Help Me Decide Between San Sebastian and Santander

I am laying out a driving tour of Spain that will between a Celebrity Spain / Portugal cruise and a Douro River cruise. I only have 10 days. I do not have to include Barcelona as I will be doing it pre-Celebrity cruise. I also have decided not to do Madrid as I want to spend more time in other cities and towns.

My problem is San Sebastian versus Salamander. I do not have time to do both. I am leaning toward Salamander as San Sebastian seems to be mainly a beach and restaurant town.

What do you guys think and why - San Sebastian or Salamander.

DON

While both are terrific destination, you are correct as when we head up to San Sebastian from Madrid it is mainly to enjoy the culinary experience or for a cultural event.

I like the Spanish tourist bureau website for comparing destinations as they are presented in the same format.

http://www.spain.info/

I am laying out a driving tour of Spain that will between a Celebrity Spain / Portugal cruise and a Douro River cruise. I only have 10 days. I do not have to include Barcelona as I will be doing it pre-Celebrity cruise. I also have decided not to do Madrid as I want to spend more time in other cities and towns.

 

My problem is San Sebastian versus Salamander. I do not have time to do both. I am leaning toward Salamander as San Sebastian seems to be mainly a beach and restaurant town.

 

What do you guys think and why - San Sebastian or Salamander.

 

DON

I meant to say Santander, not Salamander. Does this make a difference in your answer.

DON

For a moment I thought you maybe meant Salamanca. But if its Santander that you mean, its also a city on a gorgeous beach/ bay. I've visited Santander several times and love it, however San Sebastian is more renowned due to its cuisine. Its also very pretty. However,if you are trying to not visit cities that are mainly known as a beach town you probably shouldnt go to Santander either.

What month is your trip? Both cities attract many tourists in the summer month, specially August as they're resort towns frequented by Spaniards

For a moment I thought you maybe meant Salamanca. But if its Santander that you mean, its also a city on a gorgeous beach/ bay. I've visited Santander several times and love it, however San Sebastian is more renowned due to its cuisine. Its also very pretty. However,if you are trying to not visit cities that are mainly known as a beach town you probably shouldnt go to Santander either.

 

What month is your trip? Both cities attract many tourists in the summer month, specially August as they're resort towns frequented by Spaniards

The reason I picked Santander is that it is close to Bilbao which has the museum and a number of interesting archaeological and cave sites near by.

I have only 10 days between cruises. We will be there in mid October.

I will be starting in Barcelona. We drive to Laguardia to do some wine and stay in Laguardia for 2 nights which gives us a full day of wine visits. Then to somewhere along the coast (San Sebastian, Santander, ??). Then to Segovia. Finally drive to Porto Portugal via Salamanca to pick up our river cruise.

I do not want to do a run from place to place trip so this will give me 2 nights in most places. We decided to skip Madrid as we just do not have enough time to do such a large city justice and also because we will be spending maybe 5 or 6 days in Barcelona. We were also thinking of adding Toledo but my wife really wants to see the university town of Salamanca and it seems to make more sense to drive

Santander (?) - Segovia - Salamanca - Porto than

Santander - Segovia - Toledo - Salamanca - Porto

given the short amount of time we have.

There is just way too much to see in Spain and not enough time to see it.

Does my planned itinerary make any sense at all?

Many thanks for the help.

DON

hello Don,

Although I've traveled a lot around Spain I'm not the best person to give advice on car trips as I've never rented a car and driven in Spain, I always take public transport. However, given the short amount of time you have, I wouldnt add Toledo to the itinerary. I know Toledo gets lots of praises, and its fine , but I much prefer Salamanca.

With respect to choosing between Santander or San Sebastian I suspect many people would tell you to pick San Sebastian. I'm very partial to Santander because I've actually spent time there, and only one day (as a cruise stop) in San Sebastian. The city itself, SS is probably prettier. Santander had a big fire in the 1940's which unfortunately destroyed much of the old city.

Maybe look at some images of both and see which one "speaks" to you. While I was based in Santander I did daytrips to Picos de Europa which are beautiful.

Regarding driving all the way to Porto... I have read that if you get car in Spain and drop off in Portugal you incur big fees?

By the way, Porto is beautiful, I've spent a few days there and enjoyed it.

We just got back on Wednesday from the Basque country. We flew to Santander and drove to Bilbao, which is a surprisingly nice town, with the Guggenheim museum, of course, to stay with friends for a few days.

From there we drove down to Laguardia in the Rioja region. It is an amazing place and we loved it. The old walled town is quite small so you can see it all in half a day but you need to do a winery visit or two. We stayed at the Hotel Villa de Laguardia just a short walk outside the walls and it was very nice.

Now to your question: we spent a day in each of San Sebastian and Santander. I would definitely go for San Sebastian. It just felt like a much more fun place. (Nothing wrong with Santander, but it just lacked that vibe.) We walked up the high hill to Monte Urgell (the hill at the other end of town has a funicular but we never made it there). San Sebastian is renowned in Spain for its pintxos (said: pin - choss), which are the little snacks that line all the bars. You just pick what you want. They are pretty cheap, and so is the wine - generally 2 euros a glass in any bar or cafe.

By the way, if you have time, nearby San Sebastian is Hondarribia, which also has a sweet little old town. We stayed in the Parador there - it's a tenth-century castle and I couldn't help wonder how many people had slept there before us over the centuries!

Whichever way you decide to go, I am sure you will have a great time. Good luck.