Cantabria · Cantabria
Santillana del Mar
Despite its name, not by the sea but a few miles inland — a museum-village that has kept its medieval heritage intact.
Why people fall for Santillana del Mar
Portrait drawn from the Michelin Green Guide.
22 miles east of Santander.
Worth the trip
- Cobbled streets lined with stately homes with blazoned facades and flower-filled balconies
- The Colegiata, a 12th/13th-century collegiate church with a cloister of vegetal-themed capitals and a 16th-century Hispano-Flemish altarpiece
Who it suits: Medieval-architecture travellers
Who Santillana del Mar is for — and who it isn't
Not our opinion: we ran the same scoring engine behind the quiz for six settler profiles across all 8,132 municipalities and read off where Santillana del Mar lands.
Good for
- Heat-averse settlers 100th percentile of 8,132 towns 4 km from the sea · mild 23.3°C summer highs
- Families with school-age kids 100th percentile of 8,132 towns 4 km from the sea · 13 min to a hospital
- Remote-working couples 100th percentile of 8,132 towns 4 km from the sea · a real food scene
- Budget-first coastal settlers 99th percentile of 8,132 towns 4 km from the sea · 13 min to a hospital
- Retiring couples 91st percentile of 8,132 towns 13 min to a hospital · 4 km from the sea
- American retirees 90th percentile of 8,132 towns 13 min to a hospital · 4 km from the sea
The numbers
The decision data — each figure placed among all Spanish municipalities that report it ("top 10%" always means good, also where lower is better). Regional overlays and estimates are labelled, and where there's no local reading we say so plainly.
Climate
- Winter average temp
- 10.4°C top 19% of 8,131 towns 2.7°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 23.3°C top 4% of 8,131 towns 6.9°C below the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 124 days bottom 6% of 8,088 towns 81% more than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- no local data
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 6 top 6% of 8,033 towns 50 below the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €15,247 top 37% of 8,059 towns 5% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 25.7% bottom 48% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- no local data
- Nearest international school
- 7 km top 5% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 495 #2 of 17 regions, +16 vs national 14 above the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 13 min top 9% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 3.8 km top 16% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 137 days #15 of 17 regions, +34 days vs national 27% more than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 26 min top 5% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 97% top 20% of 8,132 towns 18% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 98% top 26% of 8,132 towns 15% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 4,221
- Born in Spain
- 94.7% 5.9% above the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 1.3% 2.5% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0.24 per 1,000
Numbers: SpainScore town dataset, derived from INE, AEMET, Mitma and the Catastro. Percentile chips count only the municipalities that report the figure — the "of n" says how many. Region-ranked figures (PISA, surgical waits) compare Spain's 17 comunidades autónomas. A blank means no municipal-level figure is published — not a zero.
The year, month by month
AEMET 30-year climate normals — what a January or an August actually feels like, not the annual average.
How does Santillana del Mar fit you?
These are the town's numbers. Whether it's your town depends on what you're optimising for — winter sun or mild summers, a city or a village, short medical waits, an easy flight home. The 3-minute quiz scores Santillana del Mar against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 12 min from Torrelavega, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Santillana del Mar for you →Nearby towns
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