Recommendations for places to stay in Northern Spain

Having spent several months in Southern Spain and another 2 in Portugal on the Atlantic Coast and am now staying in England (my first trip to the UK) we now want to experience Northern Spain until October when we plan to return to living out the rest of my sabatical year in Southern Spain.

What I'm looking for is recommendations from forum members of where to be based in the green spain.

Rossetti

Ourense is nicely placed to cover the Galician coast and northern Portugal. Salamanca, while not so green, is a fabulous town astride the old N630 (now parallel to A66 superhighway) with immediate access to Extremadura and parts north. Santiago would be crowded and expensive in the time you propose.

 Rosseti

One of the best places to go is San Sebastian, one of the most fashionable cities in the north. Beautiful city with a Victorian elegance, spectacular beach known as the Concha and others that are even good for surfing, some of the best food you will find up north, great shopping and plenty of entertainment. Other cities : Salamanca, Burgos, Vigo, Oviedo in Asturias is also one of the most beautiful areas in Spain.

Thanks for the replies. We are going to try Oviedo as it was also recommended by some of my cycling buddies. If we fail to find suitable accomodation we will go to San Seb.

We are currently on our first visit ever to the UK splitting our time between London and Oxford and finding it a great place so green and Oxford is so bike friendly. Be back to Spain at the end of the Month and looking forward to exploring the North.

Rossetti

 Hey!

Well having been in Galicia, I definitively recommend that part of Spain! Beautiful sea (although pretty cold)

Also Bilbao is a must, you can't go to the North without passing through Bilbao! 

Santander and San Sebastian would be my other two recommendations!!

Good luck!