Things to do in Oviedo
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Oviedo
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Improving weather and violent green hills. Semana Santa, the Ascensión fair, and May as the connoisseur month.
Warmest and driest window and peak excursions. Covadonga restrictions apply and some restaurants close in August.
Best all round season. San Mateo, the Awards and El Desarme, with opera and temperatures around 18 to 21 degrees.
Wettest and coldest window, worst for excursions, but lowest prices, empty museums and fabada weather.
What's on
- Semana Santa Spring, movable
Holy Week processions in spring.
- Feria de la Ascensión May
Livestock and rural fair with city programming.
- La Balesquida / Martes de Campo Tuesday after Pentecost, late May / early June
Oviedo's oldest fiesta, a picnic day centred on Campo de San Francisco with bollu preñau and cider.
- Preba de la Sidra June
Public cider tasting on Gascona that elects the season's best poured ciders.
- San Juan bonfires 23 June
Bonfires on the coast at Gijón.
- Semana Negra July
Crime fiction festival in Gijón, 30 minutes away.
- Day of Asturias 8 September
Regional holiday, centred on Covadonga.
- Día de América en Asturias 19 September
Parade celebrating Asturian emigration, part of the San Mateo period.
- Fiestas de San Mateo Around 21 September, roughly ten days
The city's great festival of concerts, street food, cider and fireworks. Book everything.
- Princess of Asturias Awards October
Campoamor ceremony with royals and laureates. Hotel prices spike citywide.
Best things to do in Oviedo
Santa María del Naranco
9th century royal palace pavilion turned church, with a barrel vault and loggia unlike anything else from its era.
San Miguel de Lillo
Smaller and more fragile pre-Romanesque church a few hundred metres from Santa María del Naranco.
Cathedral of San Salvador
Flamboyant Gothic cathedral whose Cámara Santa holds the Victory Cross and the kingdom relic treasures.
San Julián de los Prados
Early 9th century basilica with the most extensive surviving early medieval wall paintings in Spain.
Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias
Free museum of more than 15,000 works from El Greco to Dalí, and the best rainy afternoon plan in the city.
Calle Gascona
A short street packed with sidrerías where cider is poured from head height and each culín is drunk at once.
Mercado El Fontán
19th century iron and glass market for Asturian cheeses, fabes, fish, cider and casadielles pastries.
Campo de San Francisco
Nine hectare central park with peacocks, a duck pond and the beloved Mafalda statue, best early or at golden hour.
Where to stay in Oviedo
Centro / Calle Uría - Campo de San Francisco edge
first trip, all-round base
Flat, safe and handsome, five to ten minutes on foot to the cathedral and Gascona, with the best hotels.
Casco Antiguo (Old Town)
atmosphere
Pedestrian core around the cathedral and Fontán, with bells, market noise and sidrería spill out at night.
Gascona edge / east old town
food-first trips
Sleeping a street or two off the Boulevard of Cider puts dinner 100 metres away without the worst noise.
Las Caldas valley
spa, golf and resort trips
Thermal hotel, golf and green valley 7 km out, superb if rest led and wrong if the trip is Oviedo led.
Think twice about
- Ventanielles and La Corredoria outer districts
Ordinary residential and industrial fringe areas with sparse evening dining and bus dependent, charmless walks back.
- Calle Gascona street-facing rooms
Weekend cider crowds run late on the street itself. A comfort and noise issue, not a safety one.
- Avilés industrial port fringe
Heavy industry belt between the cities. Do not book an anonymous roadside property there expecting Oviedo charm.
- Motorway-edge hotel zones
Hotels priced suspiciously low by a motorway junction or retail park are far from the walkable centre.
Best restaurants in Oviedo
Casa Fermín
Oviedo's fine dining reference for decades, serving modernised Asturian cooking minutes from the cathedral.
Gloria Casa de Comidas
Manzano family sharing plates restaurant, excellent but not formal, with a praised weekday lunch menu.
Tierra Astur
The famous Gascona cider house, theatrical and rustic, with huge raciones that reviewers warn can feed two.
Sidrería El Gato Negro
Locals' traditional sidrería for fabada, cachopo and fish, with one of the cheapest good lunches in the centre.
Sidrería El Ferroviario
Gascona's oldest sidrería, a slightly less performative night with fabada, cecina, calamares and chuletón.
Casa Ramón
Fontán edge fish house cooking Cantabrian catch, steps from the market whose produce it uses.
