Castro Urdiales or 'Castro' for short is a town in the Spanish province of Cantabria.

Understand

Founded by the Romans as Flaviobriga, this is a popular tourist destination today. It offers a sports harbour, a fishing harbour and two beaches. Beach Brazomar is east of the town center. Beach Ostende is longer and is west of the town center. In August these two beaches are typically crowded.

In the center of the town, the city hall is surrounded by a square. Close to it, right by the ocean, are the lighthouse and the church.

Get in

Castro Urdiales is easily reached via the A8 freeway from Bilbao (about 35km) and from Santander. Public transport buses go to Bilbao every 30 minutes and cost €2.82. Santander is roughly an hour by bus and buses go to Santander every 1-2 hours. The closest airports are Bilbao and Santander.

Get around

Castro is small enough that you can walk nearly everywhere. The furthest distance is to walk from Brazomar Beach to Ostende Beach. This is about 2-3 km and takes accordingly 30-45 min of walking.

See

• The Flaviobriga archaeological site is under the Casco Viejo (old town), two meters deep.
• Lighthouse
• Church
• Town hall
• The beaches

Do

Sunbathe in summer, stroll along the beach promenade, sit in one of the many coffee bars along the waterfront.

Eat

Seafood, grilled sardines

Drink

There is number of good cider bars in town.