San Sebastián to Santiago de Compostela

El Transcantábrico Gran Lujo is Spain's most celebrated luxury train, and its eight-day journey from San Sebastián to Santiago de Compostela is the definitive way to discover the lush, rain-kissed coast the Spanish call España Verde — Green Spain. Beginning in the Basque Country's gastronomic capital and boarding in Bilbao, the narrow-gauge train arcs westward through Cantabria and Asturias before crossing into ancient Galicia, delivering guests to the steps of one of the world's great pilgrimage cathedrals.

Carrying just 28 passengers, the train is deliberately intimate. Suites are decorated in warm wood panelling and fitted with a private lounge, double or twin beds, and a hydro-sauna shower room; a panoramic lounge car, two dining cars, and a nightly entertainment bar car complete the consist. All meals featuring regional wines and local cuisine, all guided excursions, all museum admissions, and all coach transfers are included — this is a hotel that moves while you sleep.

Over seven nights the journey visits a mosaic of landscapes and cultures: Basque pintxos bars and Gehry's titanium Guggenheim; the bay of Santander and the seaside town of Comillas; two days in and around the Picos de Europa; medieval Santillana del Mar and the clifftop fishing towns of the Asturian coast; the estuary town of Ribadeo and the walled port of Viveiro — and finally, after a coach transfer from Ferrol, the Plaza del Obradoiro in Santiago de Compostela, where the journey reaches its magnificent, emotion-charged conclusion.

San Sebastián (Donostia)

Set between two mountains and two beaches at the mouth of the Urumea River, San Sebastián is the undisputed culinary capital of Europe by many measures — it has more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else on earth. The Basque Parte Vieja (Old Quarter) is a labyrinth of narrow streets lined with bar counters heaped with pintxos, while the Belle Époque promenade of La Concha curves around one of the most beautiful urban beaches in the world. The city's cultural calendar is anchored by the San Sebastián International Film Festival each September.

Bilbao and the Guggenheim

The largest city in the Basque Country transformed itself from a declining steel and shipbuilding port into a vibrant cultural destination after the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened in 1997. Frank Gehry's titanium-clad building — described by architect Philip Johnson as "the greatest building of our time" — houses masterworks by Richard Serra, Jeff Koons, and Mark Rothko. The surrounding Abandoibarra waterfront district has been rebuilt around the museum, and Bilbao's restaurant scene now rivals San Sebastián's for ambition.

Cantabria: Santander, Potes, Comillas, and Santillana del Mar

Cantabria packs an extraordinary range into a small territory. Santander is an elegant bay city with a royal beach and grand promenade. Inland, the Liébana valley on the edge of the Picos de Europa shelters the medieval market town of Potes and the monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana — custodian of a relic believed to be the largest fragment of the True Cross in existence. On the coast, Comillas is a small town of palaces and modernista architecture, and Santillana del Mar is a perfectly preserved medieval village that Jean-Paul Sartre called "the most beautiful village in Spain."

Asturias: Oviedo, Gijón, and the Picos de Europa

The Principality of Asturias is Spain's greenest and most topographically dramatic region. Oviedo's pre-Romanesque monuments — including Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo on Monte Naranco — date from the 9th-century Kingdom of Asturias and are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Picos de Europa, shared between Asturias, Cantabria, and León, is one of Europe's finest mountain wilderness areas, home to wolves, brown bears, and chamois, and threaded by some of Spain's most spectacular gorge hikes. Along the coast, fishing towns like Llanes and Luarca preserve a way of life almost unchanged since the 19th century.

Galicia: Ribadeo, Viveiro, and Santiago de Compostela

Galicia has more in common culturally with Celtic Ireland and Brittany than with southern Spain — it has its own language (galego), its own bagpipes (gaita), and a wet, verdant Atlantic landscape of deep sea inlets (rías). Ribadeo, on the estuary of the Río Eo, is a graceful town of indiano mansions and modernist architecture. Santiago de Compostela, the destination of pilgrims since the 9th century, is anchored by its monumental cathedral said to contain the tomb of St James the Apostle. The entire historic centre — including the Parador de los Reyes Católicos, the Hostal dos Reis Católicos, and the surrounding plazas — is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Arriving here at the end of a week by luxury train, like arriving on foot along the Camino, carries a weight of history and ceremony that few travel experiences can match.