Santander (Spain)

Santander is a ferry port and capital city of Cantabria (autonomous state in Spain) located on Spain's northern coast. The city is west of Bilbao and east of Gijon France, and has population around 180,000.

As a service centre at regional level, the city of Santander contains major public institutions as well as private organisations with many employees, including the University of Cantabria, Grupo Santander, Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital. Activities related to leisure, tourism and culture are an important part of its economy, and the municipal and regional authorities look to increase the summer tourist trade via additional offerings, such as conferences, conventions, cultural festivals and cruises. 

Currently the rise in port activity, growing value-added traffic (containers and vehicles of mostly solids and liquids) for storage that requires a lot of already scarce ground, as well as insufficient depth for larger ships, is forcing Port Authority to think over the long-term construction of new port outside the bay. On June 29, 2005 Santander celebrated its 250th anniversary of granting of the "City" title.

Santander boasts great cultural activity, with events playing an important role in city's social life. UIMP is a prime international summer university which organizes large-scale festivals of music and dance. FIS (Festival Internacional de Santander), FiMÓC (Festival Internacional de Música de Órgano), Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition and Encuentro de Música y Academia are main cultural events.

In 2018, the cruise port handled just 7 ship calls, whil;e for 2019 were scheduled 23 calls. That cruise berth (at Ferry Port Santander) is mainly used by ferries. In times with scheduled ferries, cruise ships berth at another pier, from where the port offers free shuttle buses to the city. There are plans for building a new (dedicated) cruise pier. The ferry terminal was extensively refurbished and modernized in 2018.

Santander cruise terminal