I see that Ryanair are scrapping the Vitoria flights from Dublin as of the 25th October.
Have a look at the tripadvisor website. I am travelling using public transport from Vitoria to San Sebastian and then to Bilbao so I imagine that Santander should be easy enough.
Hi,
The largest bus company in Spain is ALSA. There are 4 busses from Vitoria to santander each day and the return price (ida-vuelta) is €18.
Here is their website just enter your dates and numbers. Good luck. There may also be trains going from V to S?
Bilbao is definitely closer to Santander (it's about 1hr by car, motorway all the way) .. so flying to Bilbao is probably a better option that Vitoria would have been ... Don't know about the buses, but I assume that there are plenty of services
There is also the FEVE train that runs between Bilbao and Santander - [broken link removed] (It's a narrow guage rail service that runs along the north coast of spain ) - The bus is probalby much quicker though !