Bilbao – Santiago de Compostela
Bilbao → Santiago de Compostela
The Costa Verde Express traces a magnificent arc along Spain's Atlantic seaboard, linking the Basque cultural capital of Bilbao with the holy city of Santiago de Compostela in six days of unhurried, immersive travel. Rolling through four of Spain's greenest, most storied regions — the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia — this boutique luxury train carries just 48 passengers in 24 Gran Clase suites, creating an intimacy rarely found on rail journeys of such scope.
What makes this route extraordinary is the combination of dramatic coastal scenery, centuries-old medieval towns, world-class museums, and a gastronomic culture that rivals any in Europe. The train's vintage Pullman carriages, some dating to 1923 and lovingly restored, provide an elegant backdrop for meals prepared by an on-board chef, evenings of live music in the bar car, and days filled with guided excursions to the Guggenheim Bilbao, the Altamira neo-cave, the Cabrales cheese caves of the Picos de Europa foothills, and the pilgrimage streets of Santiago de Compostela.
Unlike a rushed coach tour or a point-to-point flight, the Costa Verde Express becomes a destination in itself. At night the train rests at station platforms so passengers sleep undisturbed, waking each morning to a new landscape and a fresh set of discoveries along one of Europe's most rewarding and least-touristed coastlines.
- ✦Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Basque cultural immersion on Day 1
- ✦Medieval Santillana del Mar and the Altamira Palaeolithic cave replica
- ✦Funicular ascent to the mountain village of Bulnes in the Picos de Europa
- ✦Cabrales cheese cave-museum and artisan knife workshops in Taramundi
- ✦Intimate 48-passenger Gran Clase suites aboard restored 1923 Pullman carriages
- ✦Galician gastronomy and a guided tour of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral
- ✦Four regions of Green Spain — Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia — in one journey
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Day 1 — Bilbao · Laredo · Santoña · Santander
The journey begins at 10:00 at Bilbao-Concordia station, a Modernista gem in the heart of the city. After a warm welcome from the crew and time to settle into your Gran Clase suite, a panoramic city tour takes in Bilbao's transformed riverfront before a visit to the iconic Guggenheim Museum Bilbao — Frank Gehry's titanium-clad masterwork and the catalyst for one of the most celebrated urban regenerations in European history. Lunch is served on board as the train moves east along the Bay of Biscay coast. A coach excursion brings guests to the picturesque beach town of Laredo, followed by a short boat ride across the estuary to Santoña, a fishing village renowned throughout Spain for its hand-packed anchovies; a visit to a traditional anchovy cannery reveals the artisanal craft behind this prized Cantabrian product. The train then continues west to Santander, Cantabria's elegant capital, for a panoramic city tour taking in the Magdalena Peninsula and the wide arc of El Sardinero beach. Dinner is enjoyed in a local restaurant, and the train overnights in Santander.
Day 2 — Santander · Santillana del Mar · Llanes
Breakfast is served on board as the train departs for Cabezón de la Sal, where coaches wait to transport guests to one of Spain's most perfectly preserved medieval towns. Santillana del Mar — famously described by Jean-Paul Sartre as the most beautiful village in Spain — is a cobbled ensemble of 15th- and 16th-century stone mansions and collegiate churches, entirely traffic-free and seemingly unchanged by the centuries. Nearby, the Altamira neo-cave offers a forensically accurate reproduction of the 14,000-year-old cave paintings discovered in 1879 — bison, horses, and deer rendered in ochre and charcoal with extraordinary naturalism. After lunch, the train continues into Asturias, arriving in the charming harbour town of Llanes. The evening is free to explore Llanes's medieval walls, its painted cube-shaped wave sculptures (the Cubos de la Memoria), and its seafront promenade. Dinner is served on board and the train overnights in Llanes.
Day 3 — Llanes · Arenas de Cabrales · Bulnes · Oviedo
After breakfast, coaches head inland into the foothills of the Picos de Europa, one of Spain's most dramatic mountain ranges and a national park of the first order. At Arenas de Cabrales, guests visit the celebrated Cabrales Cheese Cave-Museum, where the sharp, blue-veined Cabrales cheese — made from a blend of cow's, sheep's, and goat's milk — matures for months in natural limestone caves. From the nearby village of Poncebos, a funicular climbs to the isolated mountain hamlet of Bulnes, accessible only by this aerial link or on foot; the views over the gorges and snow-capped peaks are breathtaking. Lunch is served on board as the train travels west to Oviedo, the gracious capital of Asturias. A guided city tour covers the Pre-Romanesque churches of Monte Naranco (UNESCO World Heritage Sites), the Gothic Cathedral of San Salvador, and the lively Casco Antiguo. Dinner and overnight in Oviedo.
Day 4 — Oviedo · Gijón · Luarca
After breakfast, the morning is devoted to Gijón, Asturias's largest city and principal port. A guided visit explores the Roman baths of Campo Valdés, the ancient fishermen's quarter of Cimadevilla perched on a headland above the Cantabrian Sea, and the contemporary waterfront redevelopment. Free time allows guests to browse the local market or enjoy a glass of natural cider — poured in the local fashion from an elevated bottle — before lunch in the city. The train then continues along the coast to the compact fishing town of Luarca, one of Asturias's most photogenic ports, its white houses clustered around a serpentine estuary dotted with fishing boats and overlooked by a hilltop chapel. An evening stroll through the old town and harbour is followed by dinner on board and overnight in Luarca.
