Hello, I have read some good threads here about Santander. We plan to spend 10 days or so in July there (renting a car). We want to do some sightseeing, swimming and surfing. After looking up Google Earth, we thinking about staying on the other side of the bay, in Somo, at Hotel Torres de Somo. Beaches and landscape look much nicer there than in Santander/Sardinero, and I wonder if someone is familiar with the area and/or Hotel Torres de Somo to tell us a little bit more.

I understand there is a convenient ferry service between Somo and Santander - will it be running late at night?

Any other tips?

Thank you for your reply.

Hi traveller,

I won´t be really helpful because we usually drive for the day to Somo, so I cannot tell you about the hotels there.

The beach is great, very open to the sea and with plenty of surfing opportunities. There are a couple of surf and kite schools there.

The boats across the bay are a classical in Santander. They are called Los Reginas. I have checked their website, and the last sailing time is around 20:00 (both from Pedreña and Somo to Santander) and 20:30 from Santander to Pedreña. It might change in summer, but I am not sure.
http://www.losreginas.com/reginas/servicio.htm
You might have to rely on the car to have dinner at the Puerto Pesquero in Santander.

We were in Somo last first of May, and I was intending to upload some pics in flickr, because the day was absolutely gorgeous. Plenty of people surfing, a few boats from the Yatch Club out in the bay. Really gorgeous afternoon.

And as you will have a car, you will be able to go to the Adelma hotel in Entrambasaguas and buy their sobaos and quesadas from El Macho. Very, very good.

Once I have the pictures, I´ll get the link.

rgds, Cova

Hi traveller,
I'm familiar with the Hotel Torres de Somo across the bay.

I'd put it on my short list because of Somo's beautiful beach (but I don't surf), and because it's a member of Club de Calidad Cantabria.
But when I saw it while staying in Trasmiera, I decided the location of the hotel wasn't as pleasant as other areas around there, although you can take the boats from there over to the Puerto Chico.
Trasmiera across the bay is filled with casonas with lots of character that have been converted to hotels-all the way from Somo to Santoña, the pleasant anchovy town with some nice walks around the headlands.

Have you looked at the other properties of Club de Calidad?
www.calidadcantabria.com

Since ours was a semi business trip, we visited all of the hotels in the Club de Calidad group. The two I liked most were the Cinco Calderas in Galizano (attractive town, 11 km. east of Somo) and the Camino de la Hoz in Hoz de Arnero, right off the A 8 for a quick getaway for day trips.

But I'd rather stay in El Sardinero next time and take the Los Reginas boat over to Somo for the day rather than the other way around.
As cova says, the beach is gorgeous and expansive, but El Sardinero is enormous and over there you have the buzz of the city and its nightlife.

About sightseeing-


From our base in Trasmiera, just southeast of Santander and south of Somo this is how we spent our week sightseeing:

Down to the Liébana valley, through La Hermida gorge to Potes for Monday market and on to Fuente Dé for the cable car ride up to the Mirador-long day but our favorite day trip from Santander, so one we always do.

We made a loop down to the really scenic and somewhat isolated Pas river Valley to Vega de Pas-incredibly pretty.
In Vega de Pas we visited the Ethnographic Museum of the Pasiegos (interesting to learn more about their culture and life style) and bought an amazing quesada at Sobaos Ortiz (on the highway next to the Restaurante Mexico) , then drove on back up through the Miera river valley to the pretty town of Liérganes (think Santillana without tacky souvenir shops and bus loads of tourists-a real, unspoilt all stone town). Really, really beautiful back country drive.

We visited the pre-historic caves at Puente Viesgo (La Moneda/El Castillo) and Hornos de la Peña, Covalanas. There's also El Pendo, El Pendo, Cullalvera. They're strictly capacity controlled and it took forever to get spots to visit Covlanas (they only allow 7 in at a time). But now they can all be booked on
http://cuevas.culturadecantabria.com/
If you are at all interested in cave art, you can have you fill in Cantabria.

When visiting Hornos de la Peña caves in Tarriba, when drove further down the valley to see Los Hornillos Palace in Las Fraguas, where the movie The Others was filmed.

