Northern Spain is a good place to discover that a short distance on a map can deserve most of a day. The Picos de Europa rise through a landscape of limestone, steep valleys and small settlements. They reward an itinerary with a little room in it.<\/p>\n
The national park spans Asturias, Cantabria and Castilla y Le\u00f3n. Turismo Asturias describes three distinct massifs<\/a>, rather than one simple destination. Choosing which side to explore matters more than collecting every famous name.<\/p>\n For a first visit, I would choose one area and stay several nights. On the Asturian side, Cangas de On\u00eds gives a useful starting point for the Covadonga area. On the Cantabrian side, the Li\u00e9bana valley puts Fuente D\u00e9 on the list of possibilities.<\/p>\n The point is to avoid repacking every morning. A settled base lets you change a walking day into a village day when the weather asks for it, without feeling that the trip has gone wrong.<\/p>\n The Spanish national-parks guide<\/a> identifies the Cares trail, the Covadonga lakes and Fuente D\u00e9 among the best-known places to explore. They are different experiences, and none needs to become a compulsory stop.<\/p>\n A walk beside dramatic rock walls, a day around the lakes, or a cable-car outing can each be the centre of a day. Add time to get there, eat and stop looking at the clock. Check official transport, access and trail information close to your visit; a photograph tells you very little about current conditions.<\/p>\n Mountain plans need flexibility. Pick routes that match your experience, carry appropriate clothing and navigation, and turn around when conditions call for it. A lower route or an unhurried lunch is a perfectly respectable alternative to a summit.<\/p>\n The trip I would plan has one substantial outing, one gentler day and at least one deliberate gap. The mountains provide enough drama. The schedule can afford to be quiet.<\/p>\n Photo: Dave Evans \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA 3.0 Spain<\/a>. April 2015; reduced-resolution reproduction.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Limestone peaks, deep valleys and a better reason to slow a northern Spain itinerary down. Start with one base and fewer daily ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","wpai_meta_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9035,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9030\/revisions\/9035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudonfire.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Start with a base<\/h2>\n
Choose your kind of day<\/h2>\n
Let the weather have a vote<\/h2>\n
![Dave Evans \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a>,](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Picos_de_Europa_sunset_over_Riano.jpg\"){kind=link}