Santander curves around one of the great bays of northern Spain, its royal Magdalena Palace and grand seafront giving it a refined, salt-air character. Inland lies Santillana del Mar — famously "neither holy, flat, nor by the sea" — one of the best-preserved medieval villages in the country.
Nearby, the Altamira caves hold some of the world's finest prehistoric art, and Gaudí's El Capricho in Comillas adds a flourish of Modernisme to the Cantabrian coast.
