Category: Hiking

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11 days on the Camino del Norte, Bilbao to Nueva, April 2025

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.

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Day 3: Castro to Hazas away from the coast (at least visually) and a stay in a renovated estate.

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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?

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Day 5: Santona to Guemes away from the coast and a stay in a nice rural inn with pool.

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Day 6: Guemes to Santander with a ferry and a day off in Santander

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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.

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Hotel Josein is really like sleeping over the waves

Day 9: Comillas to Colombres with a stop in San Vicente and the famous Power Outage 🙂 The beers were still cold!

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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.

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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.

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A must try, the Asturian authentic Fabadas
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One of the many Film Locations in Asturias

Impressions…

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Walking the Camino de Santiago 2024 Edition

Camino del Norte (da Costa)
from Irun to Bilbao

After walking the Costal camino from Porto to Santiago last year, we decided to go for a more hilly camino and took the first leg of the Northern Route. The Basque country from Irun to Bilbao, 155 Kms, 7 walking days. It offers some of the nicest landscapes: A mixture of beaches, lush green hills with a lot of timber, gorgeous towns with some of the proudest freedom loving people.

Here are 7 things I noted:

1- Your really don’t need maps for the Camino... although this route is taken by only 6% of total pilgrims to Santiago de Compostella, it is very well maintained and signs are everywhere… it takes a lot of talent to miss the road. Even if you are walking on foot, cycling, on horseback… just follow the signs.

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2- The beaches in the Basque Country are gorgeous: you will not find long, wide sandy beaches but a lot of small bays with complex ecosystems. Ex: Zarauz, also know as the Hawai of Spain for surfers. The Basque Country is also a cultural trove: the town Bolibar gave it’s name to Simon Bolivar 🙂 and yes, the people are very proud and independent.

3- Donestia / San Sebastián is underrated: Not only the cheesecake that you eat with a spoon but also the beaches, the corniche and the lifestyle. And yes almost every town has an original Basque name and a Castilian name….

4- Beekeeping: the land is not densely populated. It seems the timber industry is well-developed. You see kilometers of forests with eucalyptus and cypressus and heavy machinery. So not many beekeepers on the way, but the few we met were very engaged.

5- Destination Bilbao is everything they told you about lifestyle in Spain: people of all ages are in Bars on the streets drinking tinto de Verano and eating pinxos, literally from Friday 5 PM till Sunday night…. and they never run out of things to chitchat about. Here the destination for pilgrims Santiago Cathedral and also the market, the museum and above all, the lively ambiance or fiesta.

6- bonus track: Yes it rains a lot, but for short periods and people (like the Latin Americans in the photos) continue the walk and with the eternal debate: Poncho or Umbrella… the best answer is wait for the rain to stop 🙂

7- Last, the logistic:s: Hostel or Hotel… and the answer is depends, there are few hostels on this route and sometimes also not many hotels. We walked in April and the line of backpacks at hostels was quite long… I don’t know how overcrowded it will be in June/July. But I know there are some fine hotels on the way!