A week in the mountains: 7 nights in Asturias

Seven nights in the high country — three of Asturias' great mountain landscapes, walks from our door, and a Michelin night you'll remember. No coast, no cities. Just the mountains and us.

This is the week for guests who come to Asturias for one reason: the mountains. We skip the cities and the coast entirely and spend seven days going deep into the high country — the wolf and bear forests of Redes, the wild gorges of Ponga, the cheese caves and cable cars of Cabrales, and the lakes and basilica of Covadonga. You'll walk straight from our door, eat in tiny mountain villages most visitors never find, and finish at one of the most celebrated tables in northern Spain.

It's an active week — five mountain drives, two local walks, and an itinerary that earns its meals. We've paced it carefully, with quieter days threaded between the bigger ones, but it's not a week for guests who want to slow down. It's a week for guests who want the landscape that put Asturias on the map. Settle into one of our rooms or, for a full week, one of our apartments for the extra space.

Dramatic wide cinematic landscape photograph of the Picos de Europa mountain range in northern Spain in late afternoon

Day 1 — Arrival & welcome to the valley

Roll in, drop the bags, and let the rest of the world fade. The journey deserves to end with a proper exhale — and we've put a walk on the doorstep precisely for that.

Step out for our Local Walk 8: Pintueles — a 3.4 km loop (about 45 minutes) starting from the plaza in front of the hotel. It climbs gently through the woods between Busllería and La Roza, passes the small Church of San Cristóbal, and circles back with the valley laid out beneath you. A first taste of the landscape that'll keep getting bigger all week.

Dinner at el gran sueño — settle in at our table, meet us properly, and let the food of the region introduce itself without you having to lift more than a fork.

The church of San Cristobal, Pintueles on a Summer's day

Day 2 — Redes Natural Park

A day in one of Asturias' wildest corners. Follow our Road Trip 7: Redes Natural Park into a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of deep beech and oak forest, glacial lakes, and limestone peaks. This is wolf and bear country — you won't see them, but they're there, and the landscape carries the weight of that knowledge.

The drive in winds up through the Nalón valley to a series of tiny mountain villages — Caleao, Tarna, Pendones — each smaller than the last. Stop at miradors, stretch your legs in the woods, and let the day move at the pace of the road.

Lunch at Casa Juanín, Pendones — a proper mountain casa de comidas in a hamlet of fewer than a hundred souls. Fabada, cachopo, slow-cooked beef, and the kind of welcome that makes the winding drive in feel like part of the meal. A short heads-up: the road to Pendones is beautiful but slow — give yourself time both ways.

Light bites at el gran sueño in the evening — after a Casa Juanín lunch, anything more would be greedy.

Photograph deep inside an ancient beech forest in the mountains of northern Spain in early autumn

Day 3 — A local walk to Infiesto

A gentler day to break up the driving. Lace up for our Local Walk 2: El gran sueño to Infiesto — one of our favourite walks from the hotel, taking you down through the valley into the heart of our quiet little capital.

Lunch in Infiesto — two strong options. Sidrería Óscar is the dependable everyday choice: proper Asturian cooking, cider poured from on high, the kind of place locals fill at weekends. La Maléfica (Friday to Sunday only — worth checking your dates) is the more ambitious pick, where a young kitchen does inventive things with traditional ingredients. Either way, take your time over it.

Walk back, or catch the local bus or a taxi if the legs have done their share. Dinner at el gran sueño to round off the gentlest day of the week.

Photograph taken from a grassy footpath descending gently through Asturian pastureland in late spring

Day 4 — Picos de Europa: Cabrales & Bulnes

The high country again, but this time eastward into the dramatic limestone heart of the Picos. Follow our Road Trip 4: Picos de Europa I — Cabrales & Bulnes into one of the most spectacular landscapes in Spain.

Stop in Arenas de Cabrales for the cheese caves and a tasting of the famous blue cabrales, matured deep in the mountain. Drive on to Poncebos, where you'll leave the car and take the funicular — a proper feat of engineering that climbs 400 metres in seven minutes through the heart of the rock — up to Bulnes, a tiny mountain village reachable only on foot or by that funicular. No roads in, no cars, no rush. Walk the cobbled lanes between stone houses, look up at the Picu Urriellu (the Naranjo de Bulnes) towering above, and feel properly out of reach of the world.

Lunch at El Redondín (Casa Rafa), Bulnes — a mountain restaurant in a village without roads, serving honest Asturian food at the kind of altitude where every plate feels earned.

Back down the funicular and home to el gran sueño in the late afternoon. Dinner with us, or a quiet one in.

Photograph of a tiny remote mountain village in the Picos de Europa, northern Spain, on a high green shelf surrounded by towering vertical limestone cliffs

Day 5 — Ponga Natural Park

A third mountain day, and the wildest of the lot. Follow our Road Trip 6: Ponga Natural Park into a landscape of vertiginous gorges, beech forest, and the kind of silence that only properly empty places have.

The road climbs through the Desfiladero de los Beyos — one of the most dramatic gorges in northern Spain, the river hundreds of metres below the road — and on into the heart of Ponga, where villages like San Juan de Beleño and Sobrefoz feel almost untouched.

Light lunch in Cangas de Onís on the way back — pick a spot on the riverside or by the Roman bridge, and keep it simple. There's a bigger dinner coming tomorrow.

Dinner at el gran sueño — early to bed if you can manage it. Tomorrow is a long one.

Photograph of a dramatic narrow river gorge in the mountains of northern Spain, taken from a viewpoint above the road

Day 6 — The big one & a Michelin starred night

One last walk, and not a small one. Local Walk 7: The Big One is exactly what its name suggests — our longest local route, climbing high above the valley for views that make every previous walk this week feel like a warm-up. Take your time, take a packed lunch, and come back tired in the best possible way.

Dinner at El Corral del Indianu, Arriondas — a Michelin-starred restaurant about 25 minutes from us, where chef José Antonio Campoviejo turns Asturian tradition into something genuinely surprising. A tasting menu, taken slowly, paired with the right wines. The evening that pulls the whole week together. Reservation essential — book well ahead.

Photograph taken from a high grassy ridge in the mountains of northern Spain in mid-morning, looking out across a wide green valley far below

Day 7 — Picos de Europa II and a last night with us

Two halves to today, and both worth the trip on their own. Follow our Road Trip 5: Picos de Europa II — Cangas de Onís & Covadonga to the spiritual and geological heart of Asturias.

Stand on the Roman bridge of Cangas de Onís, climb to the Sanctuary of Covadonga with its pink basilica wedged into the mountain, and — if the day is clear — drive up to the Lagos de Covadonga, where Enol and Ercina sit at 1,100 metres surrounded by grazing cattle and limestone peaks.

Light lunch at the lake café — keep it simple. The serious eating happens tonight.

Back to el gran sueño by mid-afternoon — time to slow down, change, and arrive at dinner properly.

Dinner at el gran sueño — the last night with us, and one of the easiest to settle into. The food you've come to know by now, the table you've come to think of as yours.