Reading holidays: a week in Cantabria, a room of your own and dinner cooked for you

Reading holidays give you what home rarely does: whole mornings with a book, nobody needing anything from you, and dinner made by someone else. Spice Escapes runs one in Cantabria, Read, Relax & Restore: A Week in Spain's Green North, 7 nights at a large house where every bedroom is let to one person, meals are included and a host travels with the small group.

Below: how the week runs, the novels to pack, a literary walk, the weather, and two other weeks if the dates do not suit.

Mornings with a book, evenings with company

Take a coffee and your book out to the patio, or stay on at the breakfast table. There is space indoors and out, and in the daytime you choose: read on your own, or sit and talk.

The evenings bring everyone together for home-cooked, family-style food, and the plans are likely to include a murder mystery and a literary quiz. There is no choice of bars and nightclubs on the doorstep, so any party happens in the house.

Your own room, three meals and wine in the house

Jackie Whyte hosts the week at Agara, a former restaurant, renovated with a new kitchen and bathrooms. The week gives you:

• A bedroom of your own. All twelve rooms are sole occupancy, so it is practically two people to a bathroom.
• Breakfast, a light lunch and dinner each day.
• Wine and beer in the house that you help yourself to.
• Bikes and helmets, self-guided walking routes, and a very friendly resident dog.

See the dates and book online on the Read, Relax & Restore holiday page: the week runs 6 Jun 2027 – 13 Jun 2027.

What to pack: novels set in Cantabria, from its tourist board's list

Turismo de Cantabria, the official tourism site, lists eight books set in the region. Puerto Escondido by María Oruña is a crime novel, the first of a trilogy, in which a young Londoner inherits a house by the beach at Suances and the building work turns up a grim discovery in the cellar. The trilogy moves around Suances, Santillana del Mar, Santander and Comillas.

Marianela by Benito Pérez Galdós, a tragic love story, is set in Torrelavega and the mines of Reocín. Check which are available in English before you pack.

When you look up from the page: Oyambre and Comillas

If the weather is good, the group could take their books to a beach, and the host can arrange local walks and perhaps lunch in a local restaurant. The natural park of Oyambre and the village of Comillas are both about 20 minutes' drive away. Oyambre's beach runs for more than 2 km beside the mouth of the Ría de La Rabia, and the tourist board calls it one of the best-preserved in the region. Comillas, 4 km from the beach, has Gaudí's Capricho.

A literary walk in Santander, where Galdós spent his summers

A trip to a nearby city can be arranged on one of the days, and Santander is about 50 minutes by car. Galdós, the author of Marianela, spent his summers there. If you go, the tourist board has mapped a literary walk to follow on your own. It starts in the Plaza de Pombo, where artists and intellectuals used to meet in the cafés, and passes the Biblioteca Menéndez Pelayo, founded by the scholar himself, with more than 45,000 volumes, many carrying handwritten notes.

Green Spain gets rain, and a reader can live with that

The holiday's own notes put it plainly: when the sun shines in Cantabria it is hot, and when it rains it pours. For Santander, the World Meteorological Organization's thirty-year average for June is about 22°C by day and 14°C at night, with rain on around 11 or 12 days. The group plans around the weather, and a wet afternoon with a book is the holiday working as intended.

Booking on your own, with a room to yourself

Most people on Spice holidays book on their own, so nobody is the odd one out on the first evening. Our guide for first-time solo travellers covers the practical side, and our over-50s solo holidays show the wider range. How Spice prices a room to yourself is set out on our single supplement page. If a busy group is your worry, read holidays for single introverts.

If those dates do not suit: paint at the same house, or read by the Adriatic

The Spanish Drawing and Painting Break with Tuition uses the same house for 7 nights, with tuition from Dale Scott. It runs 25 Apr 2027 – 2 May 2027.

Croatian Chillout spends 7 nights on the island of Lošinj, half board at Hotel Punta, and its suggested plan offers a day to stay local for swimming, reading and a long lunch. It runs 1 May 2027 – 8 May 2027. There are more holidays in Croatia and in Spain among our chillout and relaxation holidays.

Questions people ask

Do I need to be a book lover to enjoy it?

No. The week is planned with as much time for exploring as for reading, and its own description says a magazine counts, with no judgement. You can fill the days with walks, the bikes or trips to the coast instead.

Will I have to share a bedroom?

No. Every room on this holiday is sole occupancy. Three of the twelve have their own bathroom and the rest share four.

Are meals and drinks included?

Yes: breakfast, a light lunch and dinner each day, and the wine and beer in the house. Lunch is a picnic on walking or cycling days, and a meal the group chooses to eat out locally is at your own cost.

Is a reading holiday the same as a reading retreat?

Near enough. Spice calls this week a retreat, and its stated priority is to give you space and time to relax and restore. The company is part of it here: a host, dinners together and a group to explore with when you want one.

See the dates and book Read, Relax & Restore online

The live dates, price and Book button are on the Read, Relax & Restore holiday page, so see the dates and book online there. Availability right now: 13 places left.

Jackie Whyte hosts the week. For a question before you book, ask Rosie, the chat on the holiday page, or write to us through our contact page and ask for Jackie.