THE reward of the easy climb up to the lighthouse on Cabo Mayor at the west end of Santander is a spectacular view over the whole bay.

Yellow beaches, blue sea and green promontories dotted with white limestone palaces make this one of the most beautiful bays in Spain.

The less energetic can take the 20-minute bus ride up to the lighthouse from the ferry terminal. However, people walk a lot in Santander. Not only because strolling is pleasant in this city of gardens, parks, shady avenues and long seafront promenades, but because, even in the dead of winter, it is almost impossible to find a parking place.

The white stone 167-year-old lighthouse itself is as elegant as the town it guards. From here, facing out to the Atlantic, the foothills of the snowy Picos de Europa are less than an hour’s drive away on your left, and the riches of Santander a short stroll down on your right.

Walk back along the cliff tops at the edge of the municipal golf course and you pass a deep square cove enclosed by sheer cliffs with steep flights of steps to reach the sand — bright gold here as everywhere in Cantabria, before the road drops down through the pine woods to El Sardinero. It may once have been home to a few sardine fishermen, but it has long since become an enclave of holiday villas for the rich. Running at about €6,000 (£4,100) a square metre, they make Santander Spain’s most expensive provincial capital.

Coming down to sea level and the beginning of the promenade, Avenida de la Reina Victoria (named after the Spanish queen who was Victoria’s granddaughter), you begin to appreciate the huge size of Santander’s eight beaches.

The whole bay faces south and is a draw for Spanish holidaymakers seeking to escape the fierce heat of summer. The blue and white Hotel Chiqui is right on the front. It has great views, although the Sardinero and Rhin hotels both give it a run for its money. The Belle Époque casino dominates the beach front. It is, like the Hotel Real, sitting proud as a dowager on a hilltop nearby, an emblem of an age of grandeur.

This promenade is also where locals like to warm up before a swim by playing palas. Custom is that beginners start at one end of the prom, then, as they improve, work their way up to the other end, where they might be invited to play this traditional ball game with the experts.

After walking past Playa de la Concha and Playa del Camello, you reach the Magdalena peninsula, where the park is a favourite place to walk, picnic or play. The king’s old polo ground is here, but Magdalena Palace is not open to the public, only to scholars who flock here once a year for Santander’s summer university, when the city likes to think it becomes the intellectual summer capital of Spain.

On the other side of Magdalena peninsula is a memorial to Juan de la Cosa, the first European to map the New World, and a son of Santander.

The great arch of the Bank of Santander, signals the start of the town proper. Beyond lie the ferry terminal and the working docks, a port full of big fishing vessels, and the historic centre of the city.

Santander is old and young

SANTANDER’S written history may only date from the 11th century, but it was a port in Roman times.

Because of the 1941 fire, much of the city’s centre is not as it old as it may look. The 13th-century cathedral, for example, was restored in the 1950s.

Santander’s history as a holiday town dates from 1847, when Queen Elizabeth visited a spa for seaweed baths to soothe her psoriasis. Health-conscious tourists followed in her wake.

In 190 the people of Santander decided to build a palace for the King and gave it and the whole Magdalena peninsula to Alfonso XIII. It was a shrewd move. His summer visits put the city on the map.

Renata Rubnikowicz

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