Picos de Europa
Spain
Limestone peaks twenty kilometres from the sea, with a gorge walk, glacial lakes and cheese ripened in caves
Photo by Javier Rincón on Unsplash
Photos by Dylan Leagh, Dylan Leagh and Dylan Leagh on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Spain
June to September — the hiking season; snow lies on the high routes into late spring and fog comes in fast
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 170mm in Nov
Where it is
43.20°N, 4.85°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Walk the Cares gorge from Poncebos early, before the coach groups
- Check the Covadonga lakes access dates and book the bus from Cangas de Onís
- Take the first Fuente Dé cable car of the day to beat the queue
- Stay on one side of the massif at a time — Cangas de Onís for the lakes, Arenas de Cabrales for the Cares, Potes for Fuente Dé
- Buy Cabrales at a cave in Arenas rather than a shop in town
Picos de Europa travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Spain
Good valueCards in the towns — Cangas de Onís, Arenas de Cabrales, Potes. Mountain refuges, village bars and the cheese makers are where cash is needed. Refuse the conversion when a terminal offers to charge you in your own currency.
ATMs & cards
Take cash out in Cangas de Onís or Potes before heading into the valleys, where the villages often have no machine at all.
Avoid these
- stand-alone machines in the tourist towns that offer to convert to your own currency
Use these instead
- Unicaja
- Caja Rural de Asturias
- Santander
- CaixaBank
Take cash in Cangas de Onís or Potes; the villages further in rarely have a machine.
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
SafeThe people are not the risk; the mountains are. The Cares path is cut into a cliff with long unguarded drops, fog rolls onto the high plateaus in minutes and has lost walkers who knew the way, and snow lingers on the high routes into late spring. Tell someone your route, carry a layer and water, and turn back when the cloud comes down.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the Ruta del Cares — a path cut into the cliff with long unguarded drops; no place for a stumble or for running children
- the high plateaus in fog — cloud comes in within minutes and the paths disappear in it
- the high routes before the hiking season — snow and ice on the north faces long after the valleys are green
- the mountain roads — narrow and bendy, with cattle, cyclists and coaches on them
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Spain visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Spain
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date (MMR, tetanus, polio)
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
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
Very goodCabrales, a strong blue cheese ripened in limestone caves, is made here and is the thing to buy. On the Asturian side it is fabada, the bean-and-pork stew, and cider poured from above the head in a sidrería; on the Cantabrian side it is cocido lebaniego and orujo, the grape spirit from Potes. Portions are large; one dish at lunch will do for a day of walking.
Travel tipsGetting around
Car needed- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- CabifyWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
- Against a taxi
- About level with a metered taxi, and where a city sets a flat airport fare the taxi usually wins.
Several cities cap private-hire licences hard, so at peak the app may simply have nothing to send.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Madrid — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Spain, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works hereRevolutIn the app
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Spanish
- HelloHolaOH-la
- PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
- Thank youGraciasGRA-thyas
- Yes / NoSí / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse mePerdónper-DON
- How much is it?¿Cuánto cuesta?KWAN-to KWES-ta
- The bill, pleaseLa cuenta, por favorla KWEN-ta
- Cheers!¡Salud!sa-LOOD
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.
Travel tipsDo'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
Where to stay in Picos de Europa
No Holistay rentals in Picos de Europa yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Picos de Europa on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Asturias OVD
1h 30mfrom the airport· 104 km as the crow flies
Hire car, about an hour and a half to the northern side of the massif.
Also worth pricing: Santander SDR — more flights from Britain; about an hour and a half to Arenas de Cabrales and two hours to Potes.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
