A week in Northern Spain, recommendations please
 

Some friends and I are planning a week in Northern Spain next spring possibly around the Picos national park.

We will be renting a house and having day trips out taking both scenic roads and some trails for those of us taking trail bikes.

I am looking for suggestions of a nice town or village for a base, interesting places and events to visit and good local paper maps showing small roads and trails.

Any advice gratefully received.

Potes or Cangis de Onis would most likely make a good base depending on what you want ie: they are both touristy towns with plenty of accommodations and restaurants etc. Loads of nice scenic motorcycle routes abound in the area.
There is also lots of nice villages in the Picos area without an abundance of facilities. Michelin 572 Asturias & Cantabria is a good map for the area

July and August in particular are not the best months to visit as it is the busiest season for tourists in the area with a huge influx of Spanish visitors escaping the heat in the southern areas of Spain

As regards trail bikes and trail rides, in my experience of recent, nearly all the trails are now prohibited in this area except for local access.

I have been in the area on twenty five occasions in the last several years

PS/ If you have Garmin Map-source on your PC I would have a lot of way-points and routes for the Picos area

Get hold of a copy of Toby Ballentines 'Motorcycle journeys through Western Europe' A whole section on Northern Spain and suggestions on places to stay and rides to do. Excellent read and good colour photos.

Potes is a great base in the Picos. Just watch out for the Trafficos!

Hi
Picos de Europa is a National Reserve Park, be carefull if you ride off road..its restricted
Points of interest??
Covadonga
Covadonga lakes
Cangas de Onis
Oviedo
Gijon
Lastres..

Check this web..Infoasturias. Portal oficial de turismo - Home

Regards

Be careful. Petrol stations are few and far between in the Picos. We discovered last year our 2CV could manage 235 miles on a tankful!:mchappy:

If you are going a point. Have your doc with you at all time's and ride with your light's on. I got caught with no light's on and my doc's where at the flat. It's 60 euro's a shot. As I only had about 80 euro's on me they done me only for the light's. Nice chap's. So that was 60 euro's to help them out of there cash crises.
John933

Ditto much of the above. Trails in the Pico park itself are closed - well there is one but that's a secret otherwise that'll be closed too! But Cantabria is one of the more 'liberal' regions for trail riding so anywhere poutside of the national park borders is fine.

You can see the whole low down on my blog - below.

Regs

Simon