Set aside the familiar images of Spain’s sunbaked landscapes and sweltering beaches. The Costa Verde surprises even the most seasoned travellers with its dramatic, verdant coastline and pleasantly balmy days. Meaning “Green Coast”, the name once referred to the Asturian shoreline but is now used to describe the entire Atlantic stretch from Galicia to the French border.
The diverse landscape of Spain’s northern coast encompasses white sandy beaches, crystal waters and forested headlands, as well as picture-perfect fishing villages and thoroughly modern cities. It offers something for everyone, from seafood lovers to adrenaline junkies – not to mention those in need of a relaxing sun-and-sand break.
Basque beauty
At the eastern end of the coast, Bilbao makes a perfect starting point for arrivals by sea (departing from Portsmouth). One of the two Brittany Ferries ports in Spain (the other is Santander), you’ll be able to dive straight into your holiday – refreshed from a hassle-free crossing.
The fortunes of this proud industrial city were turned around with the construction of the Frank Gehry-designed Museo Guggenheim in 1997. The arrival of this glittering palace of art provided a cultural and financial boost to the city so dramatic that this is now known all over the world as the “Bilbao effect”. Bilbao continues to thrive, but many of its most charming attractions have been around for decades – its Casco Viejo (Old Town) is an atmospheric labyrinth of medieval alleyways, with the area known as Siete Calles (Seven Streets) at its heart.
This is the best place to start the obligatory bar crawl to sample as many pintxos (the Basque take on tapas, served on a slice of baguette) as you can manage, and you won’t leave disappointed. Real gastronomes, however, will want to head to San Sebastián, Bilbao’s elegant neighbour an hour to the east. Famously home to a constellation of Michelin stars, San Sebastián has a proud culinary history, but is also a stunning city in its own right, curled around a picturesque bay.
Stay: Hotel Codina, on the western side of San Sebastian; conveniently located near one of the city’s three beautiful beaches and a pleasant stroll along the bay (one mile) from the town centre.
The charms of Cantabria
The main entry point by sea via Brittany Ferries is Santander, Cantabria’s lively capital, with departures from both Portsmouth and Plymouth. While not much remains of its historic centre, thanks to a devastating fire in 1941, Santander holds its own as a weekend-worthy stay, and experienced its own minor Bilbao effect with the 2017 opening of the Centro Botín, a dazzling seaside arts centre designed by Renzo Piano. For stunning views across the bay and beyond, walk to the end of Magdalena peninsula, where you’ll find an extensive park with a mini-zoo and tourist train.
Santander is the ideal base for exploring the rest of Cantabria. A half-hour’s drive from the capital, impossibly beautiful Santillana del Mar is a preserved-in-aspic medieval village of cobbled streets and balconies groaning under their extravagant floral displays. Just 10 miles beyond that, Comillas is known for its wealth of modernista architecture – the offshoot of art nouveau mostly found in Barcelona – including El Capricho, a villa designed by Gaudí himself.
Inland from here is the Picos de Europa mountain range, a vast Atlantic ecosystem that is home to – among many other things – brown bears and Iberian wolves, and one of Spain’s most popular hiking regions. It’s protected as a national park but there are various points of entry. The loveliest of these is Potes, a small medieval town of cobbled streets and riverside strolls.
Stay: Parador de Fuente Dé, a modernist gem of a hotel surrounded by mountains and just a couple of hours scenic drive from Santander. Your ideal gateway to the Picos de Europa.
Asturias and beyond
Entering the Costa Verde proper, the landscape becomes more dramatic, with little coves chipped from the rock and towns that seem to tumble into the sea. The Asturian capital, Oviedo, is one of northern Spain’s unsung delights, with a stunning cathedral at its centre along with a clutch of narrow pedestrianised streets, manicured gardens and attractive squares. Like its near-neighbour to the north, Gijón, Oviedo is an excellent place to explore the typical dishes of the region – fabada asturiana, a hearty bean stew with chorizo, ham hock and morcilla (blood sausage); cachopo, breaded veal fillets stuffed with cured ham and cheese; and tortos, corn fritters topped with minced chorizo and a fried egg.
Seafood also plays a starring role, and it is the fishing villages scattered along the Asturian coastline that have shaped the region’s identity – Llanes, with its hotchpotch of Romanesque, gothic and renaissance architecture; Ribadesella, a quiet fishing town carved in two by the river Sella; Cudillero, perhaps the prettiest of them all. This jumble of brightly coloured houses falls down two sides of a valley towards a narrow inlet.
Linking these villages are stretches of coastline unlike any in Spain, not only for their quiet stretches of sand and unspoilt hinterland, but for their curious features. The area stretching between Gijón and Ribadesella is known as the Costa de los Dinosaurios for the dinosaur footprints and fossilised remains that have been found here. Midway, at Colunga, there’s even a Jurassic Museum for those who wish to find out more. Similarly intriguing, just beyond the Asturian border and into Galicia, is the Praia As Catedrais, named for its otherworldly rock formations, which resemble the naves of mighty cathedrals. And you could always go on from there to see the real thing – in terms of cathedrals, that is – in Galicia’s capital, Santiago de Compostela; known to pilgrims (and hiking enthusiasts) the world over as the final stop on the Camino de Santiago.
Stay: Parador de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago’s stunning Parador was constructed in 1499 and faces the cathedral at the centre of this enchanting medieval city and site of pilgrimage.
The diversity of the Costa Verde is what makes it so special. Visitors can experience unfettered five-star comforts, or they can bivouac under the stars. They can spend their days kayaking and rockclimbing, or stretched out in a quiet cove before a candlelit dinner above a twinkling harbour. Spain’s best-kept secret seems unlikely to remain so forever.