We walked a bit of the Vía Verde (walkways made from old railway beds) that begins down by the Spa hotel in Puente Viesgo after visiting El Castillo/La Moneda caves and then drove to Ontaneda straight to the source of the great El Macho shop of sobaos and quesadas. Yum.

www.viasverdes.com

Another quite scenic, actually spectacular, drive was a drive down to the medieval village of Bárcena Mayor, through the Saja Besaya Natural Park.
B.M., supposedly the oldest village in Cantabria is filled with ancient wood and stone homes with a river running through it, and you can take lots of hikes from there plus fill up on a hearty cocido montañés, the local stew.

Coming back from Bárcena Mayor we crossed over to the other Nansa river valley via the pretty all stone mountain town of Carmona (gorgeous drive) then up the striking area of Herrerías to visit the fairly newly opened caves filled with stalagtites of amazing formations at El Soplao. Nice visit and now easy to book online at
www.elsoplao.es

From the Santander area it's an easy trip to the neo caves of Altamira and the Colegiata in Santillana del Mar,
then on to less heavily touristed Comillas-a summer playground for aristocrats in the 19th century- for a heavy dose of quite fanciful and often quirky Moderniste architecture ("modernista madness")
-the extravagant Palace of Sobrellano, which one can tour (but the poor Marquis died before even inhabiting), El Capricho by Gaudí with its Moorish minaret (inside is an expensive/so, so restaurant), the melancholic neo Gothic cemetery overlooking the ocean and a good beach at Oyambre.
Quite a scenic as in pastoral drive between Santillana and Comillas.

From Comillas you could move on to the fishing town of San Vicente de la Barquera for a stroll up to the castle (one can visit) and the church of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles at the top of the old quarter. Good place for a seafood feast too. We liked El Marinero on the main drag.

We spent time at the beach in El Sardinero and walking all the beaches, around the peninsula of Magdalena Palace, down to have tapas at night around the lively Plaza de Cañadío.

Or, if you want to spend most of your time swimming and surfing, just stay put between El Sarindero and Somo and you'll have a great vacation!

You may not be interested, in fact, in any country excursions at all, so all of the above can just be for the archives!

Sorry, a typo or two (or many more) in all that.
Cave art aficionados can visit El Chufín Riclones (Rionansa) as well.


I believe you know Spanish-
www.culturadecantabria.com
is loaded with good info about Spain's dairy and cave land.

or in several languages,
www.turismodecantabria.com

Before we visit Santander we check out the performance schedule at the Palacio de Festivales.

www.palaciofestivales.com

But if you'll be there the last week of July it may be quite dark, right before the August International Music Festival.

www.palaciofestivales.com

Like Maribel, I prefer Sardinero!

As far as I can determine, nobody has mentioned Santander's annual Fiesta de Santiago that takes place the week leading up to the Apostle's Feast Day (25 julio). If you are over in Somo, you may miss out on the festivities like daily bullfights, concerts, etc.

Maribel already mentioned Potes in Liebana Valley and it is must since you have a car. National park of Picos de Europa is very, very beautiful. The views are like the Alps in Switzerland.
If you take the cable car up to the El Cable, you might like to make the Horcados Rojos hike or a part of it.
You will find the route description and a lot of photographs from here: http://www.topwalks.net/en/picos_eur...ados_rojos.htm
Also I recommend you to visit the restaurant La Venta de Vieda, which is some 3 kilometres from Potes:
http://www.topwalks.net/venta_de_vie...e_vieda_en.htm
The local blue cheese queso picón is the best in the world. This restaurant offers all the local specialties including the Picos wines and orujo. Picos Tinto Roble is OK, their ice wine Hielu de Picos is very interesting and Crema de Orujo is fantastic.
I recommend this car route:
Santander - Potes (and Fuente Dé) - Puerto San Glorio (fantastic views over the Picos from the lookout spot) - Riaño - Cangas de Onis - Llanes (one night) - San Vicente - Santander. Also you might like to visit Santoña that is 50 kilometres to the east from Santander. There is a nice walking route around the cape and there are fortifications from the Napoleon era.

Santoña can make (or made for us at least) a pleasant, low key place just to while away a summer afternoon on a day trip from Somo or Santander- if you want a change from the beaches of El Puntal or El Sardinero.

