Walking from Santander on the coast

[Flory]

It is final. I am flying to Santander on the 20 september to walk my second part of the camino norte. So glad it finally is certain

Im hoping to walk from Santander not on the camino but on the coast. I want to walk somewere between 20 and 25 km for this first day. I'm hoping to get a place to stay a little on the route so i can skip the first beach in Santander.

I have trouble findiing.a room or bed. Bookings has no vacancys. Were must I look for sleeping, walking this distance and has someone tips were to stay?

 

[trecile]

Im hoping to walk from Santander not on the camino but on the coast. I want to walk somewere between 20 and 25 km for this first day. I'm hoping to get a place to stay a little on the route so i can skip the first beach in Santander.

I have trouble findiing.a room or bed. Bookings has no vacancys. Were must I look for sleeping, walking this distance and has someone tips were to stay?

I'm hoping to walk along the coast after Santander too.
This blog has some good information:

Camino del Norte, Santander to Soto de La Marina 21 km

So today we start with the coastal option from Santander. The track that I have downloaded directs us along a busy road mostly right next to the coastline. However we opted to take a slightly more …

magwood.me

Also this thread by @peregrina2000

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/my-stages-on-the-norte-2017-one-year-late.55828/

 

[tjz]

We just returned Saturday from walking a section of the Norte. There were not a lot of options for us in March, so we opted to stay in the most eastward easily bookable hotel in Santander (Hotel Chiqui), started early, and walked from there along the coast and stayed in Boo de Piélagos (Albergue Piedad). The hotel was a little pricy compared to an albergue, but the albergue in Boo is pretty reasonable. It made for a 30.5km / 668 meter climbing day, but the next day we went for a comparatively easy distance to Santillana del Mar and it was only 20.8km.

That walk along the coast east and north of Santander was very special. I would consider it even if you have to push your usual distance limits. None of the climbs were particularly onerous by Norte standards, though there was cumulatively a fair amount of up and down. Of all the pilgrims we met along the way, those that took the long way out from Santander all recommended it.

 

[wynrich]

It is final. I am flying to Santander on the 20 september to walk my second part of the camino norte. So glad it finally is certain

Im hoping to walk from Santander not on the camino but on the coast. I want to walk somewere between 20 and 25 km for this first day. I'm hoping to get a place to stay a little on the route so i can skip the first beach in Santander.

I have trouble findiing.a room or bed. Bookings has no vacancys. Were must I look for sleeping, walking this distance and has someone tips were to stay?

Not sure about exactly this spot but we've had good luck many places going to Google maps and looking for hotels (zoom in and out and they will appear/disappear) and also on airbnb. You might already have tried those options but since you only mentioned booking, I wanted to mention those options for finding places to stay.

 

[Wandalina]

It is final. I am flying to Santander on the 20 september to walk my second part of the camino norte. So glad it finally is certain

Im hoping to walk from Santander not on the camino but on the coast. I want to walk somewere between 20 and 25 km for this first day. I'm hoping to get a place to stay a little on the route so i can skip the first beach in Santander.

I have trouble findiing.a room or bed. Bookings has no vacancys. Were must I look for sleeping, walking this distance and has someone tips were to stay?

Flory definitely do it! It's stunning maybe the most stunning 2 days of the Norte and everyone misses it! I did it alone in september was a bit nervous starting out but it was fine. I started on a sunday so there were plenty of lovely locals to give me directions although you just keep hugging the coast its simple enough. The more you walk on the better it gets.

It can be quite exposed at times so if the weather was bad it might not be so safe. I stayed the first night in san juan de la canal found this hotel outside town think its costa san juan has a campsite at the back and little cabins at back very affordable, friendly people. Seems to be a locals spot so it was fun being a solo pilgrim hanging out with Spanish families, police officers and road workers

Second day is even more beautiful you wont believe it. I made it to boo de piegalos. Last part you end up in some sort of national park it did seem a bit isolated. Once you hit the car park head out on the asphalt road. Its a bit of a stretch to make it to the main road then it's right i think to boo. Its signposted. I wouldn't have wanted to do that section in national park ans road at night so just to keep that in mind.

One thing ill say is that you don't encounter many or any shops so have some lunch in your bag for each day and water. There is a cafe on the first day for food at the lighthouse and also a little town with restaurants but there were big distances with nothing so best to carry something and you can plant yourself down in a beautiful spot and have an epic picnic

Definitely do it you wont reget it.

 

[wynrich]

Flory definitely do it! It's stunning maybe the most stunning 2 days of the Norte and everyone misses it! I did it alone in september was a bit nervous starting out but it was fine. I started on a sunday so there were plenty of lovely locals to give me directions although you just keep hugging the coast its simple enough. The more you walk on the better it gets.

