Surroundings

The city of Santander has excellent beaches very close to the center such as “Los peligros” “La Magdalena” or the “bikini” beach, the latter being very well known by the people of Santander since the 1960s, European and American students would come down to the beach in their bikinis, something that caused a great stir in Santander at the time and became the element with which this bathing area located within the Magdalena Peninsula was identified.

The peninsula of La Magdalena, also called Real Sitio de La Magdalena, has an area of 24.5 hectares. It was a gift from the city of Santander to King Alfonso XIII, who used it as a summer residence between 1912 and 1929. Today the peninsula is a public park open during the day.

Inside you can visit a small mini-zoo with penguins and sea lions and access is free of charge.

In little more than 5,000 km2 (we are the third smallest autonomous community in Spain) Cantabria displays a formidable range of landscapes and environments:

If you love nature, come to Cantabria.

The Camino Lebaniego is a formidable itinerary that runs through Cantabria from San Vicente de la Barquera to the Monastery of Santo Toribio. In total, about 72 km in a proposal of three stages that crosses the nature and culture of Cantabria.

In total, Cantabria has about 6500 caves, of which about 1100 contain archaeological remains, and about 62 have cave paintings. Paleolithic cave art is one of the most relevant cultural manifestations in the history of mankind.

Almost 120 species of animals inhabit this park. Which are they? Water buffaloes, bison, ostriches, Somali donkeys, camels, zebras, deer, elephants, gorillas, cheetahs, hyenas, lynxes, giraffes, lions, wolves, llamas, tigers, bears and rhinoceroses, among others.

The project was promoted by the Botín Foundation, a private endowment foundation created in 1964 by Marcelino Botín Sanz de Sautuola and his wife, María del Carmen Yllera Camino.