Whether you spend 3 or 4 hrs. to take the complete walking route around the cape or....
go to Berria beach or
just walk the attractive paseo marítimo and purchase canned gourmets products from there, like their anchovies at Conservas Emilia, a shop with a dazzling array of local goodies.
(Santoña has a major salting/canning industry, and their tinned anchovies are worth taking home)
Or take the ferry over to the broad beach of Laredo, which cova can describe to you better than anyone.

If you do decide to explore the Costa Trasmiera from Somo to Santoña, I can recommend a wonderful seafood restaurant, just a few km. west of Santoña in tiny Ancillo (a neighborhood of Argoños)

Restaurante La Traina
www.restaurantelatraina.com

Friends who live nearby took us for lunch, and the quality of their fish preparations, like the turbot (rodaballo) really impressed. Nice desserts too. Everything is delicious. And you can just go for wine and tapas as well.

And Langre on the Costa Trasmiera also has a surfers' beach. It's located above Somo up towards Cabo de Ajo.
www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/PlayadeLangre

or forget all of the above and just enjoy the beauty of El Sardinero and the nightlife of Santander. Yes, Ned, I forgot about the fiesta with dancing and fireworks and all. Glad you mentioned it.

Wow!

I never dared to expect that those famous experts answered my post with such a wealth of information.

Cova, Maribel, Nedsireland, Walksntalks: Thank you so much for your very helpful posts. It was exactly what I was hoping to receive. Every bit of information was most valuable for us - the timetable of Los Reginas, the impressions of Somo Beach, the hotel recommendations, mentioning the Santiago festivities, the trips into the hinterland...

After careful evaluation of your posts and some further research, we have finally booked our trip:

- We will fly into Bilbao with Lufthansa, not with Ryanair into Santander. We have read so many bad reviews about Ryanair that we decided to pay a small premium in order to fly with a reliable airline.

- We will arrive on 16 July and have to depart on 23 July. On 19 July we will drive into Bilbao to welcome our second son at the airport who will join us on this day.

- We will rent a minivan for our three-generation-family of six.

- We will stay at Hotel Torres de Somo - the proximity to this fantastic beach is so tempting. It is a matter of personal preference, of course. For our sons, the opportunity for surfing is so important that we decided, a beach location will be better for us than a city location. (BTW, how strict is the north Spanish police about alcohol and driving after dinner?) However, I must say, the casonas which were suggested by Maribel, look very beautiful (with VERY reasonable rates), but we love to jump into the sea after a sightseeing day and we love to walk along the beach at sunset.. - you get the picture?

- We will do all the daytrips which were suggested by Maribel and others. We are looking forward to exploring Cantabria.

- Maribel: You have saved our trip to Barcelona. We took the most useful restaurant recommendations from your guide to Barcelona - Abac and Commerc24. We hope that we will have the opportunity for some fantastic dinners in Cantabria too. I already looked up the Guide Michelin and found some mouth-watering spots: Cenador de Amos in Villaverde, Solar de Puebla in Santa Cruz, Machinero and El Serbal in Santander... I think, we won't starve.

Thank you so much for your replies. They helped us a lot, and they will help others (who are smart enough to use the search function).

Hi traveler,
Yes, you have enough touring suggestions now for several return trips!

And yes, you'll have opportunities for some fine Cantabrian dining at El Cenador de Amós, El Serbal in Santander, also consider El Nuevo Molino in Puente Arce, which has been getting solid reviews in its reincarnation.
And we also enjoy Cañadío on the plaza of the same name in Santander. This could be a casual spot for tapas as well.
I don't know El Machinero, so will be looking forward to your critique.

You've probably already noticed the restaurant members of the Club de Calidad at
www.calidadcantabria.com.
There are some really nice ones in the countryside.
We drive around inland Cantabria with the printed guide (pocket sized) in our car!!
Just so we won't miss an opportunity to have a great lunch while touring!

With this little guide we've made some nice discoveries, such as lunch at the pretty El Urugallo at Casona de Cosgaya (Liébana) and Lino's in the Casona Palacio Real Labranza Villasevil. It's all good.

