Hmmm I booked a ferry crossing to Santander in July - anyone any experience of staying in Northern Spain with recommendations?

[TheHonEnid]

I am happy to camp although dh isnt.

I don't know the area at all - nice beaches? The only place I know I want to visit is Bilbao and teh Picos de Europa national park but so far we have precisely nowhere to stay.

I havent got any recommendations Enid but could I be nosey and ask how much you paid for your Ferry and who with?

1150 for a 4 berth cabin with tv
Brittany Ferries Plymouth Santander

actaully sorry 1050

Santander itself has lovely beaches, but it's a busy town - great for families.

WE stayed a little further inland in this lovely family run hotel where they bent over backwards for us.

It was pre-family for us, but there were loads of families staying - fab fab views of the mountains.

Hotel Del Oso

Seeing it again makes me want to go back!!

Potes was a lovely medieval town nearby.

Um... will try to remember some more, but it ws 6 years ago now!

fuente De has an amazing cable car run - v impressive.

We got the hotel deal packaged with the crossing.

Yse I have heard of potes, sounds lovely

I will probably not ever do that crossing for two reasons

1. ££££ although that could conceivably change
2. my lot all get as sick as parrots doing Dover-Boulogne, it's a shocker

Have fun enif

looks like a great hotel but too expensive for us as we now need two rooms (3 kids)

all villas appear to be booked

arrghgh

We dont get very sick (well dd1 does but I dose her with madly strong french pills) - hope the crossing is smooth though

The big ferries are a lot better than the vomit comets

it is expensive but we save on car rental and I was hoping to camp for some of it

I'd pay £1000 not to do that crossing ever again

he he he iota

we have done an overnight to brittany and acouple of long crossings and always quite enjoyed them so we thought it wouldnt be too bad

Thanks Enid

I did a "mini cruise" to Bilbao and back in a weekend [shudder]

never again

at least you will have a nice holiday in between the crossings Enid

Yeah - I don't think we'll be doing it again in the near future - with 2 and one on the way would be out of the question - ah well - I can dream!!

Get sea sickness stuff down you all from the very start of the trip - don't wait til you get queasy!

Has your cabin got a window?

If not - don't stay there unless you're sleeping!

And take a phrase book - there are very few English speakers - so although everyone we met was so so so lovely and patient with us, we did have to attempt Spanish most of the time.

Let us know how you get on with accomm. Would be curious to see if we could afford it again one day

La coruna is lovely with a nice bay-esque beach. There are more rugged areas of coastline too, really good for exploring.

We stayed here. I guess it's your average chain hotel but pleasant, especially if you can get a balcony (think most room are) as it sits a way above the beach so the view is great.

We found a nice cottage through these people.

I've just taken a look at my holiday photos. Dunas de Liencres has a lovely beach with a pine forest behind it, but there were quite a few nudists - I don't know whether that bothers you. There are some lovely walks in the Saja-Besaya National Park from Barcena Mayor and Ucieda. Santillana del Mar is a beautiful old town and rather a tourist trap - I think the Altamira caves are nearby, but you can only go in the replica - we didn't bother. There are good beaches (we liked the one at Rabia) near Comillas (the place with the really famous Gaudi building). There are Roman ruins at Juliobriga, and a twelfth century church. We drove through the Hermida gorge to the Picos de Europa - there's a cable car up the mountain at Fuente De and you can go on walks from the top. Argueso has a castle. A bit further in the same direction there are churches carved out of the rocks iirc but we didn't get that far. Hope that helps.

Ooohh, I'm not sure I'm allowed to do this, but I happen to run a small company renting holiday cottages in that part of Northern Spain and can give you advice on a nice campsite too. Still some availability during school summer holidays. www.bluegreenspain.com

ooh ta

anywhere for 3 kids with availableity july 19 onwards?

that blue house looks lovely but a bit too big

one week or two? Week 19 July still good, but it's getting busier in August. Yes, blue house one of my favourites, but there are others that are better value for money.

well we have two weeks free but wanted to try and do a bit of beach and a bit of picos - originally we thought we would do a week near the coast and a week in the picos, dh and dd1 LOVE swimming so we have to have some beach, I love mountains and walking hence picos!

this is tremendously helpful thank you.

If you stay somewhere like the Llanes area you can do beach in the morning and Picos in the afternoon, so no need to stay in two different places if you don't want to. Everything is very close by really, which also makes the scenery quite dramatic because you have very high mountains so close to the sea. Have a look at the website and send me a quick email and I'll tell you what we have available around those dates and I can tell you which ones I'd recommend - mind you, I tend to recommend all of them. I choose them and obviously only choose those that I really like.

thank you so very very much I will send you an email right now (nice site btw)

Thank you . And apologies to everyone else for the blatant publicity

Hello Enid we're going on that ferry in April

Am staying in Bilbao for one night at either end of our holiday