Me and Asturias go way back. I first pitched up here in the mid-1980s as a backpacking student with an Interrail pass, riding the old-fashioned trains that rattled along the Cantabrian coast from Bilbao to La Coruña. I still remember my wide-eyed delight at seeing for the first time the verdant valleys rolling down to the sea, the huge beaches pummelled by big Atlantic breakers, the fishing villages stuck like limpets to the rocky coastline. Cold climates often imply caution and reserve, but there was a friendliness and warmth about the locals that reminded me, counter-intuitively perhaps, of the laid-back Mediterranean.
Asturias is one of four regions along Spain's north coast, from Galicia in the west to the Basque Country in the east. The Principality of Asturias, as it’s officially known, brims with distinctiveness and diversity. It has its own language, culture, and cuisine; its cool, damp climate harbours lush pastures, deciduous forests and mighty mountain ranges. As a holiday spot, Asturias has historically been favoured mainly by Spaniards, but as summer temperatures rise inexorably in the Med, a trickle of wised-up foreigners are choosing to take their vacations in these temperate northern climes.
The decades that followed that eye-opening Interrail trip saw me returning again and again. There was a memorable long weekend in Oviedo, the charmingly buttoned-up capital with its bustling provincial air; and another in Gijón – the polar opposite of Oviedo, a boisterous coastal town with a surf-tastic beach scene and a salty seaside vibe. In the rough-and-tumble harbourside neighbourhood of Cimadevilla in Gijón, I had my first swig of Asturian cider, which was poured in a thin stream into a flat-bottomed glass for a deliciously fresh (as well as intoxicating) draught.
More than anything, Asturias's food and drink kept me coming back for more. The wonderfully hearty local cuisine turns around classics like fabada asturiana, a rib-sticking stew of thumb-sized faba beans with cured pork meat and smoked sausage, and the creamy and unctuous rice pudding that is arroz con leche. I soon learned to value such fine asturiano ingredients as grass-fed beef and lamb, fish from the Cantabrian ports, and artisan cheeses – of which the region is said to have more individual varieties per square kilometre even than France. At a series of rustic eating houses run by the stalwart women cooks known as guisanderas (‘stew-makers’) I ate my fill of down-home local favourites like onions stuffed with oxtail and maize-flour tortos with minced meat picadillo. But the excitement of new-wave Spanish cuisine had not passed the region by. A prime example was the restaurant Casa Marcial, which I first visited in the late 1990s when its chef-patron Nacho Manzano had not long been in charge of the rustic bar/shop/eatery previously run by his parents in the hamlet of La Salgar – and which now has three Michelin stars.
Over the decades, I must have made a dozen trips around this neck of the woods, making discoveries every time. One year, I spent a few days in the post-industrial town of Avilés, where Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer had just designed a new cultural centre composed of curvaceous geometric forms in dazzling white. Driving east along the coast to Llanes, under the looming shadow of the Picos de Europa mountains, I was amazed to see how the concrete cubes of the harbour wall had been painted (by sculptor Agustín Ibarrola) in dazzling colours and madcap designs. All through the 2000s I was obsessed with the unique Asturian heritage of pre-Romanesque churches dating from the 6th to 9th centuries. I plotted elaborate routes among these tiny, primitive and almost unimaginably ancient buildings.
But if Asturias is big on culture, it’s even bigger on nature. The region has no less than 24 nature reserves, including a Parque Nacional and three of Spain’s largest Parques Naturales. Around a third of its surface area enjoys some sort of conservation status, making Asturias an ecological resource of inestimable value. Big treks in the deep country have long been a feature of my travels here. In the summer of 2009, in the company of mountain expert Guillermo Mañana, I made a four-day hike along the Camin Real de la Mesa, a Roman road winding spectacularly through the wild and lonely landscapes of Somiedo Natural Park. Wolves and bears still roam the silent valleys of the Principality’s unsullied interior, and a new kind of wildlife tourism has sprung up to cater for visitors keen to peer at them through telescopes. My bear-spotting safari with Wild Spain Travel in May 2022 was undoubtedly one of my life's most thrilling travel experiences.
Meanwhile, Asturias and I have become like some cosy long-term couple, comfortable in each other’s company but not yet at the point where familiarity breeds contempt. When summer heats frazzle the south of Spain, I still head north annually towards those sweeping. pristine beaches, those rolling valleys lined with oak and chestnut woods.
And the latest chapter of this particular love story is both a happy ending and a promising new start.
