Cheap Travels

Santander to Santillana del Mar

Distance Covered: 23.6 miles / 38 km

This mostly urban section of the Camino starts in the city of Santander and ends in the historic medieval town of Santillana del Mar. Predominantly following fairly flat city roads, this day of hiking was probably one of my longest, if not the single longest day on my pilgrimage.

While there are other cities to stop at along this route, I had read about this particular town and wanted to spend the next morning exploring it. Though there were a lot of miles along sidewalks, and it rained for most of the day, I think it was worth it to make it to the albergue that I ended up staying at.

If this is the first article you’re reading, take a look at my post covering the basics about hiking the Camino de Santiago, or this post on hiking the Camino on your own.

Setting out from Santander

After sleeping in the moldy, overpriced albergue público in Santander, I was happily out on the road by 7:30. I did not want to spend any extra time in that albergue. I followed the yellow arrows out of the city, only stopping quickly for breakfast, and did my best to cover as many miles as possible as early as I could.

I knew from the start that this would be a long day, and it was definitely a morning to put the headphones in and log some miles.

Much of the hiking was along roads like the one pictured above, following city sidewalks. I bumped into two pilgrims I had met the day before at the albergue in Güemes, and I would eventually end up hiking several miles with them. After walking together for a long stretch, I also ended up in the same dorm room with one of them at the albergue.

After getting past the outskirts of the city, the walking was much more leisurely as traffic slowed down and the buildings grew a little further apart.

A lot of this day was spent walking on asphalt, and it rained pretty steadily, which meant my camera was mostly hidden away inside its waterproof bag. Generally speaking, days following a stay in a larger city have a lot of road sections, which you just have to deal with. While it wasn’t particularly beautiful, the way was well-marked, and it was a good opportunity to listen to a podcast or get caught up in a conversation with some fellow pilgrims.

While it’s nice to talk to pass the time, getting stuck walking at someone else’s pace sometimes means that it’s harder to stop to take a photo or explore around interesting buildings. Striking that balance is one of the difficulties of hiking the Camino as a solo traveler, but it also affords you the luxury of telling them, “Go on ahead; I’ll catch up with you later.”

Though most of the hike was paved, there were of course a few sections with dirt roads and quaint country houses with gardens out back.

Much of the scenery, however, was urban infrastructure, like this chemical plant outside Torrelavega. In walking across a country, you inadvertently learn a lot more about their infrastructure than you would expect. After walking on my own for a while, I bumped into the two pilgrims I had eaten breakfast with that morning, and we walked together through the rain for the last 10 km of the hike to Santillana.

Arriving in Santillana del Mar

At the end of a long day mostly spent following sidewalks between cities, I was glad to have made it to this historic town. Santillana del Mar is sometimes referred to as The Town of Three Lies, since it is not named for a saint (Santo), it is not flat (llana), nor is it on the sea (mar). Despite all of this, it has a historic city center with several well-preserved buildings from the 14th to 18th centuries.

Aside from its many historic buildings, this town is also well known for its proximity to the Altamira cave. The cave features prehistoric cave art from the Upper Paleolithic era. The actual cave paintings have been closed to visitors since 2002 in order to protect them, but there is a museum near the cave that delves into the history and archeology of these roughly 36,000-year-old paintings.

Albergue de peregrinos in Santillana del Mar

The pilgrim albergue in Santillana del Mar is housed in a beautiful building that is a repurposed Catholic convent. The building actually reminded me a lot of the converted convent that I lived in for about six months in San Sebastián, in the Basque Country.

Once I had checked in and taken a long, warm shower, I wandered into town and got a burger with an egg on top. I honestly can’t remember if this is an unusual combo in the U.S. or not, but it’s a fairly standard option in Spain. After walking nearly 40km, I just wanted as many calories as I could eat, and it was one of the best burgers I had ever tasted.

Making my way back to the albergue my feet were a little sore, but my stomach was full, and I was very content with my decision. The plan for the next day was to explore the old town a bit more and then head towards the next town on the Camino route, Comillas, where I planned to take a rest day.

Final thoughts

Though the hiking this day was not particularly exciting, making it to the historic town was worth the effort. Particularly if you are hiking the Camino with another pilgrim, the albergue here has several two-bed dorms, which could make for a very inexpensive private room for a couple.

The albergue reminded me of the hostel I worked at in San Sebastián as a bilingual receptionist in exchange for housing and definitely brought back some good old memories. If you’re interested in that sort of work exchange, check out my article that covers some other similar work and volunteering options. While I was working there, I was also teaching English, but most other volunteers were more focused on surfing or partying, just to be clear. If you happen to be bilingual, there are tons of work exchanges like this in tourist towns around the world.

Overall, this was a long, rainy day that didn’t have any particularly memorable climbs or views. I poked around the medieval town a bit but planned to explore more of it the next morning before continuing on my hike. I sort of regretted not taking a rest day here and visiting the Altamira site, but I figured I would carry on with my Camino to buy myself more time later in the trip, in case anything unexpected happened.

Let me know down in the comments if you have been to the Altamira cave and if it was worth the detour!

And as always, ¡Buen Camino!

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