Valdearenas Beach: Spain's weekday escape from the summer crowds

Valdearenas, the Cantabrian beach with 3 km of sand and no stress (if you know when to go)

Anyone who has tried to set foot on a beach on Spain's northern coast in August knows that the word 'relax' gets blown away by the wind. But there is one place in Boo de Piélagos, the Valdearenas Dunes, that promises three kilometres of shoreline without the human tide of the weekends. The key is the calendar: midweek, from Wednesday to Friday, the picture changes.

The argument is as old as mass tourism: the eastern coast of Cantabria turns into a funnel every Saturday and Sunday. Those looking for peace head west. There, Valdearenas offers a pine forest, walking trails and a stretch of sand where, according to seasoned travellers' accounts, coexistence is organised into clearly separated zones: families and swimming groups on one side, nudists and LGBT spaces on another, and even a dog area which, some say, operates in Noja.

The 'proceresco' travel formula makes sense: leave on Wednesday, return on Friday, and avoid the flood of people whose only days off are Saturday and Sunday. Along the way, a stop at a roadside restaurant of the no-frills 'lonchafinista' style –set menu, nothing more, nothing less– and the mission is accomplished: sea, greenery and few people.

But not everything is idyllic. The debate about summer overcrowding brings hidden tensions to the surface: some blame the massive influx of holidaymakers from other Spanish regions, while others point out that the problem is a lack of order. Wild beaches attract those seeking privacy, which sometimes clashes with families' expectations. And the model of beachfront townhouses, those 'beehive towers' that line other stretches of coast, does not exist here. The question, as almost always, is how long this little paradise will last before weekend tourism devours it.

In any case, here is the striking fact: three kilometres of beach, in the middle of high season, with plenty of space to lay down your towel. The trick, as almost always, is the date.