Northern Spain itinerary: 10 days to Santiago

Northern Spain isn't a sun destination, and that's its strength: green mountains, the Atlantic, cool summers and very little of the south. The biggest decision is direction. This route runs east to west, because Bilbao is the easiest airport to land at and Santiago de Compostela makes a clear finishing point. There's no coming back the same way, so it does mean a one-way fee on the hire car. If you'd rather avoid that, see the variant below.

You only collect the car on day 5. San Sebastián and Bilbao are better on foot and by bus, and parking there is the worst problem of the whole trip.

The route at a glance

Driving times: route calculation based on OpenStreetMap, without breaks. On the mountain roads of Cantabria and Asturias, add about a third.

1. San Sebastián
2. Bilbao
3. Santillana del Mar
4. Cangas de Onís
5. Oviedo
6. Cudillero
7. Playa de las Catedrales
8. Lugo
9. Santiago de Compostela

Base map: Natural Earth

Days 1–4: San Sebastián and Bilbao without a car

From Bilbao airport, Lurraldebus line DO04 runs roughly hourly straight to San Sebastián, so you don't need to go into the city first. Two nights are enough for the old town's pintxo bars and La Concha beach. For how to split the days, see how many days in San Sebastián.

Then take the bus to Bilbao, where two nights cover the Guggenheim, the old town, the market hall and the Vizcaya Bridge. A Guggenheim ticket^* is best bought ahead, and the city itself is broken down in how many days in Bilbao. Compare bus and train connections on Omio^*.

Day 5: Santillana and Altamira

Collect the car in Bilbao in the morning; a hire car from Bilbao^* is best compared with return in Santiago, since the one-way fee changes the price a lot. Then it's an hour and a half to Santillana del Mar, a village of stone houses around its Romanesque collegiate church.

Drop one expectation here: you won't get into the real Altamira cave. The museum admits five people per week for 37 minutes, drawn from a waiting list dating from 2002 that accepts no new applications. What you see is the Neocave in the museum, an exact three-dimensional replica with the ceiling of bison. That isn't a consolation prize. It's simply how every visitor sees it.

Days 6–7: Picos de Europa

The direct road to Cangas de Onís takes 1:23 hours. If you don't mind a long day, go via Potes and the Liébana valley, 164 km and 2:31 hours, and fit in the Fuente Dé cable car. Doing that as well as the lakes day gets tight, so decide according to the weather.

The sticking point is the Covadonga lakes. The road up from Covadonga is only 13 km long, but at peak times it's closed to private cars. In 2026, according to Turismo Asturias, that applied from 1 June to 18 October with a few exceptions, plus Easter, May weekends and early December. On those days you take the bus from Cangas de Onís bus station or one of the car parks on the way. The dates are set each year, so check the official page before you go. Expect fog too: the weather up there is often quite different from the valley, so keep a reserve day if you can.

Day 8: Oviedo and Cudillero

Oviedo is 76 km west. The reason to stop is just above town on Monte Naranco: Santa María del Naranco, a pre-Romanesque hall from the reign of Ramiro I, which Turismo Asturias calls the most significant example of pre-Romanesque architecture in Europe. Nobody knows exactly what it was built for. After lunch in the old town it's 47 minutes on to Cudillero for the night, its colourful houses stacked like an amphitheatre around the fishing harbour.

Day 9: the long day to Santiago

This is the only genuinely long day, and it holds the best trick of the trip. The Playa de las Catedrales near Ribadeo sounds like a detour but barely is one: Cudillero to Lugo is 171 km direct and 176 km via the beach.

You need to sort out two things first. At Easter and from 1 July to 30 September you need a free permit from the Xunta de Galicia, available online up to 30 days ahead. And the rock arches that you came for can only be seen from below at low tide, so check the tide table. If low tide falls late, sleep in Ribadeo or Lugo and reach Santiago on day 10 instead.

In Lugo, walk part of the Roman city wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a circuit of nearly 2.3 km that locals use like an ordinary street. Then it's another 102 km to Santiago.

Day 10: Santiago de Compostela

Santiago is the end of the Camino, and you feel it in the square in front of the cathedral as pilgrims arrive with their rucksacks. Hand the car back straight away, as the old town is for walking. The city's tourist site is already promoting 2027 as a Holy Year, so expect far more visitors then and book early.

You fly home from Santiago airport; check who flies direct on your day. If it suits you better, A Coruña is just 74 km away, about 57 minutes.

Variants: no one-way fee, or 7 days

No one-way fee: turn round and drive back to Bilbao. Oviedo to Santiago alone is 328 km and 3:41 hours, so the return costs you a good extra day and the clean line of the trip. Paying the fee is usually better than losing that day.

In 7 days: skip San Sebastián, start in Bilbao and drop Lugo. Keep the Picos, because they are what no other Spanish trip gives you. If you want sun afterwards, look further south with our Andalusia road trip; our Portugal road trip from Porto is another natural continuation from Santiago.

Best time for northern Spain

Rain matters more than temperature. June to September are the months to travel: Bilbao averages 23 to 26 °C by day, Santiago 22 to 26 °C. Santiago gets just 27 mm of rain in July against 193 mm in October, and Bilbao 159 mm in November. Bring a jacket even in July, because the Atlantic stays cool. To compare with the rest of Europe, see where to go in September.

Climate: 2015–2024 averages from the ERA5 reanalysis (Open-Meteo), rounded.

Good to know before you go

• Entry and money: Spain is in the EU and the Schengen Area and uses the euro. Check the UK government's Spain entry page if you travel from the UK.
• Parking: In Bilbao and San Sebastián you avoid the hassle by collecting the car only after the cities.
• Flight: A direct flight from London to Bilbao takes approx. 2 hours.
• One-way hire: Always compare the total price, since the fee varies widely between companies.
• Data: Visitors from outside the EU can use a Spain eSIM^*; our eSIM price index compares the cost per gigabyte.

How YesTrip helps with this trip

Create a trip in YesTrip with these stops: the app shows every place on the map, uses AI to plan your days in Bilbao and San Sebastián, for which we have ready-made city plans, and shows the weather for your travel dates, which can decide the order of your days in the Picos and on the coast. The packing list suggests clothing to match the forecast, the offline map helps in the mountains, and if you travel with others you can share the trip and the expenses. You book with each provider directly.

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