Asturias: Spain's Wild and Unspoiled North
- Apr 21
- 6 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
There's a saying in Spain: Asturias es un paraiso meaning Asturias is a paradise. It's the kind of claim that usually invites skepticism, but here, it holds. A narrow strip of land between the Cantabrian Mountains and the sea, Asturias packs an extraordinary variety of landscapes into a small space: dramatic coastline, deep river gorges, medieval churches, ancient cave art, and the Picos de Europa - one of the most spectacular mountain ranges in all of Europe.
Asturias is also, by a quirk of history, the oldest kingdom in Iberia. When the Moors swept through Spain in the 8th century, it was in the mountains of Asturias that Christian resistance held firm and from here that the long Reconquista began. That history is still visible in the landscape: tiny pre-Romanesque churches, mountaintop monasteries, and a regional identity that runs remarkably deep.
Oviedo: The Elegant Capital
Oviedo is one of Spain's most pleasant mid-sized cities; clean, walkable, with a beautiful historic center and a genteel atmosphere that its residents are quietly proud of. Woody Allen, who filmed Vicky Cristina Barcelona here in part, famously called it a "fairy tale city", and there's a bronze statue of him near the old town to mark the compliment.
The Cathedral of San Salvador is the centerpiece of the old quarter, housing the Camara Santa, a UNESCO-listed chapel with a remarkable collection of early medieval relics and goldsmithing. The surrounding streets are full of sidrerías, cider houses, where waiters pour Asturian cider from above their heads to aerate it, a ritual as much as a service.
Nearby, on the hill of Monte Naranco overlooking the city, sit two of the most important pre-Romanesque churches in Europe: Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo, both built in the 9th century and both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. They're modest in size but extraordinary in their historical significance, built when most of Europe was in the early medieval dark.
The Picos de Europa
The Picos de Europa - shared between Asturias, Cantabria, and Castilla y León - are among the most dramatic mountains in Western Europe. Limestone massifs rising sharply from the coast, deep river canyons, alpine meadows, and mountain villages that haven't changed in centuries. Spain's first national park was established here in 1918, and the landscape is as striking today as it was then.
The Ruta del Cares is the Picos' most famous walk, a dramatic 12-kilometer gorge trail carved into the cliff face above the Cares river, with sheer rock walls rising hundreds of meters on both sides. It's not technically difficult, but it is visually overwhelming. The village of Covadonga, set around a pink neo-Romanesque basilica and the cave-shrine where the Reconquista began, is one of Asturias' most visited and most meaningful sites.
For mountain biking, hiking, canyoning, and climbing, the Picos de Europa is one of the best destinations in Spain. The town of Cangas de Onís, just outside the park, makes an excellent base; it has a beautiful Roman bridge, excellent restaurants, and easy access to the mountains.
The Picos de Europa are shared with Cantabria to the east and Castilla y León to the south. The southern approach through the Leonese valleys gives a completely different — and less visited — angle on the same mountains.
The Asturian Coast: Gijón, Llanes, and the Beaches
Gijón is Asturias' largest city and main port, with a lively beach promenade, a handsome old quarter on the San Lorenzo peninsula, and an excellent Aquarium and Laboral art center in a spectacular former Franco-era workers' university. It's a working city with good energy and great sidrerías.
The Asturian coast is studded with beautiful beaches that, because of the Atlantic climate, never get the brutal summer crowds of the Mediterranean. Playa de Gulpiyuri - a landlocked beach where the sea enters through a natural tunnel in the rock - is one of Spain's most extraordinary natural curiosities. The beaches around Llanes are spectacular: Playa del Cue, Playa de Torimbia, Playa de Gulpiyuri - backed by green cliffs and surrounded by farmland, they look more like Ireland than Spain.
Asturias has some of the most unusual beaches in Spain — Playa del Silencio is a hidden cove accessible only on foot, completely sheltered by cliffs; Gulpiyuri is an inland beach fed by underground water. These belong on any list of the most distinctive coastline in the country. The Costa Verde guide covers the full stretch of Asturian coast.
Prehistoric Art: Altamira and the Cave Culture
The Cantabrian coast, including Asturias, was one of the great centers of Upper Paleolithic art. The Altamira cave (just over the border in Cantabria) is the most famous, but Asturias has over 40 cave art sites of its own, several accessible to visitors. The Cueva de Tito Bustillo in Ribadesella contains exceptional paintings of horses and deer dating back 20,000 years. Standing in the dark looking at these images, you feel the extraordinary reach of human creativity.
A note for visitors planning around Altamira: the cave itself is in Cantabria — just over the regional border near Santillana del Mar. The original paintings are closed to the public to preserve them, but the Neocueva replica is outstanding and tickets must be booked in advance.
What to Eat and Drink in Asturias
Asturian food is hearty, generous, and built for the climate. Fabada asturiana - a slow-cooked stew of large white fabes beans with chorizo, morcilla, lacón, and saffron - is the region's great dish, a meal that defeats hunger convincingly and leaves you in a pleasant, satisfied stupor. Pitu de caleya is a free-range chicken cooked in cider and another another staple of Asturian cuisine.
The cheeses of Asturias are outstanding particularly Cabrales, a strong blue cheese aged in mountain caves, and Afuega'l Pitu, an ancient soft cheese made in traditional conical molds. Then there's sidra, natural Asturian cider, slightly cloudy, tart, and poured in an elaborate ritual, is the drink of the region. Drinking cider in a sidrería in Oviedo, surrounded by wooden barrels and the sound of conversation, is one of the great simple pleasures of northern Spain.
Asturian cider is the drink of the region — dry, funky, poured from height into a wide glass. It's a culture as much as a drink. For the broader story of Spain's regional wine and drink culture, Spain's Wine Regions covers the Atlantic wine zone that extends from Asturias through Galicia.
The interior of Asturias — the Picos foothills, the valley villages, anywhere away from the coast — has exceptional night skies. Northern Spain as a whole is dramatically underrated for stargazing, and Asturias is one of the best spots on the peninsula to see the Milky Way clearly.
Asturias is one of the key stages of the 10-Day Northern Spain Road Trip — the full route from the Basque Country through to Galicia runs along this coast.
A car is essential for exploring Asturias properly — the coast roads, the Picos access routes, and the interior villages are all spread out. What to know before you drive in Spain covers the rules and what's different from the US.
Asturias doesn't shout. It doesn't have the glamour of Andalucía or the culinary fame of the Basque Country. What it has is something quieter and perhaps more durable: extraordinary landscape, ancient history, excellent food, and a way of life that's genuinely its own. Visit once, and you'll find yourself planning the return trip before you've even left.
For official visitor information and travel resources for Asturias, the Turismo Asturias is the best starting point for itineraries, events, and local guides.
Written by Sherri: an American who spent years traveling solo, including time living in Peru, before settling into a full-time digital nomad life with her husband and young kids for over four years. She's now been in Europe for 3.5 years, most of it in the Valencia area of Spain. Everything on Travel-Casa is written from firsthand experience or knowledge picked up along the way.
Asturias is also home to the highest concentration of wild brown bears in Spain. If wildlife is your thing, read our guide to seeing bears in Somiedo.
One of the most remarkable traditions in Asturias is the Vaqueiros de Alzada, the semi-nomadic cattle people who have been moving their herds between mountain pastures since the 8th century. The Braña de la Pornacal in Somiedo is the most preserved of their mountain settlements, and the annual cattle fair on September 8th is one of the oldest livestock events in Spain. Full guide: the Vaqueiros of Asturias.
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