Where are the Picos de Europa?

This is a smallish, rugged and extremely beautiful mountain range in the north of Spain. It spans the Principado de Asturias, the Comunidad autónoma de Cantabria, and the Comunidad autónoma de Castilla y León. 

How do you get there?

MexicoCassie Picos de Europa itinerary outline

A few things to consider before you go

Fitness 💪🏽

It’s absolutely possible to visit this region with varying levels of fitness, you just need to be realistic so you don’t injure yourself. It wouldn’t be a good idea to attempt the 27km Ruta de Cares hike if you’ve never hiked before or have bad knees, but you could still start it and walk until you’re tired. That’s why I shared, above, that my friend and I are both extremely fit and as you’ll see below, some of these ‘moderate’ hikes were actually hard for us.

A note on kids – only one of the hikes I mention is actively not recommended for children under 12. I’ve been hiking with my kids since they were 2 and 4, and I while I know that technically, at 12 and 14, they could cope with everything I outline below, they would moan a lot 🤣. These aren’t hikes for little kids but you could definitely take them to all these places and then take it easy, doing what they can manage at their speed.

A note on blisters – if your shoes and socks are well fitting and suited to hiking, you shouldn’t get them but if you do, it’s vital to have blister plasters and/or blister wool (my preference) with you if you plan to keep walking. I also always carry extra socks with my in my day pack so that if they get damp (mmmmm sweaty 🧦) or uncomfortable I can swap them out and hopefully prevent a blister from forming.

Picnics 🧺

We took bread, ham & cheese with us every day. We also carried a variety of fruits (apples and satsumas), nuts, candies and fuet (traditional Spanish cured sausage). It’s also a good idea to have a trash bag per day because it’s never ok to leave rubbish in nature, & freezer bags for leftovers. A good picnic half way up a mountain is always an excellent choice.

Itinerary details

Day 1 – Bilbao, Euskadi

🏨 Where we stayed: Pension Boutique Caravan Cinema (great value for money, clean, central and very comfortable)

What we did: Queer Tour of Bilbao, general wandering (I’ve been multiple times), found a new to me mirador, friend went to the Guggenheim while I did some more general wandering. 

Where we ate & drank: Pintxos in Gure-Toki & Sorgínzulo on Nueva Plaza in the Old Town. Bitsa makes fantastic breakfasts (and has amazing art on the walls, so good I actually bought two small pieces). La Barmacia Bilbao is a cool bar that makes excellent cocktails (cool as in my friend and Ioved the atmosphere, not necessarily cool for 20 yr olds)

→ Read the MexicoCassie guide to Bilbao for further information on exploring this awesome city

Day 2 – Drive from Bilbao to Las Arenas de Cabrales, Asturias

This 2h30 drive itself is truly something special. From the moment we left Bilbao we were gasping at the views, and marvelling as the landscape changes from rolling green hills and spectacular coastal scenery to overwhelming mountain views.

🛣️ The roads are good and well maintained the whole route (and there are no toll roads).

We had planned to stop for a picnic lunch along the way but the weather wasn’t great and we weren’t particularly hungry after a good brunch in Bilbao, so we drove straight to our hotel in Las Arenas without stopping. 

→ Read the full MexicoCassie guide to driving in Spain to assuage your nerves about renting a car and driving yourself around this region.

This is a really cute tiny town with a population of around 750 people. It is the main tourist base for the Picos de Europa in Asturias and here you’ll find a decent number of hotels and restaurants, a few tourist shops selling hiking gear and two small supermarkets.

Where to stay in Las Arenas

🏨 We stayed in the Hotel Picos de Europa and it was fantastic, I highly recommend it. The rooms are perfect, large, clean, great beds, perfect showers (also a separate bath, which we made use of), and the staff are amazing and the food fabulous. 

→ Reserve your stay

→ Check out other hotels

Where to eat in Las Arenas

🍽️ We ate fantastic breakfasts in our hotel, and suppers in two excellent restaurants

Sidrería La Zapica – slightly more upmarket and very popular. We didn’t reserve but I think we were lucky to get a table. 

Santelmo Restaurante – more lowkey, they have a lunch time menu del día and serve food all day, which is handy when you’re exhausted at 7pm after a long hike. 

Also had a drink in Restaurante el coyugu and coffees in Panadería Cafetería Cideres

What else to do in Las Arenas

🧀 Cueva del Queso de Cabrales

We highly enjoyed the tour but despite loving blue cheese, neither of us is a fan of cabrales cheese (we knew this going in, and didn’t have our tastes changed).

It’s recommended to book in advance by phone but when I called no one ever picked up. We just showed up and were able to get on the next tour. I don’t know that this would work in high season.

