Cantabria is the piece of Spain that looks least like the postcard: cows, rain, cider-belt greenery and a coastline of headlands and river mouths rather than a continuous strip of sand. It also happens to hold nine of the eighteen caves in the UNESCO listing “Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain”, which makes this small region one of the most important places on earth for early human art — a fact that sits oddly beside its reputation as somewhere Spaniards go in August to escape the heat.
Region DNA
Short beaches wedged between headlands, tidal rías at Santoña, San Vicente and La Rabia, dune fields at Oyambre and Liencres, and the limestone wall of the Cordillera Cantábrica rising to the Picos de Europa within about 60 km of the sea.
Oceanic and genuinely wet. AEMET’s 1981–2010 normals for Santander give 1,169 mm of rain over 125.7 days with at least 1 mm, 1,717 hours of sun, and an August mean maximum of just 24.5 °C. Winters are mild rather than cold; nothing here is Mediterranean.
Short hops. The whole coast is drivable end to end in about two hours, so most people take one base and range out — and build in a wet-weather plan, because you will need it.
The A-8 runs the length of the coast and the A-67 climbs inland. The metre-gauge line, formerly FEVE and now Renfe Cercanías AM, links Santander with Bilbao and Oviedo slowly and beautifully. Brittany Ferries sails to Santander from Portsmouth and Plymouth — the Portsmouth crossing takes about 33 hours, so you arrive with your own car.
Prehistory travellers, architecture travellers, surfers, walkers, and anyone who would rather eat anchovies in Santoña than lie on a sunbed.
Anyone booking a week of guaranteed beach weather. Cantabria can give you five glorious days or five grey ones, and no amount of planning changes that.
Before you go — what to know first
You cannot walk into the Altamira cave, and you should stop expecting to. The original cave was closed outright in 1977, reopened on a restricted basis in 1982, and closed again in 2002 after green mould appeared. Since 2014 five randomly drawn museum visitors a week have been allowed a short supervised visit — 252 people in the whole of 2025. What every other visitor sees is the Neocueva, a full-scale replica inside the museum. It is excellent. It is also not the cave.
Bilbao is often the better airport. Santander’s Seve Ballesteros airport is close to the city and cheap to reach, but its route map is thin; Bilbao has far more flights and is about an hour and a quarter from Santander on the A-8, and closer still to Castro Urdiales. Check both before you book, and hire the car at whichever one you land at — away from Santander, public transport thins out fast.
August here is a Spanish August. Santillana del Mar, Comillas and Castro Urdiales fill with domestic visitors escaping the inland heat, and Castro Urdiales in particular can double or triple its 39,000-odd residents. Late June and the first half of September give you the same coast at a fraction of the density, and the sea is no colder in September than in June.
Which trip is right for you?
Where to go — our highlights
Santander
A capital rebuilt after it burned downOn 15 February 1941 a storm-driven fire destroyed 377 buildings and gutted the medieval core in under 48 hours; what stands today is a rebuilt city wrapped round one of the finest natural bays in Europe, with Renzo Piano’s Centro Botín on the waterfront and El Sardinero’s beaches a short walk from the centre.
Santillana del Mar
The village of three liesNeither holy nor flat nor on the sea, as the Spanish saying has it — but a near-intact cobbled ensemble of noble houses around a 12th-century Romanesque collegiate church that has been a national monument since 1889. Come before ten or after six; in between it belongs to the coaches.
Altamira
The replica is the visit — and it is worth itThe polychrome ceiling recognised by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola in 1879 carries a mark dated to about 36,000 years ago. The cave itself has been effectively shut since 2002; what you tour is the Neocueva, a full-scale reconstruction inside Juan Navarro Baldeweg’s 2001 museum a few hundred metres away.
Comillas
Catalan modernisme, parked in CantabriaA small seaside town with an implausible architectural haul, courtesy of the first Marquis of Comillas: Gaudí’s sunflower-tiled El Capricho of 1883–85, Joan Martorell’s Sobrellano palace, and a Pontifical University that Lluís Domènech i Montaner was brought in to decorate.
Castro Urdiales
A Roman port with a Gothic cliff-top churchFounded as Flaviobriga under Vespasian in AD 74 and now, awkwardly, half a Bilbao commuter town — but the harbour front, the castle-turned-lighthouse and the 13th-century church of Santa María de la Asunción above the water are the best single view on the eastern Cantabrian coast.
Playa de Oyambre
Dunes, a ría and a transatlantic crash landingAn undeveloped sand beach inside the 5,758-hectare Oyambre natural park, backed by one of the best-preserved dune systems on the north coast. In June 1929 the French aircraft Oiseau Canari ran out of options here at the end of an Atlantic crossing from Maine and put down on the sand.
Cantabria sits between two coasts that both out-market it. To the east, past Castro Urdiales, the Costa Vasca brings the Basque Country’s food, Bilbao and San Sebastián, and a more theatrical flysch coastline. To the west, across the Río Deva, Asturias’ Costa Verde has bigger cliffs, more coves and a wilder feel. Cantabria’s case is that it is the compact one: a single small region holding the cave art, the Romanesque, the modernista architecture, a real city and the Picos de Europa, all within about two hours’ driving of one another. Note too that “Costa de Cantabria” is a convenience label rather than an official tourism brand — locally you will hear the Cantabrian coast, or España Verde, and the phrase also does duty as a vino de la tierra wine designation.
Frequently asked questions
Where exactly is the Costa de Cantabria?
It is the coast of the autonomous community of Cantabria, on the Bay of Biscay in northern Spain, running from Castro Urdiales on the Basque border west to the Río Deva and the Asturian border. Santander is the capital and only large city.
Can I go inside the real Altamira cave?
Almost certainly not. The cave has been closed to general access since 2002. Since 2014 a research-controlled scheme has admitted five randomly selected museum visitors a week for a short supervised visit — 252 people in the whole of 2025. Everyone else visits the Neocueva, the full-scale replica in the museum next door, which is what the ticket you buy actually covers.
Which airport should I fly into?
Seve Ballesteros–Santander (SDR) is the closest but has a limited route network, with London Stansted its busiest international link. Bilbao (BIO) has far more flights and is around 100 km east of Santander on the A-8 — and much closer to Castro Urdiales. Asturias (OVD) suits the far western end. Brittany Ferries also sails into Santander from Portsmouth and Plymouth.
How bad is the weather, really?
Wet rather than cold. AEMET’s long-run normals for Santander show 1,169 mm of rain spread over roughly 126 days a year, 1,717 hours of sunshine, and an August mean maximum of 24.5 °C. There is no dry season, so plan for rain in any month and be pleased when it does not come.
Is the sea warm enough to swim in?
In summer, yes. Cantabria’s tourism board puts summer sea temperatures comfortably above 20 °C. It is still the Bay of Biscay, though: tidal range can exceed four metres, many beaches are unpatrolled outside the peak weeks, and swell arrives without much warning.
Do I need a car?
For Santander alone, no. For everything else, effectively yes. The metre-gauge Cercanías AM line links the main coastal towns and is a lovely ride, but Altamira, Oyambre, the Picos de Europa and most of the good beaches are awkward or impossible without one.
Every place we have mapped on the Costa de Cantabria
6 towns, beaches, coves and landmarks, kept up to date automatically.
How this page is maintained. CostaMap is written and maintained by an AI editorial system built by ebizapple. Facts are drawn from primary sources — town halls, museums, port and heritage authorities and the Spanish archaeological record — and where sources disagree, we say so rather than smooth it over. Photographs marked as ours are taken on location. This page was last reviewed on 14 August 2026. Opening hours, prices and transport change; check the official source before you travel.