The most scenic campsite ever at the atlantic oceancoast!? | Camino del Norte – Day 16

On the Day 16 of our Camino de Santiago del Norte we got from the town San Vicente de la Barquera to Campsite “Playa Las Arenas”.

The start of the day was very bright and sunny very contrasting to the yesterday’s weather. And it was obvious that it’s gonna be hot. The camping was a bit noisy and overcrowded and so at night there were some disturbing noises. In the early morning we heard something moving outside close to our tent and when we looked out we saw the hedgehog attracted by the food leftovers, most probably skin of the peach. We thought it was a cat cause there are lots of them in the area. We felt dissapointed because we didn’t have time to film it – it ran away so quickly and we didn’t react accordingly. But it was such a sweet accident.

So we decided for that day that we will do 17 kms to the camping Playa las Arenas. And we saw that the Camino goes quite far from oceanside again because of the difficult river flood areas. So we wanted to follow it for the first half and then get closer to the coast if possible.

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But we underestimated the heat that was getting over us, very tremendously and furiously. Already from the start we felt extremely hot and then when we did the first uphill we were almost dead. So we had to stop at under every tree and every shadow we could find in order not to overheat ourselves. And the route was going in the fields with a little to no shadow. That was hard.

So having felt that we quickly decided to follow the Camino for longer cause it was a shorter way to our destination. And when we did the first 8 kms we found a great shadow and took a little nap there. It was very nice and refreshing. With that rest we were be able to hike further to where we planned. Thanks god there wasn’t as hard uphills anymore as the first one and we got to the crossroads quite easily.

Then we had to leave the Camino and take the highway for a little distance in order to get to the supermarket and then to the camping. It wasn’t very pleasant experience as expected but al least this road wasn’t the busiest at that moment.

We did our shopping and turned in the direction of our camping. We had to walk away from a Camino, closer to the coast to get there and we were pretty tired at that point. But gosh it was so worth it! It was the most luxurious camping we ve ever been in. And if we didn’t turn away from the Camino we wouldn’t have a chance to know it.

The location the camping is in is very scenic on the one side with the river banks with dense forests and on the other the small beach between the cliffs. The camping itself is enormous and we couldn’t even see it all. We hardly could choose a place for our tent cause there were so many great available ones. Not to say that the facilities were all great. The price was probably the most expensive that we payed for a tent 23 euros but there were campings where we paid 20 and they weren’t even close to the level of this one. We moved from the cheapest to the most expensive camping in one day. And for us this is what we like the most about staying in the campings because you never know what to expect (cause you know you can’t trust the photos at the website) and sometimes it’s awful but sometimes it goes beyond your expectations like in this case.

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And it felt like paradise after this hot exhausting day under the sun. But the best part was the beach of course where we cooked and had our dinner and spent all the evening just watching the waves and listening to the sound of the ocean rush. We haven’t been to any camping with a private beach before and it felt so unusual but cool at the same time when you could have all the beach just to yourself. We spent some time taking photos and just being silly. We didn’t see the sunset because of the cliffs blocking the view but at least we had this time to just be present and enjoy the view. And so, tired but happy after full of the impressions day, with the sounds of the waves that were rocking us to sleep we quickly fell asleep that night.

Here is the link to Google map to follow the hike: