Oviedo

Currency budget Spain

Euro, and cards are taken almost everywhere, cider houses included. Take the euro price when a terminal offers to convert.

ATMs & cards

Use a bank’s own machine — Unicaja, Sabadell, Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Caja Rural de Asturias — and refuse the conversion.

A Spanish bank may charge a non-customer; the fee is shown on screen before you confirm. Refuse the conversion either way.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety all of Spain

Very safe, and quiet with it. The risks are outside it: the mountain roads in the Picos are narrow and the weather turns fast, and in high summer and at holiday weekends the road up to the Covadonga lakes is closed to cars and run by shuttle bus. It rains often all year; bring a waterproof rather than waiting for a dry day.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa Spain visa rules

Health & emergencies all of Spain

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Cider is poured from a bottle held above the head into a glass held low, a finger at a time, and drunk at once while it is lively; leave the last drop, which goes on the floor. Fabada, white beans with chorizo, morcilla and pork; cachopo, two veal fillets with ham and cheese between them, breaded and enormous; Cabrales, the blue cheese of the Picos; carbayones, the town’s almond pastry. Portions here are big; order less than you think.

Nightlife

A cider evening first — a round of the sidrerías on Calle Gascona with something to eat — then the bars of the old town for those who carry on.

• Calle Gascona — the cider houses, end to end
• Calle Mon — the old-town bar street
• Plaza del Fontán — terraces and cider under the arcades

Closing: The cider houses fill from about nine and wind down around midnight; the old-town bars run late at weekends and are quiet on weeknights.

Getting around

• On foot — the old town and the centre are small and largely pedestrian; Monte Naranco and its churches are a forty-minute walk uphill
• Train — Cercanías to Gijón and Avilés, and to Madrid in about three and a half hours
• Bus — ALSA to Gijón, Cangas de Onís, Covadonga and the coast
• Hire car — for the Picos de Europa and the fishing villages, which is most of the reason to be in Asturias
• Airport: Asturias (OVD), about 45 minutes by coach

eSIM

A data eSIM for Spain, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:Works hereWorks hereRevolutIn the app

Must-see

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Spanish

• HelloHolaOH-la
• PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
• Thank youGraciasGRA-thyas
• Yes / NoSí / Nosee / no

Religion

Catholic

Nominally Catholic and deeply secular in practice. Churches are working buildings as well as sights, and Semana Santa is taken seriously even by people who never attend Mass.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Eat late — lunch from 14:00, dinner rarely before 21:00
• Greet with two cheek kisses, right cheek first, between women or a man and a woman
• Stand at the bar to drink; it is cheaper than sitting and more sociable
• Say buenos días on entering a small shop, and adiós on leaving

Don't

• Do not expect anything to be open between 14:00 and 17:00 outside the big cities
• Do not order sangria in a serious restaurant — it is a tourist drink; ask for tinto de verano
• Do not tip heavily; rounding up or a euro or two is normal
• In Barcelona, do not assume Catalan and Spanish are interchangeable — the distinction matters to people