You might want to consider the
Parador de Gil Blas in
Santillana del Mar. There's a new Parador in Limpias (just south from Laredo). I have stayed in
Hostals, Pensiones and with private family in the Center of the City and at
Hostal Paris in el Sardinero but never in 3 or 4 star properties in Santander.
Hostal Paris is nice
but there were two Discos behind the
Gran Hotel Sardinero and the noise of the Motorcycles at 3:00AM when the Discos cosed down woke us up every night.
If you go down to
Liebana (Potes), Hostal Picos de Europa is nice. When I stayed there in 2001, the owner's son, an
Haute Cuisine Chef had moved to a 5-star Restaurant and left his dad 'high and dry.' So they were just serving Continental breakfast. Just follow the road south from Unquera. The drive through the gorge of the
rio Deva is a 'white knuckler.'
Other sites in the area that may interest you are
Comillas, San Vicente de la Barquera, Laredo, San Sebastian de Garabandal site of reported Marian apparitions in the early '60's - a few KM south of
Cabezon de la Sal, Llanes (Asturias), Covadonga and other historical sites. The people of Cantabria insist that
Don Pelayo, who was victorious over the Moors in the battle of Covadonga, was
Cantabro. The largest known fragment of the Cross on which Christ was crucified is guarded in a Monastery, Santo Toribio, 2km from Potes. The relic was smuggled there by Toribio, Bishop of Astorga. Of course the people of the Principality of Asturias claim Pelayo as
Asturiano.
The University of Cantabria (actually in
el Sardinero is named
Universidad Internaciónal de Menendez Pelayo (UIMP)) and is correctly pronounced 'wimp,' in Spanish or in English.