CENTRAL SPAIN TOUR

With the Ferry arriving from Plymouth to Santander at 14:00, there is plenty of time to drive to Peñafiel using the beautiful back roads of the Ebro River gorges, and then, from Burgos, also through the wheat fields, small villages and castles of Castille and the vineyards of the Duero valley, from which Peñafiel is one the main towns.

Peñafiel is home to well-known wineries like Protos (designed by Sir Richard Rogers) and Pesquera, and also has a beautiful castle that nowadays holds the Wine Museum.

Tonight, the stay will be at Monasterio de las Claras hotel, where dinner will also take place.

Today the recommended route enters the Monumental city of Segovia, just 1 hour from Peñafiel.

A stop for coffee or even staying for lunch is recommended (try the local roasted suckling pig), an also a walk around the old part of town. The 2000-year-old aqueduct, the amazing cathedral and the Alcazar Castle are great visits.

After Segovia, the route will follow beautiful back roads and will arrive to Gredos, where the stay for the next three nights will be at the Izán Puerta de Gredos hotel.

Dinner will be at the hotel.

A great drive including the breath-taking scenery of Peña Negra Mountain Pass and then a scenic drive through the “dehesas”, the unique meadows with holm oaks and cork oaks where fighting bulls and black Iberian porks are bred.

Any place you stop for lunch will offer delicious Iberian ham, as you’ll be passing very close to Guijuelo, one of the places where the best quality “Ibericos” are produced.

Dinner tonight will be at the hotel.

The Honduras Mountain Pass will be on today’s itinerary (as well as 2 more mountain passes). A fantastic drive through amazing empty roads with a recommended stop in Hervás, a village with one of the best preserved medieval Jewish quarters in Spain.

There are good restaurants in Hervás where you can have lunch or some tapas.

Dinner will be served at the hotel.

The roads west from Gredos are also amazing. They cross the Mountains of Sierra de Francia an area of outstanding beauty and remote villages where time seems to be stopped for centuries.

The itinerary meanders among vast oak and chestnut forests, and climbs the Peña de Francia, a high peak with the most astonishing views we have seen.

Stop at La Alberca and take a walk on its ancient cobbled streets and enjoy a coffee at the beautiful main square.

The destination today is Salamanca, one of the Spanish cities with the greatest wealth of monuments, where the stay and dinner will be at the Parador.

After dinner a guide will be waiting for you to go for a night walking tour of the city… you will love it!

From Salamanca the route heads back north, crossing the Toro winegrowing region, the never-ending cereal fields of Castile and small villages with adobe walls.

Fromista is a recommended stop. As it has one of the most important Romanesque churches in Spain, and is also an obligated stop for pilgrims doing the Way of St. James.

Look for Los Palmeros restaurant if you are up for a great Castilian lunch before continuing to Mave, where the stay will be at the former convent.

The Ebro River is the longest in Spain, as its spring is in the Cantabrian mountains and it flows all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.

The water in the Upper Basin has been carving the soft rocks for millions of years, and the result is one of the most beautiful landscapes of northern Spain.

High rock walls where hundreds of vultures nest, waterfalls, villages with natural springs running through their streets, and much more will make this drive one you will always remember as magical.

Back in Mave, dinner will be served at the hotel.

With the ferry departing from Santander at 17:00 PM, there is no hurry to leave the hotel.

There are only 70 miles from the hotel to the port so there is time to enjoy the drive and even explore Santander’s seafront promenade.