Spain in September: One Week, Two Completely Different Spains (Asturias and the Costa Brava)

Picture this. It is early September. You are standing in a high mountain pass in Asturias, the green Cantabrian mountains rolling away in every direction, and coming toward you through the morning mist is a herd of cattle making their way down from the summer pastures. They are belled, every one of them. The sound arrives before you can see them properly. Then the cattle materialize out of the mist, enormous and calm, moving at the pace of something that has been doing this for a thousand years. Farmers in traditional dress surround the edges of the herd. The mountains smell of wet grass and woodsmoke.

This is Spain in September. Not the version in the brochures. The real one.

You have seen the photographs of Switzerland, the Alpine cows with their flower headdresses and enormous bells coming down from the mountain pastures every autumn. Asturias has its own version, older and less famous and completely un-staged, and September is exactly when it happens. Then you fly one hour south and east, pick up a rental car in Barcelona, and spend the second half of the week on the Costa Brava in September, the best possible time: still warm, no crowds, the light going golden, and the famous Jardí Botànic de Marimurtra finally walkable without fighting for space on the terraces.

This is a week that covers two Spains that most people never put together. Here is how to do it.

Why September

September is the shoulder season sweet spot for Spain. The Mediterranean coast stays warm, the water stays swimmable, prices drop from August peaks, and the locals come back. In Asturias, the mountains are at their most beautiful, the cattle are still on the high pastures, and the Feria del Puerto Somiedo takes place on September 8th every year, an ancient livestock fair in the high mountain that almost no foreign visitor has heard of.

On the Costa Brava, September is the best time to visit. The calas that were impossible in August become accessible. Restaurants have tables. The gardens, like Marimurtra, can be experienced the way they are meant to be: quietly, slowly, with space to think. And if you want to push north into French Catalonia at the end, Cadaqués is only 45 minutes from the French border and September is equally beautiful on the other side of the Pyrenees.

Getting there

Fly Madrid to Oviedo, about an hour, on Iberia or Vueling, or take the fast train. Pick up a rental car at Oviedo airport. At the end of the Asturias days, fly Oviedo to Barcelona, again about an hour, and pick up a new rental car for the Costa Brava. Return it at Barcelona airport when you fly home.

So without further ado:

Days 1 to 3: Asturias

Day 1 — Oviedo

Arrive in Oviedo and spend the afternoon in one of the most underrated cities in Spain. The old city is compact and beautiful. The Gothic cathedral houses the Cámara Santa, a UNESCO medieval treasury of early Christian goldsmithing that is almost completely unknown outside Asturias. On the hill above, two pre-Romanesque churches from the 9th century date from when this was the last Christian kingdom holding out against the Moorish conquest.

In the evening, find a sidrería and order cider the right way. In Asturias, sidra natural is poured escanciada, the waiter raising the bottle high and pouring into a wide glass held low. September is when the new harvest approaches and the sidrerías are at their best.

Day 2 — Somiedo and the Braña de la Pornacal

Drive an hour south into Somiedo Natural Park. The Vaqueiros de Alzada have been moving their families and belled cattle between these mountain pastures since the 8th century. This is their mountain.

The hike to the Braña de la Pornacal starts from the village of Villar de Vildas. Four kilometers, about an hour, through high meadows where cattle move slowly around you. At the top, the largest collection of traditional thatched-roof Vaqueiro cabins in northwestern Spain sits in a mountain bowl with views in every direction.

Lunch in Pola de Somiedo. Cachopo: two thin veal steaks, breaded and fried around ham and cheese. Order it.

Somiedo is also the best place in Spain to see wild brown bears in the wild. Late summer is one of the better windows. Scan the open slopes above the treeline in the early morning.

Day 3 — The Feria del Puerto Somiedo and the coast

September 8th is the Feria del Puerto, held at the Puerto Somiedo pass above the park. The cattle come down from the high summer pastures. Farmers trade. The mountain community gathers the way it has for centuries, not for tourists, not as a recreation. Arrive early.

In the afternoon, drive north to the Asturian coast. Playa de Silencio, hidden behind cliffs, is among the most dramatic beaches in Spain. Dinner in Cudillero. Then back to Oviedo for the night.

Day 4: Fly Oviedo to Barcelona

Return to Oviedo, return the rental car, fly to Barcelona. Pick up a new rental car and drive northeast into Catalonia. Arrive in Tossa de Mar in the late afternoon. For the full orientation to the coast and how to structure your time here: our Costa Brava guide.

In my opinion, Tossa is the most naturally beautiful town on the southern Costa Brava: a medieval walled castle on a clifftop above a perfect bay, beaches that face south and catch afternoon light beautifully. In August this town is impossible. In September it breathes. This is your base for the next three nights.

Day 5: Tossa de Mar and the Jardí Botànic de Marimurtra

Spend the morning in Tossa. Walk the walls of the castle, look at the sea from the towers, go into the museum to see the Chagall. In September you can actually lie on the main beach without fighting for space.