🏞️ Stroll by the stream and enjoy the views, especially at dawn when the mist hasn’t yet cleared.

Day 3 – Hiking the Ruta del Cares

27km between Poncebos (Asturias) and Caín (Castilla Y León) & back again

This is probably the most famous of all trails in the Picos de Europa, maybe even in Spain and it is absolutely magnificent. It follows the River Cares between Poncebos and Caín through the Garganta del Cares (Cares Gorge).

If you go during peak season you can expect it to be fairly crowded. We went in May and although it was never busy, we did see a decent number of people.

The trail is never right at the riverside but you will see or hear the river throughout most of the hike as you pass through caves, tunnels, waterfalls and incredible mountain scenery.

You’ll most likely want to stop regularly to chat with the goats, examine pretty flowers, exclaim at trees and marvel at the views. If there weather is good, you may even spot the Naranjo de Bulnes (also called the Picu Urriellu) if you’re lucky. 

Just before you reach Caín there are a couple of cafés where you can stop for a drink by the river before turning around or carrying on.

 

Our experience and opinions

The views were truly spectacular. The path is always narrow but we never felt worried. I used the return journey to focus on taking photos of insects, flowers and goats and I had maybe kind of hoped to see an Iberian wolf or bear, but they didn’t make an appearance for us.

Day 4 – Poo, two villages and a hike

Mirador de Póo

We began our day by driving a few minutes to the tiny village of Póo (just outside of Las Arenas) because there’s an incredible mirador here from where you’ll get great views of the Naranjo de Bulnes, and have the opportunity to take photos of the funny road signs if you’re as immature as my friend and I apparently are.

Sotres

After our extremely long hiking day, we decided to take it a little easier on day 3 so we drove to Sotres, a small village 30 minutes phenomenal drive from Las Arenas.

Sotres is the highest village in the Picos de Europa at 1,050m above sea level, and like Las Arenas, it is famous for its cheese. As I’ve mentioned, we aren’t particular fans of this region’s cheese so we skipped cheese hunting, and instead we took a short walk around the village before heading down to our actual plan of walking to and from Las Vegas de Sotres.

🏨 Sotres would also be a lovely place to base yourself if you love peace and quiet → check hotel options now

Hike: Sotres – Las Vegas de Sotres & return

Bulnes

Next we decided to take the funicular up to Bulnes, a tiny village hidden up in the mountains.

It’s possible to hike up (2hr trail) but we decided not to because I love random transport options almost as much as I love hiking – sadly (and should have been obvious but wasn’t to me) the funicular runs directly through the mountain so there’s no view but it’s a fun experience non-the-less during the nine minute 402m rise.

There remains no car route up to Bulnes, you have to choose between the either a hike or the cable car (opened only in 2001).

Bulnes sits 650m above sea level and is surrounded by peaks of over 1,600m. Fewer than 50 people live in the village but it does a decent trade in catering to visitors who stop in for the night for for lunch/a drink.

Bulnes is a village of two parts. The funicular drops you off close to Bules de Abajo (also known as La Villa). Once you’ve had a drink here you can walk up to Bulnes de Arriba (also known as Barrio del Castillo). If you walk from Poncebos, you’ll probably follow the path La Canal del Texu.

From Bulnes de Abajo you can take a short 10 minute uphill walk to the Naranjo de Bulnes viewpoint (photo above). It’s worth it.

🏨 If staying up here appeals, check out La Casa de Chiflón

Day 5 – Drive to Lon (Cantabria) via Potes and a hike

After breakfast we set off for Potes (just over an hour’s drive). We stopped at the excellent visitors’ centre, Centro de Visitantes “Sotama”, to get advice on where to hike while in Cantabria on the way.

Potes 

Potes is pretty much a bigger version of Las Arenas de Cabrales in that it’s the main town for visitors to the Picos de Europa in Cantabria and its population is around 1300. It’s also an incredibly beautiful town.

Located in the region of Liébana, Potes is surrounded by truly spectacular mountain vistas. Its historic area has been declared a place of cultural interest and as it’s located on the Camino Lebaniego it is also a popular pilgrim town. 

🛍️ There is a Monday market as well as three supermarkets, many tourist shops, and numerous restaurants and hotels.

What to do in Potes

When you visit, be sure to take more than a moment to admire the bridges that cross the river here. 

Torre del Infantado – until recently this was the Town Hall. Today it’s a cultural centre and monument you can gaze at and even enter. It was built in the 15th century and the views from the roof are fantastic.

Museo Cartográfico Juan de la Cosa (Map Museum) – sadly this was closed while I was in town as I’d have loved to visit. Juan de la Cosa was an early voyager to the Americas and he created the oldest surviving map of the American continent.

