Where to Stay in Asturias in December: The Best Hotels for Cider, Christmas and the Picos
Asturias in December is the version of Spain most Americans never picture. It's green, it's cold enough for a fireplace, and the whole region revolves around cider. The sidrerías are full, the fabada is on every table, and on Nochebuena families crowd into cider houses for the longest dinner of the year.
Where you stay decides what kind of trip you get. Oviedo puts you in the middle of the cider culture and the old town. Gijón gives you the sea and a beach walk. And up in the Picos de Europa you get mountains, Covadonga, and nights that are properly dark and quiet.
Here are the best hotels in Asturias for December, chosen for different travelers and different priorities.
Best Location: Eurostars Hotel de la Reconquista
If you're coming to Asturias for the food, the cider and the old-town atmosphere, base yourself in central Oviedo, and the Hotel de la Reconquista is the city's grand address. It sits in the heart of Oviedo, an easy walk to the cathedral, the Fontan market and the cider bars of Calle Gascona, so your evenings start and end on foot.
The building is the attraction too. It was the region's hospice and hospital, built between 1752 and 1777, and it's now a National Monument and a 5-star hotel. You walk through two-story galleried courtyards and past the old octagonal chapel where the Princess of Asturias Award juries meet. In December, with the city lit up for Christmas, it's hard to imagine a better-placed bed in Oviedo.
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Best Value: Hotel Fruela
Hotel Fruela is a small 3-star boutique hotel in central Oviedo, with 28 design rooms inside a 19th-century building. It's a short walk to the old town and the main shopping streets, which means you're in walking distance of the cider bars without paying old-town luxury rates.
Guest reviews are consistently strong, rates in the quieter weeks of December can start around €50 a night, and the rooms are modern and comfortable rather than dated. Spend the savings where it counts in Asturias: another round of cider and a proper plate of cachopo.
Best for Families: Parador de Gijón
The Parador de Gijón is a 40-room hotel set in a restored water mill beside the Parque de Isabel la Católica. That park is the reason it's the family pick: gardens, a pond, a children's play area, and a walk along the water to San Lorenzo beach and the old fishing quarter of Cimadevilla.
Kids get space to run, and parents get the Parador's restaurant, which serves Asturian classics like fabada, cachopo and Cantabrian fish with cider. Gijón is about 30 minutes from Oviedo by car or train, and it has its own excellent sidrerías, so you're not missing anything by staying on the coast.
Luxury: Barceló Oviedo Cervantes
The Barceló Oviedo Cervantes is a 5-star hotel in a restored early 20th-century mansion, a walk from the old town and Calle Gascona. Rooms are elegant and contemporary, the restaurant does a creative take on Asturian cooking, and the wine list is worth your attention.
It's a smaller, quieter kind of luxury than a big resort, with 82 rooms and connecting options that work for families who want a nicer stay. After an evening learning to pour cider from shoulder height on Gascona, coming back to this hotel feels like the right way to end the night.
Most Unique: Parador de Cangas de Onís
This is the stay people remember. The Parador de Cangas de Onís occupies the Benedictine monastery of San Pedro de Villanueva, one of the oldest in Asturias, founded in the 8th century and a National Monument since 1907. It sits on the banks of the Sella River with the Picos de Europa rising behind it, about two kilometers from Cangas de Onís.
Stone and wood rooms, a riverside garden, and guided tours of the abbey make it feel like a destination on its own. It's the right base for Covadonga and the mountains, and a quiet counterweight to the cider-bar evenings in Oviedo. If you can split your trip, do a few nights in the city and finish here.
Not Sure Yet? Search All Asturias Hotels
If none of these fit your exact dates or budget, Stay22 lets you search all available accommodation in Asturias in one place, from Oviedo and Gijón to the villages of the Picos.
Continue Planning Your December in Asturias
Asturias is our December pick for Culture & Food Seekers. Here's everything that goes with this guide.
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