Discover Asturias

A week in Asturias and nothing else, which is the right way to treat a region with a national park, a mountain range and two hundred kilometres of coast in it. Caminos arrange it as a fly-drive with the hire car included, or with the ferry and your own car. Seven nights, three bases, and the option to stretch it to nine.

The first three nights are the eastern coast and the Picos, with Oviedo, Ribadesella, the Mirador del Fito and the dinosaur footprints along the shore. The river Sella can be paddled down to the sea. Then two nights in the western highlands, which almost nobody visits: the Somiedo valley still has brown bears, and Muniellos is one of the largest surviving oak forests in Europe, entered by permit only. Cangas del Narcea has its own small wine denomination up there.

The last two nights are the western coast, where Cudillero is built in tiers around a cleft in the cliff and Luarca sits around a harbour below a cemetery with a view. Avilés has the Niemeyer Centre, a set of white curves by the Brazilian architect dropped into an old industrial estuary, which is the last thing you expect to find in northern Spain.

The price is per person for two sharing, bed and breakfast, with the car included; flights are extra, and the ferry option costs more. Short drives throughout, and the whole week stays within one region, which keeps the pace genuinely slow. It suits anyone who wants cider, bears, a Niemeyer and a fishing harbour in the same week, and would rather know one region well than three of them lightly.