Casa Amparo
Traditional Asturian cooking by the Fontán market, trading on decades of local habit rather than fame.
La Corte de Pelayo
Smart centre restaurant for a polished traditional lunch or dinner when a sidrería format is wrong for the group.
Outdoor things to do in Oviedo
Lagos de Covadonga
Glacial lakes Enol and Ercina above the Covadonga Sanctuary, the essential Asturian day trip from Oviedo.
Senda del Oso
Former mining railway greenway for a largely downhill ride past gorges and the rescued brown bear enclosure.
Somiedo Natural Park
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of brañas and glacial lakes, and one of Western Europe's best wild brown bear areas.
Real Club de Golf La Barganiza
The region's prestige members club, long, steep and technical, always in excellent condition.
Campo Municipal de Golf Las Caldas
18 hole municipal course rated unbelievably good for the money, a fraction of Mediterranean green fees.
Monte Naranco
Walk or ride up past the pre-Romanesque churches to Pico Paisanu, on a climb made famous by Spanish cycling.
Gijón
Thirty minutes by train for Playa de San Lorenzo, the Cimavilla old quarter and Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura.
Cudillero
Fishing village stacked in a coloured amphitheatre above its harbour, best done slowly with fish for lunch.
Best hotels in Oviedo
Eurostars Hotel de la Reconquista
The city's landmark hotel in an 18th century hospice palace, home base for Princess of Asturias Awards week.
Barceló Oviedo Cervantes
Five star hotel in a restored mansion with modern glass wings, quieter and more contemporary than the Reconquista.
Blau Gran Hotel Las Caldas Villa Termal
Spa resort with thermal facilities and gardens, with the municipal golf course next door.
Castillo del Bosque La Zoreda
Small palace hotel in woodland just outside the city, suited to celebrations and car based luxury stays.
Gran Hotel España
Reliable historic centre classic steps from the cathedral, and a safe pair of hands in Oviedo.
Hotel Fruela
Modern three star between the old town and Gascona, praised for location per euro on cider led trips.
NH Oviedo Principado
Business solid centre hotel by the park and Campoamor, with chain consistency and easy station access.
Hotel Zentral Ramiro I
Centre hotel near San Francisco Park, with easy access to the station.
Is Oviedo expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €60 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €120 a person |
| Splurge | €260 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Santa María del Naranco: a few days ahead
- San Miguel de Lillo: a few days ahead
- San Julián de los Prados: a few days ahead
- Teatro Campoamor: weeks ahead
- Lagos de Covadonga: a few days ahead
- Senda del Oso: a few days ahead
- Real Club de Golf La Barganiza: a few days ahead
- Gran Hotel Las Caldas Villa Termal: a few days ahead
- Naranco and Santullano interiors are guided, limited and largely in Spanish. Reserve, especially weekends and summer.
- Book Casa Fermín and Gloria for weekends, Teatro Campoamor opera in autumn, and Casa Marcial weeks ahead.
- Book Covadonga tours and Senda del Oso bike plus transfer in high season, taking the first clear weather slot.
- San Mateo in September and Awards week in October fill hotels and top restaurants citywide.
Is Oviedo safe?
- Oviedo is one of Spain's safest and cleanest cities, with no area to avoid on safety grounds.
- Use normal festival crowd pickpocket awareness, especially at San Mateo, and care on wet cobbles.
- Weather is the main hazard: Atlantic rain, mountain fog at Covadonga and slippery paths after rain.
- Tap water is safe and healthcare is anchored by the HUCA university hospital. Emergency awareness applies as in any city.
Oviedo travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Drink each culín at once after the pour. Cider left standing or sipped slowly tastes flat and sour.
- Never order a cachopo per person plus starters. It is a sharing dish the size of a tray.
- Avoid generic tourist menus on the cathedral square. Walk two streets to Fontán, Trascorrales or Gascona.
- Do not go to the Covadonga lakes at midday in August by car. Restrictions, queues and afternoon cloud.
Getting around Oviedo: public transport and more
- Walk the centre, a 20 minute web from cathedral to Gascona, Fontán, Uría and the stations.
- Asturias Airport is 47 km away. The ALSA bus to Oviedo bus station takes about 45 to 50 minutes.
- Trains run to Gijón in about 30 minutes and to Madrid in roughly 3 hours. ALSA coaches cover Covadonga and the coast.
- City buses help for Naranco, Santullano and Las Caldas. A car only pays for Somiedo, the Picos, coast or golf.
Who Oviedo suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | Good |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Oviedo your trip
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