Things to do in Ávila
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Ávila
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Spring is best, tied. Mild wall walking, Gredos snow melting, green Tormes valley.
Summer is good with heat discipline. Hot dry days, cool evenings, natural pools and high Gredos hikes.
Autumn is best, tied, and the connoisseur pick. Medieval market in September, Santa Teresa fiestas in October.
Winter is underrated and cold. Cheapest hotels and empty walls, with ice closures and short days. Late January to February is worst for a first visit.
What's on
- Semana Santa March/April
Holy Week processions through the torchlit walled streets, declared of International Tourist Interest in 2014.
- San Segundo 2 May
Patronal feast with a procession around the transfer of the saint's relics to the Cathedral.
- La Ronda de las Leyendas first weekend of June
The city stages its legends theatrically through the old town.
- Mercado de las Tres Culturas / Jornadas Medievales first weekend of September
Medieval market of Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures filling the whole centre, a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional.
- Fiestas de Santa Teresa around 15 October
A full festive week with solemn Mass and procession of Teresa's image, giants, concerts and fireworks.
Best things to do in Ávila
Muralla de Ávila
Walkable medieval rampart with towers and gates, the single best thing in the city and superb value.
Basílica de San Vicente
Ávila's finest Romanesque church, with a carved cenotaph, south portal sculpture and an atmospheric crypt.
Catedral de Ávila
Spain's first Gothic cathedral built into the walls, with a fortified apse and mottled stone ambulatory.
Los Cuatro Postes
Small shrine across the river that is really the panoramic viewpoint for the whole walled skyline at sunset.
Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás
Dominican monastery of the Catholic Monarchs with three cloisters, carved choir stalls and small museums.
Museo de Santa Teresa
Birthplace convent and museum that give context to Teresa's life, writings and reform of the Carmelites.
Monasterio de La Encarnación
Where Teresa lived for 27 years, the more atmospheric and less museified stop on the Santa Teresa circuit.
Convento de San José
Teresa's first reformed foundation, part of the Santa Teresa circuit that gives the city its second story.
Where to stay in Ávila
Inside the walls (Intramuros)
first trip, all-round base
Sleep in palace hotels, walk to every sight and restaurant, and own the city after the buses leave.
Just outside the walls, Santa Teresa / Mercado Grande and San Vicente edges
drivers and value
A few minutes through a gate to the centre, with easier road access, simpler parking and lower prices.
Station / modern east
late arrivals and early departures
Functional modern hotels with clean spacious rooms and good value, a 12 minute flat walk to the walls.
Think twice about
- Las Hervencias industrial estate
Not unsafe, just soulless industrial Spain with a long, charmless walk or drive to anything worth seeing.
- Far south / east residential sprawl beyond the station
Same problem as the industrial estate at smaller scale: ordinary streets far from the walled old town.
- Ground-floor rooms on San Segundo / cathedral square
Specific rooms on the main bus tour artery can be noisy until late in peak fiesta weeks. Ask for a courtyard or upper room.
Best restaurants in Ávila
Los Candiles
The people's champion for chuletón, with generous portions, a good value daily menu and service locals praise.
Restaurante El Almacén
Special occasion table in a nineteenth century warehouse with the definitive dining room view of the walls.
Restaurante SigloDoce
Traditional Abulense cooking in the Palacio de los Velada, with the best setting to price ratio in the centre.
Restaurante Alcaravea
Creative traditional cooking on Cathedral square, best for sirloin, duck, Iberian cheeks and its famous cheesecake.
Las Cancelas
Historic courtyard restaurant with authentic Ávila cooking, steaks, lamb chops and oxtail.
Parrilla El Rancho
Grill house locals defend for exceptional wood fired meat, chuletón and solomillo, best treated as a lunch grill.
La Bodeguita de San Segundo
Wine specialists with tapas and raciones, the correct Ávila evening after a big lunch.
Restaurante El Torreón
Honest local room in a cave like historic interior, praised for garden tomatoes, asparagus cream and cochinillo.
Outdoor things to do in Ávila
Naturávila Golf El Fresnillo
The province's reference 18 hole course in dehesa and pine landscape with the Sierra in view.
