There are a lot of really small towns all around Santander. I would recommend any of them. The one we went to this past weekend is Santillana del Mar. It's about 40 minutes from Santander. The bus ride was 5 euro total, there and back, and we spent the entire day just wondering. It's reallllly really teeny but they are known for their cheese and chocolate. Let's just say I wasn't prepared for another chocolate and cheese day like in Belgium but that's what it ended up being lol. Quesada is like a desert type deal thats in the shape of a brownie but it's cheese, eggs, and milk. It's kind of like a spongecake texture. You drink it with milk which is basically raw because they give it to you straight from their back yard - it was amazing!
We went to a little restuarant and got a half platter of cheeses to try, mind you, for the three of us. We couldn't even finish it, but it was delicious. They gave us thin slices of apple to try with it and this really good jam-type stuff too. As we were eating some lady came over and said "excuse me, are you girls American or English?" Apparently her table was having bets on where we were from...great to feel picked out like that but it happens almost every day so you get used to it. The lady had lived in the states for a while so could speak a little english, not much. We talked to her for a while and then she left. Two minutes later she came back to give us her card. She told us if we had any friends that wanted to teach her daughter English this summer to have them call her...SO, if anyone that reads this wants to live (probably free) with this, what seemed pretty well-off, family for the summer, send me a message and I can give you her contact information. She seemed very legite. After she had come over to us, they ended up buying us a bottle of Cidra (apple cider/beer stuff that they pour a particular way, very spanish). It was super nice of them.