it.
Really we want something between Laxe and Santander.

A Coruna. I meant.

Thanks Outsomnia, cross posted there with you a bit. A Coruña is quite near Laxe so whilst that could work, we sort of want to venture s bit further East as we'll probably visit that in wk1.
I'll have to look at my map for the other places you mentioned. Ideally we want to base ourselves in a nice little beach resort halfway along that coast somewhere.

Had some lovely family holidays in Asturias and Cantabria when I was a teenager.

Places...Ribadesella, Potes, Picos De Europa.

From what I remember they were beautiful! And it was about 15 years ago so hopefully not changed too much

Stay in the parador at Cangas de Onis
Ribadesella
Ribadeo
A Corunna

...are all lovely. I toured a week from Santander to Santiago del Compostela. Lots of beautiful places and my favourite area of Spain

If you want to stay by the sea in a nice town then I think Ribadesella is your place

Thank you all - I am going to look at Ribadasella as it's been mentioned a few times. Thanks for all the other suggestions too.

I know we are going to love it and In preparation I have also been trying to learn a bit of Spanish. I've always wanted to learn, so now I can practice when we are there - although that's slow progress at the moment!

I visited Santiago de Compostela about 14 years ago and loved it, even though it rained the entire time. I don't think Northern Spain is as sunny as the south!

Look at the coastal towns near Gijon as well. I au-paired in Luanco which was where the Oviedo smart set had holiday homes.
Rained almost every day, mind.

Santillana del Mar to see the reconstructed cave paintings at Altamira

Oviedo is gorgeous

We did Santiago de compestela, la corona and gijon. (Also Salamanca and Madrid as it was over 2 weeks). We stayed a little inland from gijon and the hotel was amazing, we were the only British people there and (the only) member of staff who spoke English acted as personal translator whatever we wanted!

Ps, very few people spoke English anywhere, google translate came in handy!

Noja is lovely, great beach and a bonus for parents the park has a hut that sells wine!

Lovely beach at Mogro, about 20 minutes west of Santander. Very Spanish (going North for cooler weather) very few foreign tourists.

Potes and the Picos de Europa are amazing, although the mountain roads can need a strong stomach.

Take binoculars for the ferry crossing as dolphins and whales are a common sight.