Northern Spain’s beaches and the entire coast are full of spectacular highlights and sights. Especially many beautiful beaches can be found on the endless cliffs, which can be discovered on a northern Spain road trip. To make your choice a little easier, we created a list of the best northern spain beaches for you.
Hi Guys!
We are Sabrina and Andreas, two adventurous travelers who never miss an opportunity to discover the world. Whether by plane to distant countries or with our campervan Bruno, we just love to travel. We hope to give you helpful tips for your next trip on our blog.
Sabrina & Andreas Globetrotters, Travelers, Adventurers
The Most Beautiful Northern Spain Beaches
Spain’s north is a wonderful region full of scenic highlights. Between the towns of A Coruña in the west and San Sebastian in the east, there are truly spectacular beaches, like we have only experienced on Portugal’s west coast or the Algarve.
We now present to you what we consider to be the most beautiful and spectacular beaches on northern Spain’s coast. For the sake of simplicity we have listed them from west to east.
Praia Cristina
Praia Cristina is kilometers long and therefore has many different names. The part of the beach called Praia Cristina is located at the eastern end and is therefore the least visited. It is located near the lighthouse Faro de Punta Frouxeira and there is no real parking here. You have to park at the roadside or on a small gravel area. From the top, a well-built wooden walkway leads down to the beach and opens up the beautiful sandy beach.
We camped here overlooking the beach with our campervan and had a spectacular sunset. The beach is also great for long walks on the beach. For us this is one of the best beaches in spain.
Praia de Vilarrube
Praia de Vilarrube looks spectacular especially from a drone. The approach is a bit bumpy but there is an official parking lot and even a small beach bar. The sand is really fine and the water super clear. Especially at low tide, huge sandbars show up here, which are very inviting for a walk on the beach.
Since the beach is somewhat remote, it is rarely crowded here. A little insider tip in northern Spain.
Playa de Catedrales
Playa de Catedrales is probably the most spectacular beach in northern Spain and probably in all of Spain. This beach should definitely not be missed on your northern Spain road trip.
The beauty of Playa de Catredales comes from the numerous rocks and arch-like rock formations on the beach and the fact that almost the entire beach is under water at high tide. So you can only visit the beach and the crazy rock formations at low tide.
Because it is so beautiful, you will never be alone on the beach. Playa de Catedrales is extremely popular and always well visited. This means that in the high season you have to buy limited tickets to visit the beach.
Where to park at Playa de Catedrales, where you can get the tickets and what else you should consider, you can find out here:
Playa Barayo
Playa Barayo is a bit hidden near the city of Oviedo and is not easy to reach and therefore not much crowded. There is a large free parking lot, but you have to walk almost 30 minutes through a beautiful, dense forest downhill to the beach. From the parking lot you have 2 options to get down, so you can choose different ways to get there and back.
At the bottom you will find beautiful fine sand and also several caves hidden in the limestone rocks. There are no lifeguards and no other services, but dogs are allowed. If the weather is not too good, you will be almost alone here.
Playa de Silencio
Playa de Silencio is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful beaches in northern Spain. The approach is via a very narrow one-way street and when it comes to parking, unfortunately, it doesn’t get any easier. There is no real parking lot, so you have to park at the edge of the narrow access road, which is not very easy. There are only about 20 spaces here.
Once you have parked your car you walk down a very steep path and then have to climb down another steep flight of stairs and you are at the crescent shaped pebble beach. Due to the arduous journey and the lack of sand, there are rarely many people here.
Nevertheless, the beach and the cliffs surrounding it are super spectacular.
Northern Spain Beaches – Playa de la Arnia
Playa de la Arnia is close to the city of Santander and many other different beaches, all of which can be extremely crowded in good weather. Due to the proximity to the big city of Santander, it can be very difficult to find a parking space in high season or on weekends.
This is also the case at Playa de la Arnia, which is even located in the middle of a residential area. But if you have found a free place and walked down to the beach (you have to walk about 200 meters down a more or less badly paved path) then you will see why the beach is so well visited.
The fine sandy beach is framed by large limestone rocks and also everywhere on the beach itself are smaller and larger limestone rocks around.
The special highlight of this beach is on the other side of the sandy beach behind some rocks. Here is a several hundred meters long limestone basin, in which several smaller and larger pools have formed. Partly there are also dry spots where you can lie.
Here it is almost always empty and you can walk over the sharp limestone rocks. In some places the naturally formed pools are even so deep and long that you can really swim here. And that without being exposed to the waves or the current.
Playa de la Concha – San Sebastian Northern Spain
The town stand of the very worth seeing place San Sebastian is a wonderfully curved sandy beach, which can be reached on foot from the old town. Almost a kilometer measures this wonderful beach and is framed by the imposing Concha Bay. Since the beach is super central, it is also always very crowded. You should keep that in mind if you want to visit this beach.
But there are probably few other beautiful beaches that are only minutes away from a stroll in the old town of one of the most beautiful towns in northern spain. There are no parking spaces directly at the beach and also in San Sebastian itself it is difficult to find a free parking space. So you should park a little bit outside.
More about the other highlights of San Sebastian you can find here:
We hope you enjoyed our post about the most beautiful northern spain beaches. If you have any questions or tips about the north coast of Spain, please leave us a comment.