Day 5 — Luarca · Ribadeo · Taramundi · Viveiro
Breakfast on board as the train crosses the regional border into Galicia, arriving in Ribadeo — the gateway to a landscape of rias, eucalyptus forests, and ancient villages. Coaches head south into the Oscos region, a remote corner of western Asturias renowned for its craft traditions and ethnographic heritage. At Os Teixois, an exceptionally well-preserved 18th-century water-powered complex of mills, forges, and fulling machines brings pre-industrial rural life vividly to life. The neighbouring village of Taramundi is famous across Spain for its centuries-old tradition of bladed-tool craft; the knife museum traces the evolution of penknives from artisanal cottage industry to celebrated design object, and local workshops still produce hand-forged knives using traditional techniques. Lunch in Taramundi is followed by an afternoon return to the train and a coastal run to Viveiro, a delightful Galician town encircled by medieval walls and Gothic gateways. A visit and dinner in Viveiro conclude the evening, with the train overnighting here.
Day 6 — Viveiro · Ferrol · Santiago de Compostela
On the final morning, breakfast is served on board as the train makes its last run along the Galician coast to Ferrol, the historic naval city and birthplace of Francisco Franco. Here, passengers bid farewell to the crew and board coaches for the final transfer to Santiago de Compostela, the destination of millions of pilgrims over more than a thousand years and one of the great sacred cities of the Christian world. A guided tour of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela — begun in 1075 and completed over centuries in Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque styles — and the magnificent Praza do Obradoiro bring the journey to a deeply resonant conclusion. A farewell lunch is shared before guests disperse. The journey ends at approximately 16:30.
Destinations & Highlights
Bilbao
Bilbao is the largest city in the Basque Country and one of the most dynamic urban success stories in modern Europe. Once a grimy industrial port, it was transformed in the 1990s by a wave of bold architecture and cultural investment, most famously the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997), Frank Gehry's shimmering titanium landmark on the Nervión riverbank. The museum's permanent collection and temporary exhibitions rank among Spain's most visited cultural attractions. Beyond the Guggenheim, Bilbao rewards exploration: the Gothic quarter of Casco Viejo hides pintxos bars, the iron-arched Mercado de la Ribera, and the Catedral de Santiago; the elegant 19th-century Ensanche district showcases Beaux-Arts architecture; and the regenerated waterfront tells the story of a city that reinvented itself through culture.
Santander and Santillana del Mar
Cantabria's capital, Santander, sits on one of the finest natural harbours on the Bay of Biscay. Its Magdalena Peninsula — home to a royal summer palace — juts into the bay, and the long white crescent of El Sardinero beach defines the city's fashionable northern edge. Inland, Santillana del Mar is an almost perfectly preserved medieval ensemble, its cobbled lanes flanked by Renaissance stone palaces and the 12th-century Collegiate Church of Santa Juliana. Nearby, the Altamira caves represent one of humanity's earliest artistic achievements: Palaeolithic bison and horses painted some 14,000 years ago on limestone ceilings with a sophistication that stunned the 19th-century world; the adjacent neo-cave provides a faithful full-size replica for visitors.
The Picos de Europa and Asturian Interior
The Picos de Europa National Park rises abruptly from the Cantabrian coast to peaks exceeding 2,600 metres, creating a landscape of limestone gorges, glacial lakes, and alpine meadows. The park is famous for its Cabrales cheese, a legally protected blue cheese cured in natural mountain caves, and for the isolated village of Bulnes, reachable only by funicular since 2001. Asturias as a whole is a region of extraordinary Pre-Romanesque heritage: its 9th-century Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo churches, built for the court of King Ramiro I on a hillside above Oviedo, predate the Romanesque movement and are recognised by UNESCO as outstanding monuments of early medieval European architecture.
Oviedo and Gijón
Oviedo, Asturias's capital, is a refined university city of Gothic spires, baroque facades, and lively cider houses. Its compact historic centre rewards wandering: the Gothic Cathedral of San Salvador houses the Cámara Santa, a pre-Romanesque chapel containing some of Spain's finest Romanesque religious art. Gijón, an hour's drive away and Asturias's largest city, combines a Roman heritage (the excavated 1st-century baths of Campo Valdés), a vibrant fishing quarter in Cimadevilla, and a contemporary waterfront that anchors Asturias's maritime cultural life. Both cities are central to Asturian cider culture — the region produces the vast majority of Spain's natural cider, fermented from local apple varieties and poured with theatrical flair.
Galicia and Santiago de Compostela
Galicia, Spain's north-western corner, is a landscape of granite headlands, deep rias, and ancient pilgrimage roads. Santiago de Compostela stands at the culmination of the Camino de Santiago — the network of medieval pilgrim routes that converge on the tomb of the Apostle James in the city's magnificent Baroque cathedral. The Praza do Obradoiro, framed by the cathedral's twin bell towers, the Pazo de Raxoi, and the Hostal dos Reis Católicos (a 16th-century royal pilgrim hostel, now a parador), is one of the grandest public squares in Europe. The Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its granite lanes and covered arcades alive year-round with pilgrims, students, and visitors drawn by one of Christendom's most enduring spiritual destinations.