Northern Spain eats differently from the rest of the country, and the difference is visible from the train window: green hills, cider houses instead of sherry bars, and a coast where the harbour timetable still sets lunch. The route below runs from Oviedo to Vigo in six unhurried days, following the railway the whole way, and it is built around three markets and the meals you can build from them.
I have done it twice by train and once with a car, and the train version is better, because every town worth stopping in sits on the line and the coastal road spends most of its time in tunnels. You need six days, a light jacket whatever the month, and an appetite that peaks at one in the afternoon.
Getting there and moving along it
Oviedo and Vigo both have airports with seasonal connections, but most people arrive from Madrid: the train to Oviedo takes about two and a half hours, and from there the coastal services to Santander, Bilbao, San Sebastian and eventually Vigo connect with reasonable frequency.
- Day 1: Oviedo, the old town and the cathedral, dinner on asturian stew.
- Day 2: train to Santander, half a day at the market, afternoon on the peninsula.
- Day 3: Santander to Bilbao, the old town of Casco Viejo and pintxos.
- Day 4: Bilbao to San Sebastian by regional train, evening on the Parte Vieja.
- Day 5: San Sebastian to Vigo, the longest leg, so take the early service.
- Day 6: Vigo oyster market and the Cies islands if the weather holds.
The San Sebastian to Vigo leg is the awkward one: there is no fast direct service, so the realistic plan is a morning train towards Valladolid with a change, or a flight from Bilbao if you would rather not spend five hours travelling. Book the long legs two to three weeks ahead; the regional ones you can buy on the day.
When to go, and what is in season
Green Spain is the part of the country that rains, and it rains most in October and November. May to September gives you dry mornings, long evenings and the seafood at its fattest; July and August are busy on the coast but never crowded the way the Mediterranean gets. Winter is quiet, cold and excellent for the one dish that defines the season: the percebes, goose barnacles, that fishermen pull off the rocks in heavy seas and that appear on menus from December onwards.
Two calendars matter. The anchovy season in Santoña peaks in late spring, and the percebes run through the winter; the summer festivals, particularly Semana Grande in Bilbao, push hotel prices up by half for a single week.
Oviedo and Asturias: cider, stew and the market
Start in Oviedo because it is the cleanest introduction: a compact medieval centre, a cathedral with a cloister worth the entry, and a street of sidrerias where the cider is poured from a height rather than sipped. The local dish is fabada, a bean and chorizo stew heavy enough to be dinner alone, and it is best eaten at one in the afternoon rather than at night.
The market in Oviedo is where the rest of the route is previewed: cheeses from the Asturian mountains, strawberries from the west, and a fish counter that explains how much better the seafood gets as you travel west. Buy something to eat standing at the counter rather than carrying it around.
The Basque coast: ports, pintxos and the two cities
Santander and Bilbao are an hour apart by train and feel like different countries from the south. Santander is quieter, with a working harbour and a peninsula you can walk in an afternoon; Bilbao is louder, and the old town has more bars per square metre than anywhere else on the route.
In both cities, eat at counters rather than in dining rooms. The pintxo logic here is the same as in San Sebastian but the queues are shorter, and a plate of grilled squid or a few salt cod croquetas with a glass of txakoli costs 3 to 5 euros a piece. Have one proper sit-down meal in each city, ideally the grilled turbot, which is the fish this coast is judged on.
Galicia: the finish, and the oysters
Vigo is the right place to end because its market is the biggest on the route and it sits on the water. Arrive before eleven, watch the boats unload, then eat oysters and percebes at a stall on the quay with a glass of albarino: eight oysters and a bottle of water came to 18 euros on my last visit.
From Vigo you can take a boat to the Cies islands on a clear day, where the beach looks Caribbean and the water is about sixteen degrees. Book the boat in summer because the islands cap daily visitors; otherwise walk out to the harbour town and eat pulpo a la gallega, which arrives with paprika, coarse salt and olive oil on a wooden plate.
What to book before you leave home
Three reservations shape the trip: the first night in San Sebastian if you travel in August, the boat to the Cies in July, and one table for turbot in Bilbao on a weekend. Everything else in between is a regional train ticket you can buy on the morning, and a market you can reach on foot from wherever you sleep.
If you only have four days, cut Santander and go straight from Oviedo to Bilbao, then fly out of Vigo. The seafood does not get worse by skipping it; it just means fewer markets and one longer train.
Practical notes before you book
Two details decide whether this route feels relaxed. The first is the direction: run it west to east only if you are flying out of Bilbao, because the light on the water is better behind you in the afternoon and the last leg eastbound arrives in time for dinner. The second is how many nights you give each stop. Two in San Sebastian and two in Vigo, with single nights between, is the version I would repeat; three nights in Bilbao and one everywhere else turns it into a series of hotel check-outs.
Bring a light rain jacket in any month, because this is the wet side of the peninsula and showers arrive between one and three without much warning. Cash is useful in the smaller harbours where card minimums are high, and a reusable transport card covers the suburban trains that link the towns once you are there.