It can be quite exposed at times so if the weather was bad it might not be so safe. I stayed the first night in san juan de la canal found this hotel outside town think its costa san juan has a campsite at the back and little cabins at back very affordable, friendly people. Seems to be a locals spot so it was fun being a solo pilgrim hanging out with Spanish families, police officers and road workers

Second day is even more beautiful you wont believe it. I made it to boo de piegalos. Last part you end up in some sort of national park it did seem a bit isolated. Once you hit the car park head out on the asphalt road. Its a bit of a stretch to make it to the main road then it's right i think to boo. Its signposted. I wouldn't have wanted to do that section in national park ans road at night so just to keep that in mind.

One thing ill say is that you don't encounter many or any shops so have some lunch in your bag for each day and water. There is a cafe on the first day for food at the lighthouse and also a little town with restaurants but there were big distances with nothing so best to carry something and you can plant yourself down in a beautiful spot and have an epic picnic

Definitely do it you wont reget it.

Agree. The walk into Santander along the coast is spectacular. It amazes me that it is not the main way to go but is somewhat of an alternate route.

 

[CatPhillips]

Could someone tell me how I can download the gps tracks for the coastal route out of Santander?

Thanks a bunch.

Cat

 

[Wandalina]

Could someone tell me how I can download the gps tracks for the coastal route out of Santander?

Thanks a bunch.

Cat

You could try wikiloc app. I don't think its necessary. There is just one little trail you really can't loose it

 

[trecile]

The Mapy.cz app shows the senda del litoral along the coast after Santander.

Mapy.cz: maps & navigation - Apps on Google Play

Your guide to hiking, cycling, skiing and ski alps, by car and public transport

play.google.com

‎Mapy.cz: maps & navigation

‎PLAN YOUR ROUTE - hiking and cycling trails - cross-country skiing and ski-alpine trails - unique “travel tips” feature plans a trip through the most interesting places in the area - route elevation profile - 5-day weather, temperature, wind and precipitation forecasts for any location on...

apps.apple.com

 

[Luka]

Could someone tell me how I can download the gps tracks for the coastal route out of Santander?

Thanks a bunch.

Cat

I have put my stages on Wikiloc. You can find them here:

Santander - Boo Camino del Norte along the coast (part one)

Ruta Santander - Boo Camino del Norte along the coast (part one) de Senderismo en Santander, Cantabria (España). Descarga el track GPS y sigue el recorrido del itinerario del sendero desde un mapa. This is a much longer, but also much more interesting alternative to the asphalt of the Camino de...

es.wikiloc.com

Santander - Boo Camino del Norte along the coast (part two)

Ruta Santander - Boo Camino del Norte along the coast (part two) de Senderismo en Soto de la Marina, Cantabria (España). Descarga el track GPS y sigue el recorrido del itinerario del sendero desde un mapa. This is a much longer, but also much more interesting alternative to the asphalt of the...

es.wikiloc.com

 

[CatPhillips]

Thanks so much!

 

[Aayer]

How long has this been taking people from Santander to Boo for kinda fast walkers?

 

[peregrina2000]

How long has this been taking people from Santander to Boo for kinda fast walkers?

It depends on who falls into your definition of “kinda fast.” I walked it at age 67 and remember walking into the albergue in Boo late in the day, probably around 4 pm. I had left Santander early, surely before 7. I am a good walker but not a super athlete.

I think that it was not the difficulty of the trail that took so much time, it was the beauty of the coastline that kept making me stop and marvel! It is really beautiful.

You can see this random wikiloc set of tracks. There is virtually no ascent, and the trail is a good one. These tracks were recorded this month, so I would trust them as being up to date.

Santander - Boo de Piélagos

Santander - Boo de Piélagos Hiking trail in El Sardinero, Cantabria (España). Download its GPS track and follow the route on a map. Record your own itinerary from the Wikiloc app, upload the trail and share it with the community.

www.wikiloc.com

 

[Flory]

I have made a plan that i think will work for me. I have booked the nearest afourdable hostel near the lighthouse. I also booked a hotel in Liencres. That will be a walk of about 24 km i think. It is my first day walking so that is far enough and gives me plenty of time to enjoy the walk. The next day i will walk to santillana del mar.

 

[trecile]

I have made a plan that i think will work for me. I have booked the nearest afourdable hostel near the lighthouse. I also booked a hotel in Liencres. That will be a walk of about 24 km i think. It is my first day walking so that is far enough and gives me plenty of time to enjoy the walk. The next day i will walk to santillana del mar.

I walked from Santander to Liencres, then Liencres to Santillana del Mar at the beginning of June.

