Every walking club knows the problem with the classic Spanish destinations: summer heat you have to hide from, coach-party trails, and hotels that split the group across three floors and two sittings.

The northern answer

Cantabria sits on Spain's Atlantic coast, in the band the Spanish call Green Spain. It looks like it sounds: oak and beech forest, high pasture, rivers you can hear at night. Summer walking temperatures are typically comfortable rather than punishing, which is exactly why the region is gaining ground with UK clubs.

What the walking is like

The Saja-Besaya National Reserve starts at the door: waymarked valley routes, high ridges with the Picos de Europa on the horizon, and a wild coastline of clifftop paths and huge empty beaches forty minutes away. Ten-mile days with proper pub-lunch-equivalent stops (here it is cocido montanes) are easy to build.

The club logistics

One house, 12 bedrooms, up to 24 members, a big dining room for the debrief. Direct flights and an overnight ferry from the south of England both land about an hour away.

Club secretaries: ask us for dates and a sample week.