In the afternoon, drive 25 kilometers south to Blanes for the Jardí Botànic de Marimurtra. I tried to visit this garden in August and never made it through the door. Thirty minutes of driving circles looking for parking and I gave up and left. In September, on a different trip, that problem did not exist and we had the place almost to ourselves. Stop for a coffee in Lloret de Mar on the way and sit where you can see the castle in front of the sea and cliffs.

Marimurtra is terraced gardens climbing a clifftop above the sea: Mediterranean, African, and tropical plant collections, pergolas draped in flowering climbers, and views from the upper terraces across the bay that are genuinely breathtaking.

Day 6: L'Estartit, the Medes Islands, and Pals

L'Estartit is one of our personal places on this coast — we have history there. It has a wide sandy beach, calm shallow water, and is genuinely accessible without hiking, which matters on a coast where many of the most famous calas require a serious walk down a cliff path. Right offshore, the Medes Islands marine reserve has some of the best diving and snorkeling on the entire Mediterranean. September is ideal: the water is at its warmest and the summer crowds have thinned.

Pair it with Pals for the medieval magic. I like Pals in the morning for a coffee or lunch then head to L'Estartit to settle in for the day on the beach. There is a large grocery store with a parking lot called GP on the outskirts of town, that is the perfect place to stop if you need to pick up snacks.

Day 7: Cadaqués and Cap de Creus

Drive north to the end of the Costa Brava, where the Pyrenees fall into the Mediterranean. Cap de Creus, the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula, is a natural park of wind-carved rock and transparent water. Dalí's house at Portlligat sits just around the headland from Cadaqués, a twenty-minute walk from town worth doing at dusk. The sunset on the bay is magic.

Cadaqués: white houses, a church on the hill, small serious restaurants, and the quality of light that made it the most painted town on the coast for a century. Stay the night. Drive back to Barcelona the following morning and fly home.

Optional extension: add French Catalonia

Cadaqués is 45 minutes from the French border. If you have an extra day or two, continuing north into French Catalonia is one of the natural extensions to this trip. Collioure, the painted harbor town where Matisse and Derain famously worked in 1905, the Vermillion Coast, Perpignan, and the Pyrénées above it: a different country but the same cultural world, same Catalan language, same food DNA, same September light. We have done this road trip and it connects seamlessly.

The logistics

Flights: Madrid → Oviedo (about 1 hour), Oviedo → Barcelona (about 1 hour). Iberia and Vueling both serve these routes.

Rental cars: one at Oviedo airport for Asturias, one at Barcelona airport for the Costa Brava.

September 8th: fixed annual date for the Feria del Puerto Somiedo. Check what day of the week it falls in your year and adjust the Asturias leg accordingly.

Train options: search every Spanish train line here. Day trips from Barcelona by train if you want an extra day at the end without a car.

What to pack: layers and a waterproof for Asturias. Light clothes and a swimsuit for the Costa Brava. Good walking shoes for both halves.

What to eat: fabada, cachopo, sidra natural escanciada in Asturias; fresh September anchovies and Empordà wine on the Costa Brava; whatever the daily special is in Cadaqués.

Where to stay

Asturias: Oviedo (nights 1, 2, and 3)

Stay in or near the casco histórico for all three Asturias nights. One base, unpack once, drive to Somiedo and back on days 2 and 3. About an hour each way on good roads. Book ahead for early September.

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Costa Brava: Tossa de Mar (nights 4, 5, and 6) and Cadaqués (night 7)

Tossa de Mar as the Costa Brava anchor. Three nights covers Tossa itself, the Marimurtra morning, and the L'Estartit and Dalí day with easy returns each evening. The medieval Vila Vella is where the atmosphere is; the modern town immediately below is where most accommodation is, three minutes from the old walls and two from the beach.

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Cadaqués for the final night. Once the day visitors leave, the town is its own quiet world. Return to Barcelona the following morning for the flight home.

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More on both regions

Asturias | The Vaqueiros of Asturias | Bears in Somiedo | Northern Coast of Spain | Costa Brava and Girona | L'Estartit | Dalí Castle at Púbol | French Catalonia road trip | Catalonia | Traveling from Spain

Spain Has Many Versions. Find Yours.

Mediterranean Spain: Catalonia | Comunitat Valenciana | Murcia | Andalucía

Northern Spain: País Vasco | Cantabria | Asturias | Galicia | Navarra | Aragón

Inland Spain: Madrid | Castilla y León | Castilla-La Mancha | Extremadura | La Rioja

The Islands: Balearic Islands | Canary Islands

Planning and Living in Spain: Moving to Spain, But Where? | Living Abroad: The Real Pros and Cons | Slow Travel in Europe | What to Know Before You Drive in Spain | What Is Empty Spain?