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Welcome to Hooked on Walking Holidays and our walking holiday in Northern Spain. This particular hiking holiday in Spain explores the fabulous Picos de Europa Mountains of northern Spain situated to the west of Bilboa and south of Santander. This walking holiday is available as a seven night self guided tour. This walking holiday for certain allows you to see the high peaks of “Green Spain”. The Picos de Europa are without a doubt the most impressive mountains of Spain emerging from a coastal landscape as a natural frontier between the green north of Spain and the more arid Castille. The heart of the Picos is formed by three whimsical limestone massifs, that aren’t easily crossed on foot or by car (luggage transport). We have therefore designed two different walking trips. This relatively inexpensive 8-day trip during which you’ll stay on the north side doing easy or more difficult day walks around the eastern and central massifs, including an ascent to a mountain hut at the foot of the famous Picu Urriellu and a more demanding 12 day trip. In this depopulated region, with a completely different landscape of conglomerate rock, where bears and wolves try hard to survive.
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Available 1st May to 24th October
Level 2 - 3 self guided tour
Day 1 Arrival at Arenas de Cabrales
You can leave your car at the private parking lot for the duration of the trip. If you arrive by plane into Bilbao , Santander or Austurias airports public transport is available. Arenas is known as the gateway the the Picos National Park.
Day 2 Circular walk from Arenas
Walking to the summer meadows of Nava located about 500 metres above the Cares River with some excellent views of the Picos mountains. The walk today is around 5.5 hours long ( 750 metres up and down ) but if this is too long we have an alternative walk of around 4 hours ( 450 metres up and down ).
Day 3 Walking to Queso de Cabrales to Sotres
After a 30 minute transfer to Tielve, one of the most authentic villages in this part of the Picos where people still make a living raising livestock and producing a famous blue cheese, Queso de Cabrales. You walk up through a fairy-tale landscape of moors, old beech woods and streams to a pass at 1240m and then down to Sotres (1050 m), the highest village of the Picos de Europa. (4 hours).
Day 4 
A circular walk through the eastern massif of Picos that was exploited in the 19th century by mining industries; a whimsical limestone landscape with its sharp ridges, depressions and shafts. Brightly coloured alpine flora is hidden among the rocks. There is a good chance seeing chamois, vultures and different kinds of eagles. Several options (4 or 5,5 hours)
Day 5 Today there are three options
Climb up to Las Moñetas Lake, located at 1730 m in the central massif, in a quiet valley which can only be reached on foot (6-7 hours); make a circular walk (5 hours) through the meadows and woods of the neighboring village of Tresviso. Among the beeches are hidden very rare yew-trees whose existence is of great importance to the equally rare Urugallo, a local Capercaille. Both walks begin with a short transfer in the morning. The third option is a quiet stroll of about 2,5 hours along wide tracks near the hotel.
Day 6 mountain refuge Vega de Urriellu
The most spectacular walk of the entire trip, as you climb up to the mountain refuge Vega de Urriellu, located at 2000m, right at the foot of the outstanding silhouette of the Picu Urriellu in the heart of the central massif (5,5 hours). The Picu Urriellu is one of the most famous climbing areas in Spain because of its 500m vertical wall and conical top. If you still have energy left, you could take a short walk around the refuge to the edge of the Jou sin Tierra, one of the deepest and widest natural depressions (doline) in the Picos. You will take some belongings for just one night with you to the refuge. The rest of your luggage will be transported to the hotel in Arenas
Day 7 Arenas de Cabrales
In the morning you follow the same track as the day before, back to Pandebano pass and then turn west. A footpath leads through natural meadows and shrubs down to Bulnes (4,5 hours), which can only be reached on foot or by cable-railway (since 2001). Here you can either take the funicular railway train through the tunnel to Poncebos or extend your walk with another 1,5 hours through an impressive gorge where vultures nest. At the end of the day a taxi will pick you up in Poncebos and drive you to Arenas, to the same hotel where you started the trip
Day 8
After breakfast your arrangement ends. If you have to go back to the airport in Bilbao or Asturias, we can arrange bus tickets for you
Until the first half of June the climb to the refuge can’t be guaranteed because of snowfall. In case the mountain hut cannot be reached, you will stay an extra night in Sotres and do one of the walks offered on day 5. On day 7 you walk from Sotres to Bulnes, combining parts of the walks of days 6 & 7
Difficulty: Walks of 4 to 5,5 hours during which you climb and descent 550m as an average if you choose the easy walks and 750m and if you like a more difficult program. In both cases you have to climb 1200m on day 6 and descent 1350m if you go up to the mountain hut.
Accommodation: 6 nights in good family run hotels with en-suite bathrooms in all the rooms and 1 night in dormitory at a modern mountain hut with about 100 beds, a large restaurant-sitting room with fireplace and some basic toilets. Blankets can be rented
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What is Included
- 7 nights Bed breakfast and dinner
- 6 nights in hotels , 1 night dormitory at moutain hut
- Information Pack
- Luggage transfer on days 3 and 7
- Transfers as per schedule
- Maps and walk instructions
- Local support in Arenas and Sotres
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Extras
- Transport before and after tour
- Single Rooms
- Flights
- Entrance to attractions
- public transport
- Optional Funicular railway
- Blankets in mountain hut
- Travel Insurance
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2009 Prices
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Tour Code Picos8
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Price per persons based on 2 persons sharing double room
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£395
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Single person
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£550
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High season Supplement 15/7-31/8 per person
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£88 double , £149S
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NOTE : if the refuge is closed due to snow there is a supplement of 15-25€ paid locally for transfers
How to get there
By plane to Bilbao airport or to Santander airport
Fly Easyjet to Bilbao or Ryanair to Santander
By Ferry to Santander or Bilbao from UK.
Transfers from Bilbao around 3.5 hours ( cost around 32€ ) and from Santander around 1.5 hours.
Private transfer from Santander are around 90€ paid locally for 1-4 persons
Extension Hotels: Bilbao, Arenas and Sotres
To view other walking holidays in Spain Picos12 , Catalonia , Sierra de Gredos , Kingdom of Mallos , Majorca , Sierra Nevada , Andalusia , St James Way , Tenerife , White Villages of Andalusia , Guided tour in Andalusia, Costa Blanca , Catalonia Wild Coast
Click below to view our
Cycling Holidays in Spain
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