Starting in San Santander - 4 days - Which route

donh · Jan 15, 2019

Hi All.....I am tipping my toes into the Camino and starting in San Santander. Arriving late Wednesday so will spend Wednesday night here. Want to walk for next 4 days. Fly out of San Santander late Sunday evening. Any recommended routes and places to stay. Do you need to book hostels? Thanks

amancio · Jan 15, 2019

I would take the train to Pesués and walk westward as far as you can, perhaps villaviciosa, keeping as close to the coast as possible, following the E-9 route.
Alternatively, you can take the train to Portugalete, and walk towards Santander (castro urdiales, laredo, santoña, noja, güemes are good places to stop). The first 20/25 km out of Santander are industrial, ugly, tarmac routes.

David · Jan 15, 2019

Nice toe-dipping! good for you. There are daily buses to Burgos - only about 11 euros. Leave Burgos and have Beautiful days on the Meseta .. you could end at Carrion de los Condes and take a direct bus back to Santander, about 15 Euros.

A lovely toe-dipping walk ... though, with the bussing, to get to and back from the Camino would mean only three days walking (1st day a half, last day a half) - you could easily walk to Fromista and take a direct train from there for 14 Euros.
And then - depends on what is 'late' arrival Santander - there is a 17:30 bus, gets in to Burgos at 8pm - so you could sleep in Burgos and start fresh first thing Thursday? (There is a later bus but it gets into Burgos at midnight - which would be ok if you were booked into a hotel with a night porter).

but .. are you talking of This Wednesday? Weather is ok for walking - 7 to 9C though -2C at night!

donh · Jan 15, 2019

amancio said:
I would take the train to Pesués and walk westward as far as you can, perhaps villaviciosa, keeping as close to the coast as possible, following the E-9 route.
Alternatively, you can take the train to Portugalete, and walk towards Santander (castro urdiales, laredo, santoña, noja, güemes are good places to stop). The first 20/25 km out of Santander are industrial, ugly, tarmac routes.

Thanks for the response. Is this route now signposted or is the Camino route different along this path?

donh · Jan 15, 2019

David said:
Nice toe-dipping! good for you. There are daily buses to Burgos - only about 11 euros. Leave Burgos and have Beautiful days on the Meseta .. you could end at Carrion de los Condes and take a direct bus back to Santander, about 15 Euros.

A lovely toe-dipping walk ... though, with the bussing, to get to and back from the Camino would mean only three days walking (1st day a half, last day a half) - you could easily walk to Fromista and take a direct train from there for 14 Euros.
And then - depends on what is 'late' arrival Santander - there is a 17:30 bus, gets in to Burgos at 8pm - so you could sleep in Burgos and start fresh first thing Thursday? (There is a later bus but it gets into Burgos at midnight - which would be ok if you were booked into a hotel with a night porter).

but .. are you talking of This Wednesday? Weather is ok for walking - 7 to 9C though -2C at night!

Thanks for the response. Not arriving for another month. We do have time on the Wednesday to get a train or bus to a starting point. Looking to do 3 full day walks around 25 to 30 km a day and then on the Sunday have a wander around a nice town and bus back to airport.

amancio · Jan 15, 2019

donh said:
Thanks for the response. Is this route now signposted or is the Camino route different along this path?

The camino is well signposted, it often follows the E-9 route by the coast, but if you have a choice between the camino and the E-9, I would definitely pick the E-9. Another possibility would be to follow the Camino Lebaniego from San Vicente de la Barquera to the Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana, stunning mountain route, extremely hilly, but the views are unique. It would take you 3-4 days to reach Potes, and the route is unbelievably beautiful!
Cantabria is beautiful, wild and green, but for some reason the Camino follows tarmac roads most of the time, including neverending stretches through industrial and residential states with zero interest or reasons for joy.

donh · Jan 17, 2019

amancio said:
The camino is well signposted, it often follows the E-9 route by the coast, but if you have a choice between the camino and the E-9, I would definitely pick the E-9. Another possibility would be to follow the Camino Lebaniego from San Vicente de la Barquera to the Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana, stunning mountain route, extremely hilly, but the views are unique. It would take you 3-4 days to reach Potes, and the route is unbelievably beautiful!
Cantabria is beautiful, wild and green, but for some reason the Camino follows tarmac roads most of the time, including neverending stretches through industrial and residential states with zero interest or reasons for joy.

Thanks for the info. Would we need to book accom along the e-9 coast way?

amancio · Jan 19, 2019

donh said:
Thanks for the info. Would we need to book accom along the e-9 coast way?

I do not think so, it goes along the coast, but the towns you visit are virtually the same.

Camino del Norte is not one single way, it is rather a sort of net/mesh of different possible caminos, like in this screenshot below; you see a few possible caminos, but there are even more variants, actually!

Jan_D · Jan 19, 2019

As you only have 3 days to walk, I wouldn't recommend getting too far from Santander on Day 1. If you do decide to start from Santander, your three days' walk won't be along the coast the whole way because the path goes inland slightly - and a lot of it is on tarmac. However you'll pass through the cool medieval town of Santillana del Mar, and San Vicente de la Barquera is also very picturesque.

VERY IMPORTANT: You will need to make sure that you're in a main town on Sunday, as the buses don't stop at all the villages. Best go to the Alsa website to check whether they have a bus from where you hope to be, to Santander, on a Sunday. You don't want to end up stuck in the middle of nowhere!

Alternatively, as someone above suggested, you could go three days 'backwards' and start somewhere like Castro Urdiales, thus walking into Santander the morning before your flight, and doing away with the hassle of working out Sunday bus locations and times...

There aren't as many 'official' pilgrim albergues on the Norte; and I'm also not sure how many of the albergues will be open in winter. I've just come back from a couple of weeks' walking from Santander, and stayed mostly in hotels (or "pensiones"/"hostales") for around €25/night. I just booked the morning or night before on booking.com, very easy. There's also some information (in Spanish) about the route and accommodation on this site: https://www.gronze.com/camino-norte

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