Here are my posts on various threads at the time

Bumping this old thread to find out if this information is now in @Dave's book. I'm currently in Liencres - farther along than Soto de la Marina, and trying to decide what to do tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I'm here on a Saturday and it appeared that Hotel Costa San Juan had a two night minimum on the weekend. I'm staying at Hotel Calas de Liencres in Liencres, which I got on booking.com for 54€ for a double room. I booked it last minute, so that didn't seem too bad for a weekend price. And I was supposed to have a ground floor room, but they upgraded me to the 2nd floor.

A few pics from today's walk.



View attachment 148522

I'm in Santillana del Mar now and my Wikiloc track says 18.12 km from the station at Mogro. I took the advice of @Dave on another thread and walked the old Camino route which saved some kms. My total distance from my starting point in Liencres was about 27.5 km, about the same as yesterday's walk on the coast from Santander, but it took me a couple of hours less as yesterday's trail was very rocky and I didn't stop as often to take pictures. If you go the coast route do take into account that there are many places where you will want to spend time taking in the view, so it will likely make your day longer.

Here's some pictures before I turned inland this morning.

View attachment 148635

I started from the ferry port. If I were to do it again I would try to stay close to the lighthouse to save some kms on the walk. I tracked my walk with Wikiloc and these are my stats for the first day to Liencres.



I had wanted to stay in Soto de la Marina because that's where others who posted in this thread stayed, but I only booked the day before and other than a 88€ hotel everything was booked, or required a two night minimum. That's why I ended up in Liencres. Now looking back I'm glad that I did get farther because it kept the walk to Santillana del Mar shorter. The hotel I stayed at was Calas de Liencres which was 54€. I thought that wasn't bad for a last minute booking for a Saturday night

 

[Aayer]

It depends on who falls into your definition of “kinda fast.” I walked it at age 67 and remember walking into the albergue in Boo late in the day, probably around 4 pm. I had left Santander early, surely before 7. I am a good walker but not a super athlete.

I think that it was not the difficulty of the trail that took so much time, it was the beauty of the coastline that kept making me stop and marvel! It is really beautiful.

You can see this random wikiloc set of tracks. There is virtually no ascent, and the trail is a good one. These tracks were recorded this month, so I would trust them as being up to date.

Santander - Boo de Piélagos

Santander - Boo de Piélagos Hiking trail in El Sardinero, Cantabria (España). Download its GPS track and follow the route on a map. Record your own itinerary from the Wikiloc app, upload the trail and share it with the community.

www.wikiloc.com

Thanks so much!!

 

[trecile]

It depends on who falls into your definition of “kinda fast.” I walked it at age 67 and remember walking into the albergue in Boo late in the day, probably around 4 pm. I had left Santander early, surely before 7. I am a good walker but not a super athlete

And I reached Liencres around 4 pm starting around 7am from my hostel at the train station. Lots of my time was taken up by admiring and taking pictures of the scenery - which is the reason why I wanted to go this way!

 

[tjz]

This Spring it took us 8:43 starting from the furthest we could stay east of Santander (Hotel Chiqui) until we got to the albergue in Boo. Distance was 30.5km but altitude gain was only 668m for all that distance. We are of the middling pace variety, but as others have mentioned, we spent a healthy amount of time just admiring the view along the way. When you have lunchtime views like this, somehow, you don't seem to be in much of a hurry to get along. It's a wonderful walk!

 

[peregrina2000]

altitude gain was only 668m for all that distance.

That surprised me, because I’ve just gotten back from a camino with a fair number of days with those kinds of totals and they seemed much more strenuous to me than what I remember on the Santander coast. I know that elevation measuring is notoriously unreliable, but the wikiloc tracks I’ve posted put the total at less than half what you report. Who knows.

Maybe a more useful way to consider it, since we know there‘s such wide variation among devices, would be to look at the wikiloc elevation profile. There is a lot of “up and down”, but the biggest ascent is less than a hundred meters, and the trail ranges from 3 m above sea level to 96 m above sea level. I think that this kind of elevation gain and loss would not present a big challenge to a good walker.

 

[tjz]

That surprised me, because I’ve just gotten back from a camino with a fair number of days with those kinds of totals and they seemed much more strenuous to me than what I remember on the Santander coast. I know that elevation measuring is notoriously unreliable, but the wikiloc tracks I’ve posted put the total at less than half what you report. Who knows.

Maybe a more useful way to consider it, since we know there‘s such wide variation among devices, would be to look at the wikiloc elevation profile. There is a lot of “up and down”, but the biggest ascent is less than a hundred meters, and the trail ranges from 3 m above sea level to 96 m above sea level. I think that this kind of elevation gain and loss would not present a big challenge to a good walker.