Reader, I’ve just bought a house here.
Where to stay in Asturias
SoloPalacio
Nothing about SoloPalacio conforms to conventional notions of country-house luxury. First, there’s the location: way down south in a little-populated, little-visited corner of the region among grandiose mountain scenery and hardscrabble villages. Then there’s the back story. The country seat of the aristocratic Miranda-Quirós family, a rambling rural property in the hamlet of Llanuces, was rescued from ruin by Madrid entrepreneur Carlos Díaz. With his partner, designer Sofia Tejerina, Díaz transformed the property into a collection of 11 apartments occupying various outbuildings and a chapel plus the original 16th-century dwelling house, opening as SoloPalacio in June 2023. The USP here is Tejerina’s extraordinary design for the palacio – a radically stripped-down aesthetic employing basic and often humble materials to strikingly beautiful effect. (Think ‘wabi-sabi’ but without the shabby.) The high-ceilinged interiors are devoid of decoration beyond the occasional hand-woven basket or rustic implement; the walls are ruthlessly, unsparingly white. Colour has no place in this warm monastic minimalism: it’s all about the touchy-feely textures of polished cement floors, bare stone walls, rust-treated steel girders, and architectural-salvage furniture. Bathroom fixtures might be cheap hardware-store staples, yet the big squishy sofas are acres of cool white linen. Forget five-star fripperies like the big TV, the room service menu, the chocolate on the pillow - though a coffee machine and a bottle of Asturian wine would certainly be nice. On the plus side, there’s a stone-built Wellness Space and an infinity pool with mind-boggling mountain views. It may help to ease the pain of the room rate (whose high-season ceiling of 1059€ has caused quite a stir locally) to know that Diaz intends all profits from the hotel to go towards social projects and conservation schemes in the vicinity. As I said, SoloPalacio is anything but conventional.
Pueblo Astur
This thoroughgoing makeover of an entire country village (Cofiño, near Parres) raised the bar for high-end accommodation in Asturias when it opened in 2016. The sprawling property, which encompasses a church, traditional wooden paneras (granaries), and stables housing rare-breed farm animals, also includes 30 rooms in converted village houses, an excellent spa, river pools for swimming, and two restaurants using produce from the farm. The result is an interesting fusion of rusticism with highly geared luxe.
El Moderne
As Asturias’ brightest and boldest city and a seaside hub of urban culture often compared to Brighton in the UK, Gijón is just the right place for this sleek, chic boutique hotel in a carefully restored 1931 art-deco building.
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CoolRooms Palacio de Luces
Asturias has never been prodigal in really fine hotels, but Palacio de Luces is a notable exception. First opened in 2006, it was recently acquired by the small but energetic Spanish group CoolRooms, who have made their mark on what was already a remarkable building, combining as it does a 16th-century mansion in pale yellow stone with a modernist wing surgically grafted on to the original buildings. Natural light floods in from all sides through plate-glass windows affording huge views of meadows and farmland, the coastline stretching away to east and west, and the hulking form of the Sueve mountain range. The 44 bedrooms, distributed equally between old and new wings, have undergone a total refit since the hotel changed hands in 2018, sweeping away the earlier incarnation’s dowdy brown-and-beige interior in favour of an elegant contemporary-classic look in a palette of greens that almost feels like a continuation of the landscape. Service, pitched five-star high, never feels starchy or formal. Nearby Lastres has some great eating places, but it’s worth staying for dinner at the hotel restaurant Tella. The views from the dining room, through floor-to-ceiling windows opened wide on summer nights, are as delectable as Francisco Ruiz’s new-gen Asturian cuisine with its emphasis on locally sourced produce and cunning nods to the region’s Latin American connections.
Casona de Indias
This bijou 7-room hotel in a former casa de indianos (built for a successful emigré on his return from the Americas) is beautifully sited in a quiet rural setting within reach of the Redes natural park. Owner/manager Pedro Armas is a madrileño incomer whose well-judged taste and hospitality make the casona feel like a particularly well-upholstered and civilised B&B.
Parador de Corias
A former monastery in the remote southwest of the region, this imposing granite building (known as ‘the El Escorial of Asturias’) is a stand-out among recent incorporations to the state-owned Paradores chain. Having arrived at this out-of-the-way location, be sure to visit the nearby nature reserve of Muñiellos, one of Europe’s largest areas of first-growth deciduous forest and a haunt of the Cantabrian brown bear.