Laguna Grande de Gredos
Signature Gredos hike from La Plataforma to a glacial lagoon under the cirque and Pico Almanzor, with ibex.
Los Galayos
Hard hike and climbing ground of needle like granite towers above Guisando, for fit hikers and climbers only.
Valle de Iruelas
Easier Gredos country of Tormes riverside walks, Puerto del Pico Roman road and Iruelas pine forest and reservoir.
Segovia
Classic day trip for the Roman aqueduct, Alcázar, late Gothic cathedral and cochinillo for lunch.
Salamanca
Golden sandstone university city with an elegant Plaza Mayor and student buzz that contrasts Ávila's calm.
El Barco de Ávila
Castle, medieval bridge and Tormes natural pool swimming used by the whole province in July and August.
Best hotels in Ávila
Sofraga Palacio
Ávila's top city hotel, a renovated palace inside the walls with gardens, terraces and a destination breakfast.
La Casa del Presidente
Small design led palace hotel with a garden pool, a rarity intramuros and a genuine summer asset for couples.
Parador de Ávila
State run classic in a sixteenth century palace built into the northern wall, with a famous garden to the rampart.
Parador de Gredos
First Parador in Spain, in pine forest at altitude, the right luxury base if the trip is Gredos first.
Hotel Nabia
Out of town luxury in Candeleda worth naming as a southern Gredos base instead of commuting from the city.
Hotel Palacio de los Velada
Sixteenth century palace on Cathedral square with a covered courtyard atrium and arguably the best address in town.
Hotel Palacio Valderrábanos
Fourteenth century palace directly by the Cathedral, recently renovated in a modern inside the old shell style.
Hotel Las Cancelas
Fifteenth century former posada on Cruz Vieja, family run, with a courtyard restaurant locals use.
Is Ávila expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €65 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €130 a person |
| Splurge | €240 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- La Ronda de las Leyendas: a few days ahead
- Naturávila Golf El Fresnillo: a few days ahead
- Sofraga Palacio: weeks ahead
- La Casa del Presidente: weeks ahead
- Parador de Ávila: weeks ahead
- Parador de Gredos: weeks ahead
- Hotel Nabia: weeks ahead
- Hotel Palacio de los Velada: weeks ahead
- Book weekend and fiesta hotel rooms, chuletón lunches at Los Candiles, SigloDoce and El Rancho, and El Almacén in full.
- Book Semana Santa and the September medieval market well ahead for rooms, restaurants and wall entry.
- Book Gredos guided days, weekend golf tee times and Friday and Sunday Renfe seats from Madrid.
- Weekday monument entries, museums, Teresa convents and tapas bars usually need no prebooking.
Is Ávila safe?
- Ávila is a very safe, orderly small city. Keep fiesta crowd awareness for pickpockets in Semana Santa and market crowds.
- Ice on wall steps and cobbles in winter, and altitude sun and wind on the rampart and in Gredos, are the realistic risks.
- The walls are not step free and intramuros gradients are steeper than the map suggests. Plan Ávila as partial access and verify monuments ahead.
- At night the old town is floodlit, quiet and feels safe, though it can feel empty late outside fiesta weeks.
Ávila travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- The 90 minute Ávila on a combined Madrid coach tour gives you a photo of the walls and no lunch.
- Paying premium skip the line for the walls on a normal weekday, when there is rarely a line worth skipping.
- Ordering a whole chuletón solo or one per person. One to share is the local way.
- Cuatro Postes at noon has flat light and no atmosphere. Go at sunset.
- Cathedral square tourist menus trading on location alone. Walk a few streets away to the picks instead.
Getting around Ávila: public transport and more
- Walk inside the walls. The intramuros core is about 15 minutes end to end.
- Trains from Madrid Chamartín take about 1 hr 30 min. Driving is about 115 km via the AP-6 and AP-51.
- Park in signed car parks outside the walls and walk in. Do not drive into the walled town on spec.
- Local buses and taxis cover the station, Santo Tomás and Cuatro Postes runs for a few euros.
Who Ávila suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Ávila your trip
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