The 2025 Camino edition is here, was a nice 11 days (2 weeks with some breaks) of hiking along the Asturian coast with loads of hidden gen beaches, fine sands and awesome carnivore food.
A gentle multi-day hike on the Camino del Norte (one of the routes of the Santiago de Compostela) with Hotel accommodation.
It spans across Basque Country to Cantabria and ends in Asturias.
Here you can find the daily stages and GPX on Komoot
Day 1: Bilbao Cathedral to La Arena beautiful Beach passing by Portugalete for lunch and interesting overland bridge/cable car. We stayed along the river, this is ok for a Sunday but might be heavy traffic during the week. The only available accommodation in La Arena is quite underwhelming, we didn’t even have warm water :/ but the beach is amazing!
Day 2: La Arena to Castro Urdiales (short day) with a a nice hotel in Castro and some great seafood restaurants and architecture.
Day 3: Castro to Hazas away from the coast (at least visually) and a stay in a renovated estate.
Day 4: Hazas to Santona passing by the long sand dunes of Laredo and taking a short ferry. Here you can visit a Santona Anchovy factory or just eat some as the town speciality. Did I mention the Laredo sandy beaches? and the ferry timetable?
Day 5: Santona to Guemes away from the coast and a stay in a nice rural inn with pool.
Day 6: Guemes to Santander with a ferry and a day off in Santander
Day 7: Santander to Santillana Del Mar (long and very urban/industrial) you can skip this stage with regrets 🙂 by taking the bus but do plan some time in Santillana der Mar (the town of three lies)
Day 8: Santillana der Mar to Comillas on the coats ending in a beautiful hotel over the water/beach.
Day 9: Comillas to Colombres with a stop in San Vicente and the famous Power Outage 🙂 The beers were still cold!
Day 10: Colombres to Llanes, Llanes is a hidden gem and the Don Paco hotel and its restaurant (a converted convent) are fantastic and the sea and mountain views in Llanes are impressive.
Day 11: Bonus leave your luggage at Don Paco Hotel and walk to Nueva and enjoy the many many hidden beaches on your way. The diesel train Nueva-Llanes is not very frequent so it is advised to go by train and walk back to Llanes.
