Spain's north coast: Bilbao to Santiago

Costa Verde ExpressFive nights on a heritage train, days off it

Costa Verde Express links Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela along Spain's northern coast, running one way or the other. Five nights are spent on a heritage train with period cabins, and the days are fixed excursions into old towns and coastal stops. Local restaurants and the on-board menu carry the region's seafood, cheese and cider.

It usually connects Bilbao with Santiago de Compostela, with the direction set by the departure. It also pairs well with Basque food travel or northern Portugal on a longer route.

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PlaceNorthern Spain

TypeSleeper train

SuitsFood and old-town travellers

Stay6 days

Off the train by day, stopped at a station by night

Spain's north coast: Bilbao to Santiago — Boutique sleeper train.

The train covers the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia in a relatively short number of days. Coast, mountains and old towns open up one after another, and the bed stays yours for the whole run instead of moving with you from hotel to hotel.

The days follow a fixed programme and the train usually stands still overnight. If you want to know northern Spain and then add a stretch of independent city time, build the trip around these six days and leave the freedom for the days before and after.

It is for travellers interested in northern Spain, its food and its old towns, who want the coast covered in six days. The cabins are built to a heritage scale, and the fixed daily excursions mean this is not a trip for people who want every hour free.

The green front of a train standing at a platform, station roof overhead, few people about. — A green locomotive waiting at a platform

A dining car lit by warm shaded lamps, tables laid with glass and cloth, evening outside the windows. — The dining car under warm lamps at night

A row of dining tables facing each other across a carriage, chairs pulled in, daylight from the windows.

Four regions on one line

The Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia follow one another on a single route. Bays, mountains and towns hand over from one stretch of track to the next, and because the train moves in daylight you watch the change rather than wake up past it.

A train passing tight beneath an overhanging rock wall, vegetation clinging to the stone above.

Days ashore, nights standing still

The train stops overnight instead of running through the dark, so you are not paying for scenery you sleep through, and the cabin stays quiet. Each day has its own meeting time for the excursion, which suits travellers who are happy to move with a group rather than alone.

A white train running through green fields, hedges and a low ridge of hills behind it.

The coast on the table

Restaurants along the route and the menu on board both work with seafood, cheese and cider from the north. The dining car is part of the itinerary rather than a fallback. Cabins are heritage-sized, so look at the sleeping space and the washing arrangements before you choose.

Interior of a wood-panelled dining car with green upholstered seats and white tablecloths.

Route

Two nights in Bilbao, then the coast

Stay two nights in Bilbao before boarding, and continue from Santiago into Galicia or Portugal afterwards. A night at each end makes the meeting point easy, and it leaves room for the food streets of Bilbao or a few days of road beyond Santiago.

Six days, five nights, two cities at the ends

The standard run is six days and five nights, so the nights you add at each end are what turn it into a northern Spain trip.

Stay

The standard itinerary runs six days and five nights. Add a night at each end city and it becomes a complete northern Spain route.

Getting there

You meet at a set point in Bilbao or Santiago. Arriving the night before in the departure city is the safer arrangement.

Season

It runs mainly from spring to autumn, and the coastal weather can change quickly even inside a single day. Pack for both.

Watch out

Cabins are built to a heritage scale, and the daily excursions are fixed, so this is not a trip for a completely free-form schedule.

Plan this into a journey

Tell us which direction suits your route and how long you have in Bilbao, and we will set the nights around the six-day run.

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