43.09° N · 6.26° W
How to see the brown bear with a guide in Somiedo, the routes to the Saliencia lakes and La Pornacal, where to sleep in Pola and how to get there from Oviedo or León.
Part of Cantabrian CoastPicos de EuropaCamino del Norte
What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
Wildlife · 4 h · €50, children aged 8 to 12 €25 · At dawn or dusk from Pola de Somiedo · Groups of 2 to 8
Circular route · 7.6 km · 3–5 h · 318 m ascent · Medium difficulty · Four glacial lakes at 1,700 m
Out-and-back route · 13 km to the Los Cuartos brana · About 4 h · 556 m ascent · The best-preserved teito brana
Itineraries
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
May, June and September: bears are easiest to see in spring and late summer, and the high routes are free of snow. In summer there are more people and midday heat. From December to March, passes with snow and hotels closed.
How you travel
Choose how you're travelling and we'll tell you where to stay, how to get around, where to eat and which services you'll need. We only show the ways of travelling that make sense here.
Somiedo is reached by car and from Pola de Somiedo roads lead to each valley: Saliencia and La Farrapona, Valle de Lago, the Pigüeña towards Villar de Vildas. They are narrow mountain roads. Sleep in the Pola and set out on a different route each day.
Who you're with
A trip with a toddler is not the same as one with a teenager. Pick yours to see what works and what to bear in mind.
Somiedo with children means looking for bears through a telescope and walking among lakes and stone huts. Adapt the routes: the full ones are long, but all have a first stretch that is already worthwhile.
From age 12, Somiedo offers real challenges: a full mountain route, a dawn bear stake-out or a night under the open sky.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: A three-star medieval-style hotel in Pola de Somiedo, with 15 doubles and 2 suites with hydromassage, rooms with bunk beds for families and an Asturian restaurant.
Why we like it: Mountain hotel in Pola de Somiedo, renovated in 2019, with 15 rooms, rural apartments, a guesthouse and an Asturian restaurant serving beef from its own cows.
Why we like it: Rural hotel with ten rooms in a palace with a late-medieval tower, in Pola de Somiedo, with garden, pool and fireplace. Open from mid-April to early December.
Services for this trip
Areas, for any way of travelling
| Area | Who it's for | Average night |
|---|---|---|
| Pola de Somiedo | Hotels, restaurants, park centre, start of the guided routes | |
| Pigüeña valley | Villar de Vildas and the La Pornacal braña | |
| Saliencia and La Farrapona | High-mountain glacial lakes |
Where to eat
From set lunch menus to Michelin stars. We mark the price level and what to order at each place.
What to order: the pote de berzas and, for a main course, the meat from its cows
What to order: the gochu asturcelta, Asturias's native pig; for the walk, the picnic bag
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
43.00° N · 6.42° W
By car
43.36° N · 5.85° W
Car-freeBy carBy plane
43.56° N · 6.15° W
By carBy plane
43.06° N · 5.39° W
By car
Tips
The morning outing is at 7:30: from Oviedo you would have to leave at six.
While waiting, sitting still at dawn, it is cold even in summer.
There is nowhere to eat on the lake and braña routes.
It is open Wednesday to Sunday in Pola and tells you which routes are passable.
Somiedo is a mountain municipality in south-west Asturias, entirely a Natural Park since 1988, the first in the region, and a Biosphere Reserve since 2000. It has glacial valleys, high-mountain lakes, brañas (summer pastures) with broom-thatched huts and one of the best brown bear populations in the Cantabrian mountains. Pola de Somiedo, the capital, is the place to sleep and the starting point for the routes.
By car. From Oviedo it is around an hour and a quarter: dual carriageway to Grado and then the road via Belmonte de Miranda and the Pigüeña gorge to Pola de Somiedo. From León you enter from the south, via Babia and the Somiedo pass: a mountain road, around two hours. In winter, check the state of the pass before setting out.
Inside the park each valley has its own road, narrow and winding, and none crosses from one valley to another: to go from La Farrapona to Villar de Vildas you pass through Pola again. Allow plenty of time.
Yes, but it is not guaranteed, and the sensible thing is to go with a guide. Somiedo Experience leaves from Pola de Somiedo early, around 7:30, or in the afternoon, around 17:30, in groups of two to eight. It takes about four hours: an interpretive walk and a wait with telescopes on one hillside, looking at another between 300 m and 2 km away. It costs €50, and €25 for ages 8 to 12; under-8s are not admitted. The best times are April to June and mid-August to mid-September, when the bears roam open areas.
Don't try to get close on your own: bears are skittish and observation is always done from a distance, without disturbing them.
The essential one is the Saliencia lakes: 7.6 km circular from the Alto de la Farrapona, at 1,708 m, past four glacial lakes, taking between three and five hours. The first lake is a quarter of an hour from the car. The other is La Pornacal, from Villar de Vildas, up the Pigüeña valley to the best-preserved braña of teitos (thatched huts) in Somiedo, 3.6 km away, and then on to Los Cuartos. If you would like someone to explain what you are seeing, the guided day route lasts about six hours.
Somiedo Experience, the company behind the bear outing, has two other wildlife outings. The Iberian wolf outing lasts about four hours, with a two-hour wait with a telescope in a wolf area, in groups of two to four, for €60 and from age 14. The reptile and amphibian walk, in the morning in spring and July or with a torch at dusk in spring and October, looks for vipers, newts and the golden-striped salamander, for €30 and from age 8: it is the good one with children.
In Pola de Somiedo. The Hotel Castillo del Alba has rooms with bunk beds for families and prepares a packed lunch for the route. Casa Miño has a hotel, rural apartments and the village restaurant that opens on Sunday, with pote de berzas (cabbage stew) from its own vegetable garden and meat from its own cows; it is closed on Tuesdays. The Palacio Álvaro Flórez Estrada, in a manor house with a medieval tower, is open from April to December. Many hotels close in the depths of winter.
From Oviedo you can go and come back in a day, but you get little out of it: with the bear outing at 7:30, the best thing is to sleep in Pola the night before. With two nights you can do bears, Saliencia and La Pornacal without rushing.
May, June and September are the best months: active bears, snow-free routes and fewer people. In October the colour of the forest arrives. From December to March the passes may have snow and several hotels close.
Questions
€50 per person and €25 for ages 8 to 12, with Somiedo Experience. About four hours, with telescopes and binoculars.
No. They are wild animals: it depends on the weather and the animal. The best times are spring and late summer.
The Saliencia lakes as far as the first lake, or La Pornacal to the braña and back.
On the routes, on a lead: there is loose livestock and protected wildlife. For the bear outing, ask the guide.
Yes, with an hour and a quarter by car to Pola, but the morning bear outing means sleeping there.
In May, June and September.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/asturias/somiedo
