Spain’s most unexplored city is a tourist-free, hidden gem to visit in 2022

Despite possessing an enviable location in the Bay of Biscay, some of Spain’s best surfing beaches and a thriving culinary scene, Santander has still gone under the tourist radar.

As the capital of the autonomous Cantabria region, on the north coast of Spain, the city of 200,000 has an atmospheric old town - although many of its medieval buildings were destroyed in a massive fire in 1941.

A beautiful bay with views of rolling green hills and mountains lies on the opposite side of the shore. Unlike the honeypots of Madrid and Barcelona, the city centre is compact enough to walk around, and in the summer months a cooling breeze blows in off the Bahía de Santander.

On a balmy visit in early March, a friend and I seemed to be the only tourists in town and didn’t hear another non-Spanish voice all week.

Santander is famous for its tapas, or pinchos as it’s known locally (sometimes spelled pintxo or pinchu) - meat, fish, goats cheese and other ingredients spiked onto a piece of crusty bread with a skewer or toothpick.

You’ll find pincho bars and bodegas dotted all over the city. A good pit stop for lunch is Casa Lita, an unassuming-looking cafe bar overlooking the bay, with indoor booths and an outdoor terrace. It serves a mouthwatering array of bread-based snacks, raciones (sharing plates) and palatable house wines at around €2.50 a glass.

Plaza Cañadio is the place to kick start your evening, bearing in mind that nightlife in Spain doesn’t get going till around 9pm. The central public square is flanked by bars and restaurants, including Cañadio, a local pincho institution that gets consistently good reviews in most of the tourist guides.

Our meal here was slightly underwhelming though and if you only speak beginners Spanish you’ll