Thanks for the beautiful images ekscrunchy! I'm starting to get excited...
Thanks everyone for all of your suggestions--very helpful.

Michelle

Would ten days be enough time to explore from San Sebastian all the way to Santiago de Compostela?
I'm thinking of booking round trip tickets from NY to Madrid, then fly Madrid to San Sebastian drive through and explore the North ending in Santiago de Compostela, catching a flight back to Madrid to our plane back to NY.
Does that sound doable? Is ten days to short for this plan? How far might we expect to get in ten days and what airport could we use to get back to Madrid?
Thanks!

10 days would be pretty tight. You wouldn't have alot of time to explore. For example I'd spend at least 5-7 nights in the Basque area - 3 nights in San Sebastian, a couple in Bilbao and a couple along the coast. I'd want to stay at elast 2 nights in Santiago de Compostela. There's really not alot of time to do much in between (but certainly lots to see). I could easily spend 3 weeks or more exploring San Sebastian to Galicia.

14 would be better, ten is really tight. ekscrunchy that sounds like a great trip. The Northern coast is one of the most beautiful coasts I've ever seen. The beaches are fantastic, the water is so clean and the seafood is the best in the world, noone can really argue that.

What would a realistic 10 day itinerary look like?

It depends on where you want to focus - the Basque country, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, coastal vs mountains,etc...

"My husband an I are hoping to travel around Spain for a week or two this summer." "What would a realistic 10 day itinerary look like?"

It might be time to start looking in guidebooks.

Michmich11
For ideas you have to give us some clues please.
We still need an idea of your method of travel, you seem to be debating about using trains, buses or car.
Where is your first stop on this vacation? Will you rest there before moving on to the northern coast (to get over jet lag etc)
Where along the northern coast are you heading for? And where will you depart from?
I would also like to see some details about your likes and dislikes. Of the ideas we have given you what takes your fancy?

Sorry if I've been vague...
We've heard great things about San Sebastian from friends and would definitely like to include that in our trip.
My idea is to fly round trip into Madrid, then choose a starting point to fly to, drive around for 10 days and then from where we end fly back to Madrid to catch flight back to NY. We would not be spending any time in Madrid.
So the question is which cities to start and end in...We would love to spend time on the beaches and also driving around the countryside. Tasting the regional delicacies (although we're vegetarian, hope that won't be a problem). The idea of staying in some small rural inns sounds lovely. Don't know if it would be possible but it would be fun to throw in a bike tour along the way.

We have always rented cars when we go to Spain, but leave them in a parking lot as soon as we get into a town. I've noticed that many of these smaller towns have convenient parking garages as soon as you exit the highway. Then you walk or take local transportation until you're ready to leave the area. It's worked well for us.

If you have no interest in seeing Madrid then I'd fly into Bilbao or another airport in the North. If you definately want to include San Sebastian in your trip then I'd budget at least 5-7 days for the Basque area. That leaves 3-5 days. You could easily spend the entire 10 days in the Basque country. But how you spend the additional 3-5 days really depends on your intersts.

Thanks for the reply. You should stop in Madrid even to get over Jet Lag.
I agree with CathyM ideas.
I have to add; if you travel less you will see more!

PS I should have added the website for what you call inns and we in Spain call Casa Rurals is http://www.toprual.com/ Loads of reviews most in Spanish as they use this website a lot.

No that should be http://www.toprural.com/
Why do we not have the ability to edit posts?

Spanair, Iberia and Air Europe operate Madrid-Bilbao. Excellent starting point if you want to explore the Basque region or go west towards Picos de Europa and the Cantabrian, Asturian and/or the Galician parts of the country. From what you have written, I suggest you concentrate efforts. But it would be perfectly doable to do a "tour" from San Sebastián to Santiago de Compostela in ten days. You would then probably come back with a wow feeling and some solid plans about places you want to return to and explore more in depth in the future.

You can also fly into Paris on Delta or Air France (they codeshare) then transfer to Bilbao. I did this in September and it worked out great.

"if you travel less you will see more"
ribeirasacra - there's a great deal of wisdom in this comment. My first few trips were more of trying to see as much as possible but they didn't have a great deal of substance. I've learned that you cannot measure quality of travel by how much you "see" or geography you travel but instead by the wealth of knowledge you learn in traveling.