🛶 In Potes and nearby villages you will find tour options for kayaking

🪂 From Potes it’s possible to go paragliding (something we saw but did not do) over the Picos de Europea!

Where to stay in Potes

🏨 Hotel Valdecoro – modern comfort in the centre of town

🏨 Hotel Posada La Casa de Frama – 2km from Potes, this rural inn offers spectacular views, comfortable rooms and great food

🏨 Posada Peñas Arriba, Lon – 10 minutes outside Potes, this is where we stayed. It’s a good value inn in a quiet village. Hotel has a bar, decent food and powerful showers

Where to eat in Potes

There are plenty of excellent restaurants to choose from in Potes. Because my friend and I both live in Spain and had eaten only traditional Spanish food up to this point on our trip, we opted for more international cuisine in Potes.

🍔 La Scala – excellent hamburgers

☕️ Panadería Gallofa&Co – excellent coffee and breakfast pastries

❌ La Serna – one of the worst pizzas I’ve ever had. I believe their non-pizza menu is meant to be good but it certainly wasn’t a place I’d return to

🕤 Note that we’d assumed that it would be possible to eat outside of traditional Spanish meal times given that people are here to hike and therefore going to bed early. We were wrong (hence ending up eating bad pizza, it was basically the only place open at 7.30pm).

Lon

From here we headed to Lon, the village we were staying in

🏨 We stayed in the Posada Peña Arribas

There’s literally nothing else here, just a couple of posadas (inns) and a couple of places that apparently sell cheese – we went to check them out but both looked more like people’s houses than real cheese shops. One was totally shut up and one had a snoozing abuela in the garden. We opted not to disturb her.

Because we’d had a big lunch in Potes, we did not eat supper, but we may have drunk a decent amount while playing cards. 

Day 6 – Mogrovejo village & hike 

Mogrovejo Village

Officially named one of the most beautiful villages in both Cantabria and Spain, this is all known as the Heidi Village and you’ll see why as you explore the village and the surrounding countryside.

_{(Personally, I think about Heidi and her life way more than you might expect an adult to do but I really, really want to sleep on a bed of straw 🤣 after a day playing in the mountains)}

I highly recommend you take a stroll around the village before you hike as once you’re done you probably won’t want to walk any more. Or, if you don’t feel like hiking today, just enjoy the village and then leave, there are plenty of other small villages around you could drive to if you feel like a rest day today.

Mogrovejo Hike

This hike should come with two warnings

🫁 one for your respiratory system – this is HARD HARD WORK

🧡 one for your emotions – the views are so incredible that you might cry

Day 7 – Fuente Dé cable car, snow and hike

Teleférico / Cable Car

The Fuente Dé cable car runs from Fuente Dé at 1070m above sea level to El Cable at 1823m above sea level covering 753m in 3 minutes 40 seconds.

20 people are permitted in each car, which means you generally have a pretty good view.

We booked a return trip as we weren’t sure which route we’d want to take (there are some that take you back down to Fuente Dé). In the end we were glad because it gave us the chance to explore more of the high mountains. 

Our experiences and opinions

Once you pass the refugio the landscape opens up into valleys so once we’d done some sitting on a hill and contemplating our good fortune, we decided to head back up into the mountains. I won’t lie, the way back was much harder.

Our route down to the refugio also included a Cass-induced skip off piste to visit a small snow bank where we merrily threw snowballs for a few minutes.

Just before the Chalet Real, you cross the Riega de Resalao. Here there’s a fuente with delicious mountain water you can enjoy. We also saw people paddling in the water (downstream from the fuente, don’t worry).

We ate lunch opposite the majestic Peña Vieja, having scrambled up a cliff side to find some shade. We then followed the PR23 Horcados Rojos path for a while before getting entirely distracted by the Lagos de Lloroza (three small ‘lakes’ that are fun to climb down to and then explore. Our original plan had been to hike up this route as far as we could before the snow got too deep but the lakes were just too pretty to ignore, there was snow to play with, our feet needed paddling and there were pollywogs to watch.

(The lakes here, by the way, are not glacial lakes, as we wondered while we sat by them. There are two glacial lakes but they’re both over by Cangas de Onís on the other side of Asturias)

We’d planned to have a coffee (beer) in the mirador restaurant before heading down but it was incredibly loud so we opted to return and stop in the very pretty Cosgaya for a drink on the way home instead. 

Day 8 – Return trip to Bilbao

That was it. We got up, packed the car, stopped for breakfast coffees in Potes and drove back to Bilbao (via a Mercadona stop for poke bowls to eat in the airport – you don’t catch me paying airport prices).

There’s so more to see in this region and you will find many itineraries that manage to squeeze in the Covadonga lakes (for example) into a week but we wanted to enjoy our views, not worry about rushing, and we know we’ll be back.