Hotel de la Reconquista
The storied Reconquista in Oviedo, all red velvet and antique wood, where dignitaries and celebrities lay their heads during the annual Princess of Asturias awards, is the kind of hotel that Spaniards describe as de toda la vida (‘it’s been there forever’).
Casonas Asturianas
Founded 30 years ago in 1994, this association of farmhouse stays, foursquare village houses and stone-built historic palacios continues to offer exceptional quality and value. It’s worth browsing the website to find jewels like Villa Argentina in Luarca and Casona de la Paca in Cudillero – both examples of the extravagant modernista houses built by wealthy Asturians on their return from the Americas in the early years of the 20th century.
Where to eat and drink in Asturias
Restaurante Guëyu Mar
Top-quality fish and seafood landed at the small-scale fishing harbours along the Cantabrian coast, is a major selling point of Asturian eating. This celebrated beachside restaurant at Playa de Vega does a great line in whole fish (try the virrey, a firm-fleshed local species) cooked over coals or a la plancha.
Address: Playa de Vega, 84, 33560 Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain
Website: gueyumar.es
Casa Marcial
In the same former farmhouse where his parents once ran a rustic shop and bar, Nacho Manzano now presides over a Michelin-starred restaurant, generally agreed to be the region's finest, where the food is both inventive and sophisticated but never loses touch with Manzano's asturiano country roots.
Address: 33549 Arriondas, Parres, Asturias, Spain
Website: casamarcial.es
Casa Chuchu
This no-frills locale in the post-industrial town of Mieres looks like a standard-issue Asturian cider house but is actually way more interesting. Rafael Rodríguez pours natural wines, cult sherries, and new-wave ciders while his wife Natalia Menéndez serves a market-led menu that, depending on the day and season, might run from shellfish salpicón and stuffed onions to roast beetroot with anchovy and hazelnuts and hake with fresh apple and cucumber sauce.
Address: El Parque, s/n, 33610 Turón, Asturias, Spain
Website: instagram.com/casachuchu
Calle Gascona
Cider is a pillar of Asturian life, and cider houses abound in the region. They usually serve plates of fried pixín (monkfish) and platters of cheese along with cider by the bottle. This Oviedo street, teeming with sidrerías, is good for a total immersion in cider culture and its curious customs, like the escanciado: the drink is oxygenated by expert servers pouring it from an arm’s height.
Address: C. Gascona, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Website: gasconaoviedo.es
Vino de Asturias
Visitors to the deep green landscapes of Asturias´ southwest corner are often surprised to see vineyards among the oak and chestnut woods. In fact, wine has been made here since the 9th century but is currently undergoing a revival, now with its own quality seal (Denominación de Origen Cangas) and forward-thinking bodegas like Antón Chicote, La Muriella and Monasterio de Corias.
Address: Centro de Empresas de Obanca, 33800 Cangas del Narcea, Asturias, Spain
Website: docangas.es
El Llar de Viri
Leading members of the guisanderas – a group of Asturian women keeping alive the flame of traditional regional cuisine – Elvira Fernández and Maria José Miranda serve authentic versions of dishes like pote de castañas, fabada asturiana, roast xaldu lamb, and arroz con leche at their down-home eating house in San Román (Pravia).
Address: Trasquilos, 20, 33828 Candamo, Asturias, Spain
Website: llardeviri.eu
Terra Astur El Vasco
The popular and successful Terra Astur chain is a cornerstone of the region’s restaurant business, with several branches in Oviedo, one in Gijón and one in Avilés, plus a number of specialist Asturian food shops. Its latest addition, in Oviedo’s El Vasco gastro-mall, is a sidrería on the grand scale, its 1500 metre-squared space hung with thousands of cider bottles and usually packed to the rafters with local families tucking into Terra Astur’s reasonably priced and copiously served Asturian food. Working with around 2000 small local producers from livestock farmers to cheese dairies and cidermakers, the chain continues to play an important role in the survival of small-scale farming in the region.
Address: C. Víctor Chávarri, 33001 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Website: terra-astur.com
Camilo de Blas
A confiteria founded in 1914 and still run by a member of the original family, Camilo de Blas specialises in sweet Asturian treats like carbayones and casadielles. Worth the visit as much for these as for its glorious interior complete with an ancient cash register and ornate cupboards.
Address: C. Jovellanos, 7, 1 BAJO, 33003 Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Website: camilodeblas.es
