What you can see on the Santander webcams
Two live cameras on the seafront look in opposite directions: one west over the yachts of the marina towards the city centre and the docks, the other south-east across the water to the dunes of El Puntal and the hills behind Somo. The port authority adds still images that refresh every few minutes: the open bay with the buoys of the shipping channel, the lighthouse island of Mouro, and the clifftop park of Mataleñas looking down on the anchorage outside the harbour. Together they show whether the bay is calm or choppy, how much of the sandbanks the tide has uncovered and which ships are coming and going.
Santander webcam: Puertochico marina and the city
High on the Palacio de Festivales, the city's concert hall on the bay, this live camera looks west over Puertochico. In the foreground is the ribbed roof of the Príncipe Felipe sailing centre, then the pontoons packed with yachts and the stone breakwater that shelters them. Beyond, the seafront avenue runs towards the city centre, with the cranes of the commercial docks and the hills behind the bay on the horizon.
It is the camera for life in town: the traffic on the seafront, people walking the promenade and boats heading out into the bay. The open water on the left shows how choppy the bay is, and the flags along the waterfront show the wind.
Santander Bay webcam: across to El Puntal
From the same building as the marina view, this live camera turns the other way, south-east across the bay. The open water fills the frame, dotted with moored boats, and on the far side lies El Puntal, the long spit of sand and dunes that almost closes the bay, with the wooded shore and the hills beyond Somo and Pedreña behind it.
In the morning the camera looks almost into the sun and the water shines silver; in the afternoon the light comes from behind it and the colours return. Watch the sandbanks: at low tide they spread out from El Puntal and the channels show clearly, and you may spot the small passenger boats that cross to Somo.
Santander ferry webcam: the shipping channel into the port
This still image from the port authority looks across the open bay from a harbour building with a red-tiled roof and a weathervane shaped like a sailing ship. Most of the picture is water, marked by the buoys of the shipping channel; on the far side, the sandbanks of El Puntal and the low hills behind Somo close the view, and a green headland shows on the left edge.
This is the route the big ships take into the port, the Brittany Ferries crossings from Portsmouth and Plymouth among them. The picture is renewed every few minutes and stamped with the time, and the texture of the water tells you whether the bay is flat calm or whipped up by the wind.
Isla de Mouro webcam: the lighthouse at the mouth of the bay
The port authority points this camera from a grassy headland at the entrance to Santander Bay out to the island of Mouro, a long, flat rock with a white lighthouse tower and its keeper's building on top. Behind it there is nothing but the open Bay of Biscay to the horizon.
It is the best of the Santander views for reading the sea: on calm days the water around the island is smooth, while a northerly swell sends spray high over its rocks and lines of foam across the channel. The island was captured by British troops in 1812, during the Peninsular War. The image is a still picture renewed every few minutes, with the time in the top corner.
Santander webcam: Mataleñas and the anchorage
From high on the cliffs on the north side of the city, this port authority camera looks down over the green lawns and paths of the park at Mataleñas and out across the sea to the anchorage, where ships wait their turn to enter the port. The coast curves away towards the mouth of the bay, with the small island of Mouro in the water and the hills of eastern Cantabria on the horizon.
In the morning the camera faces into the sun and the sea glitters; later in the day the view clears. It is a still image refreshed every few minutes, useful for seeing how many ships are at anchor, how rough the open sea is and whether the cliffs are in sunshine or cloud.
An island the British once took
Mouro is a small, flat rock with a lighthouse, lying off the Magdalena peninsula where the bay meets the open sea. In July 1812, during the Peninsular War, British forces fighting alongside the Spanish captured it and used it to bombard the French-held defences of the city. Centuries earlier, English, Flemish and French merchant ships stopped there on their way home to gather rock samphire, much in demand as a seasoning. The peninsula behind it was given by the city to King Alfonso XIII, who spent his summers at the Magdalena Palace from 1912 to 1929.
When to watch Santander
Santander is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The morning sun rises over the bay and shines straight into the camera facing El Puntal, so that view is clearest in the afternoon. Summers are mild, with warm days and cool nights; winter brings swell that breaks white around Mouro. If you are sailing in, the cameras show you the bay before you arrive.
Around Santander
The city's open-sea beaches are at El Sardinero, on the north side of the Magdalena. Passenger boats cross the bay from the centre to Somo and Pedreña, and the long sands of Somo and Loredo face the city across the water.
Visiting Santander
The ferry terminal is right in the city centre, next to the Pereda gardens and the Centro Botín arts centre. From there the seafront promenade runs east past the marina to the Magdalena peninsula, now a public park open during the day.
