This is a list that a friend asked me a while ago of places in Spain (in the northern area) that were neither Madrid nor Barcelona.

This was the list I gave him: Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park and Jaca, Girona, Las Bardenas Reales, Navarre (Pamplona and the Irati area), Biarritz and then travel down through Guéthary and Hondarribia, San Sebastían, Zarautz and Zumaia, San Juan de Gaztelugatxe (Biscay) and Bilbao, Cantabria (Laredo, Santoña, Santander, Natural Monument of the Sequoias of Monte Cabezón, Soplao Cave, Hermida Gorge, Santa Catalina Viewpoint, Bejes, Mogrovejo, Fuente De Cable Car, Cabezón de la Sal, Bárcena Mayor, Santillana del Mar, Castro Urdiales), Asturias (Oviedo, Cangas de Onís, Covadonga Lakes, Llanes, Ribadesella, Lastres, Cudillero, Cabo Vidio, Luarca), Galicia (Santiago de Compostela, Muros, Pico de Trémulo, Historic Noia, Lariño Beach, Puerto del Son, Castro de Baroña, Praia das Furnas, Monte Taúme Viewpoint, Corrubedo Dunes, Arousa Island, San Vicente de O Grove, Carreirón Natural Park, Combarro, Sanxenxo).