Picturesque mountains, verdant valleys, sandy beaches and
famous prehistoric caves...        it's Cantabria

Get off the beaten track, away from the crowds, and into rural Cantabria: it has all you need for a splendid, natural holiday experience.

You’ll find peaceful countryside, glorious mountains with inspiring trails, good food, few tourists and a cordial welcome.

Understandably, many make straight for the fabulous mountains of the Picos de Europa. After dominating eastern Asturias, the peaks reach their snow-capped heights in western Cantabria, where Torrecerredo reaches 2,646 m, before spreading out in lush valleys where little settlements thrive and rural tourism coexists with farming.


Liebana

In western Cantabria is one of northern Spain’s greenest heartlands: the Liébana region, where some of the best walking in the Picos de Europa is to be had. In spectacular mountain countryside, just an hour and a half from Santander’s air and ferry ports.

The scenery is strikingly pretty and there are trails galore. The climate ranges from Mediterranean in the valleys to subalpine at mountain summits, but is typically mild with annual temperatures averaging 26⁰C (max) and 8⁰C (min). Rainfall is unpredictable here in lush, Green Spain, but lower than in other parts of Cantabria, thanks to its sheltered situation in a vast mountain hollow.

Although most people come here for the walking and mountain sports, you don’t have to participate in outdoor pursuits to enjoy Liébana. The more leisurely may wish to ascend its peaks by cable car from Fuente Dé, to stroll charming hamlets like red-roofed Piasca with its fine Romanesque church, or visit the Santo Toribio Monastery, which claims to hold pieces of the cross Jesus died on and is thus a place of pilgrimage

It is the hiker who will enthuse most, however. Four fertile valleys meet in the Liébana and rise quickly to slopes thick with beech and mixed oaks. There are deep defiles and canyons, and swift, clear rivers that run down to the the sea. At Pendes, near Cillorigo, is a forest of chestnut trees over a thousand years old. You will see Pyrennean chamois, birds of prey such as the pretty Egyptian vulture and herds of ibex. The National Park gives shelter to rare animals such as the Capercaillie and the Iberian lynx; it is also the protected home of the endangered Iberian wolf and Cantabrian brown bear.
 

There are few roads linking up the places of interest and little traffic so it’s not difficult to make your way around Liébana by car. Several routes end up at pretty villages with restaurants where the walking begins and ends.

View holiday homes in Cantabria

DETAILED MAP OF CANTABRIA, SPAIN 

Potes

Potes, Liébana’s capital, is the geographical centre of the area and gateway to many of the trails. It’s an old market town – the Monday street market has been held continuously since the Middle Ages – with balconied houses and plenty of shops to pick up maps, guides and souvenirs. It's the one place that tends to get busy with hikers in August and you may wish to consider holiday cottages at one of the smaller, unspoilt villages, Cillorigo or Barago.

Food and drink

The rewards of a healthily watered land, in contrast to sun-parched Andalucia, are plenty and some of them will end on your table, since fresh farm produce is the staple in Cantabrian gastronomy.

Hearty stews and salads and a variety of cheeses alternate with fish and seafood from the nearby coast. Food is taken seriously here. There are weekend country inns where kitchens are constantly busy with their clanging pots feeding hungry wayfarers.

Tudanca beef, lamb, wild salmon are as common in mountain dishes as lima bean and tender chickpea soups. Try sirloin with Tresviso cheese, hake in parsley sauce, chorizo, anchovies, squid with onion and Pasiega cheesecake. Tresviso – or Picón Bejés – is a blue cheese matured for months in local limestone caves, presumably ones chosen for their absence of bears. Orujo de Liebana, made from winepressings, is the local, fruity brandy.

Discover more Cantabria highlights in our guide to Holidays in Northern Spain

Saja-Besaya

Cantabria has several other national and natural parks. Of special note is the Saja-Besaya Reserve gracing the grand Cabuérniga Valley with its meadows and wooded groves. The original mountain forests alternate with hills cleared for pasture. Streams run through the park where oak, holly and beech give cover to wildlife. The otter has recently returned to Saja-Besaya.

The Reserve is easily reached from Cantabria’s only winter resort, Alto Campoo, which offers skiing and panoramic views from the Fuente de Chivo look-out point. Those fancying high altitude walking in summer months can take the ski lifts up into the peaks and trek from there. Summer downhill biking from the resort is also popular. This expanse of Cantabrian mountains and valleys is rich in rivers. Spain’s second longest river, the Ebro, which flows out into the Mediterranean 910 km away, has its source here.

Old woodland imposes its own atmosphere and peace on the area around Abiada, where you can find El Abuelo (the Grandfather), a thousand year-old walnut tree which takes four people to circle (hugging optional).

Puente Viesgo

Also well positioned for Saja-Besaya and several other places of interest in the region is Puente Viesgo. This lovely village just half an hour south of Santander lies in beautiful countryside. It is rightly famed for its prehistoric art in the cave complex at Monte Castillo. Ancient paintings and drawings of animals can be seen in four caves.



The coast

Easy drives from Puente Viesgo take you to Santillana del Mar, a living museum of a medieval village and the nearby Altamira Caves, where Palaeolithic cave painting reached a degree of unsurpassed sophistication. The artists experimented with charcoal, ochre and other pigments to create colourful, dynamic representation of animals, including herds of bison. Their handprints greet us from 15,000 years ago. As visits to the World Heritage Site caves are strictly limited, a replica exhibition which depicts the same images has been created at the site.

If you are based in the Picos de Europa, in less than an hour you can be at impressive fishing villages such as San Vicente de la Barquera or the wonderful, protected beaches of Oyambre Natural Park.

Exotic living creatures are collected together in a well-designed safari park, the Cabarceno Nature Reserve, just ten minutes from Santander. Elephants and tigers, bears and lions, kangaroos and giraffes all wander freely within the park’s boundaries.

Santander is an elegant town on a curved bay. For many years it was the resort of choice for Spanish royalty and today you can visit King Alfonso XIII’s summer palace and the Grand Casino. The bay also houses the new Maritime Museum of Cantabria with its giant aquariums. There are plenty of sandy beaches to choose from along the coast.

Santander is also the transport hub for the region. Flights, ferries, rail and bus services all link to here.

See all: Villas in Cantabria

See all: Villas in Northern Spain