You got me thinking about that. I took a look again at my Garmin tracks and compared to the elevation profile. I'm not sure we necessarily took the "usual" route at the end between Liencres and Boo. I'm looking at that hook out towards the coast again at miles 15-17.5 where there's a fair amount of up/down on the elevation profile. Looking at the route in Wise Pilgrim it looks like somehow we got misdirected from the coast and took a shorter but more difficult way, perhaps. I have vague memories of talking with a former peregrina from Australia who lived there now and I think we may have gotten confused. It's all good, though.

Either way, I don't remember any of the climbs being particularly difficult, at least by Norte standards. We showed up in Boo late afternoon, but had reservations and were not rushed. We were served a fabulous and hearty meal right there at the albergue and swapped stories with others who took the long way that day too. One of my favorite Camino days and evenings.

 

[Flory]

I walked from Santander to Liencres, then Liencres to Santillana del Mar at the beginning of June.

Here are my posts on various threads at the time

Thank you. Your advice was very informative for my planning.
Which route they you take out of Liences to boo? Did you walk back to the regulair group our did you walk another path?

 

[trecile]

Thank you. Your advice was very informative for my planning.
Which route they you take out of Liences to boo? Did you walk back to the regulair group our did you walk another path?

I pretty much followed the red route in the Wise Pilgrim Norte app.



Here's my actual Wikiloc tracks. (I forgot to turn it off when I got on the train from Boo to Mogro)

 

[peregrina2000]

Looking at the route in Wise Pilgrim it looks like somehow we got misdirected from the coast and took a shorter but more difficult way, perhaps. I have vague memories of talking with a former peregrina from Australia who lived there now and I think we may have gotten confused. It's all good, though.

Either way, I don't remember any of the climbs being particularly difficult, at least by Norte standards. We showed up in Boo late afternoon, but had reservations and were not rushed. We were served a fabulous and hearty meal right there at the albergue and swapped stories with others who took the long way that day too. One of my favorite Camino days and evenings.

That’s one of the beauties of these off-Camino alternatives, imho. All the tracks take you to the same destination, but there are of course lots of different ways to get there, especially when you’re walking on a beautiful coast where lots of people go hiking!

Totally agree with you about the beauty — I have never heard a complaint from anyone who got off the Camino in Sntander, especially since the Camino route from there is one of the least attractive days on the whole Norte, at least in my opinion.

 

[trecile]

I also found the mapy.cz app very helpful when navigating non Camino alternatives.

 

[1Rach]

It is final. I am flying to Santander on the 20 september to walk my second part of the camino norte. So glad it finally is certain

Im hoping to walk from Santander not on the camino but on the coast. I want to walk somewere between 20 and 25 km for this first day. I'm hoping to get a place to stay a little on the route so i can skip the first beach in Santander.

I have trouble findiing.a room or bed. Bookings has no vacancys. Were must I look for sleeping, walking this distance and has someone tips were to stay?

Hi Flory, it’s great to read your post - I’m also flying in to begin my camino from Santander on 20th Sep and hoping to take the most coastal route too! Great to know I won’t be totally alone and really appreciating all the info below. Rachel

 

[Flory]

Hi Flory, it’s great to read your post - I’m also flying in to begin my camino from Santander on 20th Sep and hoping to take the most coastal route too! Great to know I won’t be totally alone and really appreciating all the info below. Rachel

Hi. I hope you have a lovely walk. I had to change my flight. I know will be landing on the 21 september so i will walk one day behind you. I will walk to Liences were i booked a room.

Buen Camino.

 

[Flory]

Haha i am stil sleepy. I walk on the 22 september and land in the afternoon of the 21 in september.

So two days behind but maybee i see you on the road. That would be fun.

 

[poogeyejr]

It is final. I am flying to Santander on the 20 september to walk my second part of the camino norte. So glad it finally is certain

I have trouble findiing.a room or bed. Bookings has no vacancys. Were must I look for sleeping, walking this distance and has someone tips were to stay?

Posada la Victoria is a great BnB on the route, ended up there the first time I did the Norte and I have gone back 4 times since. Family owned and gorgeous. They speak Spanish but work with google translate.

 

[poogeyejr]

Have a great Camino - I know you are in your final count down . . . Buen Camino

 

[Flory]

Yeaah I did it. 21.1 km. In just unther 7 hours. The wether was very challeging. Very strong seawind and until noon a lot of rain some realy heavy rain. Some rain came even horizontal.

But it was beautiful so worth it. Stunning. If you have the time go for this road.

I do have 3 advices:
1. The road is not marked and in places gone. There are a lot of paths leading al over the place. You do need a good map or app.
2. Walking sticks especially in wind and rain they will save you.
3. Have enough time. You will take a ziljoin fotos even in the rain. So beatiful.