Knowing about the size of your group and the generational factor, I now actually think you've made a wise choice by picking something closer to the beach, Torres de Somo, and with more "hotel-like" services rather than a more "couples-type" romantic casona de indianos. You can save those for an anniversary... I get the picture.

Glad I was able to help you out restaurant-wise in Barcelona.

Good choice in avoiding Ryan Air!
Always look forward to your trip reports, so have a great time!

The pictures I promised you :
http://tinyurl.com/r8fdqv

Rgds, Cova

Aah, Maribel, you tips are perfect as always. Your links are priceless. What I found:

- Foie gras cream with goat cheese, apple and Pedro Ximenez ice cream (El Nuevo Molino),

- Sardine and smoked eel millefeuilles with vegetables and ajoblanco (cold garlic and almond soup) made with fresh almonds (El Serbal).

- Beef tenderloin carbonade with beer ice cream (Cenador de Amos).

- beet sponge cake with lemon verbena ice cream (Cenador de Amos).

Doing some pre-trip research is already part of the fun!

BTW, when we travelled to Barcelona, I carefully read your guide. Your description of Commerc24 was so accurate - we loved it. BTW, if you ever have the opportunity to travel to Berlin, eat at Maremoto. The chef is a student of Ferran Adria and his 17-course menu is most memorable.

Cova, thank you for your pictures!

My kids love them! They cannot wait to go there.

(BTW, who is the undressing guy on P1060081 ?)

16 julio is la Virgen de Carmen (begins the Peak Summer Tourist Season). Most Puertos de mar have celebrations becaues that's also the Patroness of Fisherman. So you can probably expect a 'passing in review' of the Fishing boats off Santander's Barrio Pesquero.

Maribel told you where to dine, but she didn't tell you what to order: In Liebana you have to have the Cocido de Liebana.
It's similar to the Fabada Asturiana but with Garbanzo beans instead of Faba beans.
They also produce some outstanding Cheeses (some Goat Cheese) that we buy for our relatives in Madrid. They really appreciate that.

You may want to take home a bottle of Orujo de Liebana. It's what is used for the Queimada Gallega. I still have a bottle in my Liquor Cabinet with instructions on how it is to be used for my Wake (including the Conjuro).

Neds: Now we know what to drink after dinner!

http://www.orujodeliebana.com

Thank you for additional tips about food. We always found Spanish cuisine delicious and surprisingly affordable.

No idea
Really, quite a few of the guys were dressing and undressing straight away in the beach. The weather was gorgeous, but really mixed. My brother and my sister were in short-sleeves, my nephew and myself were wearing anoraks. The baby was mesmerized with the boards and the sailing boats and the people shouting and laughing.
In July there will be much more people at the beach, and I really hope you are lucky and you don´t get one of our typical northern summers, rainy and gloomy.
Regarding Ryanair, at least you would have known that you were flying into Santander. It is not the first tourist that arrives into the airport and asks for a taxi to the Guggenheim.

And regarding drink and driving ... it is strict, specially on weekends, but sometimes there are controls at 2:00 pm on a working day. Better to be safe than sorry, and don´t appeal to the "I´m a foreigner and I didn´t know". One of my colleagues, a Boston guy, got stopped by the Guardia Civil last Wednesday after work because he was driving and listening to the IPod in the headphones. He tried the foreigner angle, and then he tried to convince them that it wasn´t an Ipod, it was an IPhone and he was talking. We barely managed to convince the policeman not to increase the fine.

Bye, Cova

Forgot again, Ned,
We all have our favorite places to dine on cocido lebaniego.
Mine is the pretty Hotel del Oso in Cosgaya. But their version will feed a small army!
The Hotel del Oso is a member of that Club de Calidad restaurant group.

As walksandtalks mentioned, that crema de orujo that Picos de Cabariezo makes is darn delicious. Definitely might want to take home a bottle.

Nice photos, cova.

Thanks Cova, beautiful pictures ! Brings back memories of taking one of "Los Reginas" from Santander to Somo (I didn't recall that was what they were called). I love Santander and now I want to go back!!!

Oh, one more thing! The cocido lebaniego at Casa Cayo in Potes is pretty yummy too!