Travel and sightseeing advice: north central Spain (between La Rioja and along coast between San Sebastian and Santander)

In My Humble Opinion
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There will be a solar eclipse in August 2026. The path of totality sweeps high across the Atlantic and finishes by crossing the north part of Spain.

This is my family’s first chance to experience an eclipse like this, so we will be staying southwest of Soria the week of the event, and then taking advantage of the location to spend two weeks exploring a part of Spain we haven’t seen before.

To get a rough sense of our planned itinerary, imagine a triangle on this map — put the bottom point somewhere in the middle of wine country, La Rioja, and then extend the two sides up to San Sebastian and Santander. Everything in that triangle will be fair game.

Obviously Bilbao will be a hub point; we’ll visit the Guggenheim, and we’ve heard the food in the city is terrific.

Any other suggestions or advice will be welcome. We prefer walkable places, history and culture (e.g. we toured Ephesus while we were in Izmir), and interesting local food (e.g. we took a family cooking class in Zadar). The kids are a little tired of wineries after Bordeaux, Alsace, etc, but they did enjoy seeing cider-making in Normandy, so anything along these lines would be good.

General comments would also be valuable (good or bad roads or parking by area? tips for recognizing local restaurants and avoiding tourist traps, beyond the usual guidance? etc).

Total Solar Eclipse Aug 12 2026
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I see the center line goes right through Peniscola. I want to go there long enough to at least send some postcards. Maybe a selfie by a sign with the city’s name.

Jejune I know. Can’t help it.

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By coincidence, we will be in Peñiscola (note the tilde) in April, for a Barcelona-to-Valencia coastal trip. (Yep, doin’ a lot of Spain this year.) I’m not asking for guidance there because we know the area and have our plans roughed out.

But if I remember, I’ll get a souvenir of some kind and ping you.

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A couple of days in Bilbao (the Guiggenheim is there). If you walk to the old town, you’ll see pilgrims walking west on the Camino del Norte of the Camino de Santiago. There are riverboat tours with narration.