Accommodation Northern Spain

Are we talking hotels/B&Bs or camping?

Just back from a couple of weeks in the area - went along the coast west from Santander and then turned up into the Picos De Europa, doing a loop before heading back down to the coast for the ferry home.

We were camping and never had an issue just turning up at even the busy sites on the coast (you'd have to be pretty ruthless to turn away a pair of cyclists with a small tent!). We did one night in a hotel as we'd run out of steam on the climb into the Picos and couldn't face yet another 300m of ascent to the campsite. No problem turning up unannounced.

Clearly, the dire economic situation in Spain may be having an impact on the number of Spaniards holidaying on the coast this summer - so things may have been a little quieter than normal - I don't know.

I'm never one for touring with pre-booked accommodation in general. It's too restricting. We had a rough plan - but then stayed two nights in some places (if we liked them) etc.

It's a superb region for touring - especially the Picos. We were not doing big mileage on this tour (never more than 45 miles in a day - some significantly less). Sure - the haul up into the Picos is fairly hard work (40-odd km of gentle ascent that's gets less gentle the more you get into the Picos) and some of the side roads are vicious (we spent one day riding down from Posada in the Valdeon valley to Cain, to then walk part of the Cares Gorge (one of the best walks in Europe), and then back up the hill - 550m of ascent in 8km with a number of 20+% sections - luckily with the tandem unloaded because we were staying at the same place two nights!)

Touring in Spain (first time for us) was a joy - people were very welcoming and friendly (we did a 2-day Spanish course to at least give us the basics of Spanish - people were very understanding and helpful even with our basic language (which is more than can often be said of the French!)). The roads were on the whole very good, very quiet and considerate drivers (apart from the British driver than nearly sideswiped our tandem on the run in to Santander).

Food was amazing - the menu of the day makes for a good value lunch that will set you up for the rest of the day (especially the half-bottle of red-wine that comes included with the meal!).

We really did enjoy that part of the world and we'll be back and have a desire to tour in other parts of Spain as soon as we can!

The Camino del Norte (Northern Way) follows the North coast of Spain and the following websites may be of use to you.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Santiago_Bicicleta/
http://www.caminodesantiago.me/board/
http://www.mundicamino.com/ingles/centro.cfm
http://www.trentobike.org/bycountry/Spain.html

We have never booked and always found a bed if you have a place in mind it will be worth phoning ahead though.

Here is a post I made back in 2010 on a similar subject.

There is accomodation of all types for all budgets in Spain so I wouldn't worry about availability. Andy is correct that prices rise sharply as much as triple, in the Spanish tourist season, end of June to beginning of September when the Madrileños head for the northern coast.

A bit of time spent roughly planning where you end up each day won't go amiss. I personally like to end up in a large village/town or city, as I find that there is more interest in the evenings ie food, drink, culture.

Staying in the historic paradors is an experience and the UK booking agency Keytel has this website with information and offers.

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