The food of Cantabria: what your group will actually eat

Nobody plans a week in northern Spain around the food, and then everybody goes home talking about it.

The mountain table

Cocido montanes is the valley's signature: white beans, greens and a parade of pork, engineered for post-walk appetites. Local cheeses (the quesucos, and blue Picon for the brave), village bread, and beef from the Tudanca cattle you met on the trail.

The coast, forty minutes away

San Vicente de la Barquera lands fish and shellfish daily; groups do at least one harbour lunch of rabas, grilled catch and Albarino-ish local whites. It is the meal where the week's photos get relived.

Breakfast warnings

Sobaos (butter sponge) and quesada (baked milk pudding) appear at breakfast and disappear immediately. Plan quantities accordingly.

Who does the cooking

No rota, no market run, no hired cook: the house does the lot. Breakfast, a light lunch and a home-cooked dinner, every day, with vegetables out of the garden. Lunch is taken at the house, or packed up as a picnic if the day is a walk or a ride. The bar is free as well: house wine, beer and spirits, poured all day, help yourself, with tea, coffee and local spring water always on. Premium spirits, and a meal out at the coast if the group fancies one, are what you pay extra for. We set it all up when you book your week.