Thinking about a family holiday. Ferry to Santander. Camp site job. Take our own car. Beaches for kids, mountains for me. Anybody been/done something similar?
Ta.

Only been there for free Mountain Biking holiday after i won a competition on Bikemagic years ago.

Beautiful area with some great riding if you get the chance. No ideas about how suitable it is for a family though, sorry.

Couple of us went there on the motorbikes June / July 2010.
Weather is unpredictable – drizzle for 3 days then glorious sunshine.
Scenery is stunning, people are friendly but don’t speak much English, so learn a bit of pigeon Sapnish and you will get by.
Traditional food can be quite salty. We didn’t do any beach stuff because of the weather, inland lakes were lovely.
After the Picos we rode to Biarritz and stayed ina lovely hotel – couple of nights in Biarritz then a days ride up into the Pyrennesse, stayed near Ordessa national park – amazing location. Had 5 nights there, thena day ride back to santander for the ferry.

Fantastic surf around there too.

Cycle toured round there in Sept 2010.

Brilliant camping at Comillas, lovely beach, big waves and great food in the market square.

OK camping in Poo (seriously) but limited food options.

Good camping at Cangas de Onis, near the entrance to mountain road (signed the lakes) which takes you up 1200m to good biking.

Good camping at Fuente De, bottom of cable car for family fun at 1800m. First gondola of the day takes bikes. Epic descent back down to bottom.

Get well west of Santander and you can’t go wrong.

They don’t do vegetables if that bothers you.

Essential reading…..

http://cantabriaenbici.es/index-en.html

Spent about 3 weeks there in 2002 doing some walking, climbing and mountaineering with a mate and we were based in a pension in Potes. Went back for a week in 2008ish with the mrs and stayed just outside Potes in a cottage.

There is/was a really nice campsite nearby which would be worth checking out.

Great place with loads to do if your family is outdoorsy and active, not great if you’re planning on dumping the wife and kids and letting them make their own entertainment whilst you hit the hills. Lots of 4×4 / quad safari places, canoing down the river trips etc etc – easy to spend a lot of money! The Fuenta De cable car is about 30 mins drive away.

You def need a car to get around as the public transpot is/was erratic, the first time we hitched everywhere and the 2nd we hired a car from Santander airport.

Timely post tbh, I’d just started thinking of going back a 3rd time!