Santander sits at the heart of Cantabria and makes an excellent base for exploring the region. The coast to the east and west holds fishing villages, dramatic cliffs, and some of the best beaches in northern Spain. Inland, the Picos de Europa mountains are within 90 minutes, offering serious walking country.
The caves at Altamira — the site of the most celebrated prehistoric paintings in the world, in the hills above Santillana del Mar — are about an hour's drive west. The original cave is closed to all but a handful of researchers, but the Neocueva replica is well done and sits next to a good prehistoric art museum. Santillana del Mar itself, a perfectly preserved medieval village that has resisted all modernisation, is worth half a day on the way.
Comillas, about 45 km west, is a small town of surprising architectural ambition — it has a Gaudí building (El Capricho), a neo-Gothic palace, and a Modernista cemetery, all within easy walking distance, commissioned by a local magnate who made a fortune in Cuba. The fishing town of Santoña, about 40 km east, is the source of Spain's finest canned anchovies and has a good fort and beach.
