# Somiedo

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.

Fuente: https://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/asturias/somiedo · Revisado: 2026-11-13

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.

## How do I get there from Oviedo or León?

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.

## Can you see bears?

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.

## Which routes should I do?

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.

## What else besides the bear?

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.

## Where do I sleep and eat?

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.

## How long do I need?

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.

## When to go

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.

## Dónde está
- Zonas: Cantabrian Coast, Picos de Europa, Camino del Norte
- Cerca: Leitariegos and the Laciana Valley (a 16.8 km), Oviedo (a 44.6 km), Cudillero (a 53.0 km), Valgrande-Pajares and Fuentes de Invierno (a 70.3 km)

## Qué hacer
- **Guided brown bear watching in Somiedo** (4 h · From age 8 · Desde 50 € per person): Somiedo is one of the places in the Cantabrian mountains where you can see the brown bear in the wild, and the way to try without disturbing it is with a local guide authorised by the Natural Park. Somiedo Experience, of Pola de Somiedo, sets out every day at dawn or dusk in groups of two to eight people.
Four hours between walking and waiting
The outing lasts about four hours and has two parts. One is an interpretive walk of about two hours along paths and tracks in bear habitat, in which the guide explains what it eats (acorns, chestnuts, beechnuts, bilberries and other fruit), how it moves and how the population has recovered, having been critically endangered about ten years ago. The other is the wait: from one hillside you scan the opposite slope with a telescope, at between 300 m and 2 km. There is never any attempt to get close.
The route changes each day depending on the weather, the season and the animals' behaviour. The website does not give the distance or the ascent of the walk: it follows mountain paths, so wear hiking boots.
At dawn or at dusk: the order changes
The chances are the same, but the day is ordered the other way round. In the morning you meet in Pola de Somiedo, next to the pharmacy, at about 7:30; the wait comes first, in the first light, and then the walk. In the afternoon you set out at about 17:30, walk first and wait until dark. The exact time is adjusted to sunrise and sunset in each season. From the Pola you drive in your own car, any car, along paved mountain roads, to the start of the route. In August it is hard to park in the Pola: arrive with time to spare.
When you are luckiest
From April to June and from mid-August to mid-September the bears spend more time in open areas, with less forest, and are easier to see. They are most active at dawn and dusk, and on very hot summer days they move less. Seeing a bear is never guaranteed: the company publishes a sightings calendar that is worth checking before choosing dates.
Price, equipment and booking
It costs €50 per person from age 13 and €25 from 8 to 12, VAT included. Children under 8 cannot take part. It includes the guide, with a second guide on high-demand days, binoculars and spotting telescopes, with an explanation of how to use them, and accident insurance.
Book by email at somiedoexperience@gmail.com or on 657 081 953, giving the date, whether you prefer morning or afternoon and how many of you there are. Payment is by bank transfer beforehand or in cash on the day. If the forecast is poor, for example with fog, the guide may suggest changing the day; once the outing has started it is not cancelled, and there is no refund for bad weather or for not seeing bears.
The rest of the day in Somiedo
With the morning outing you are back for lunch in the Pola, at the Casa Miño restaurant. In the afternoon you can go up to the Saliencia lakes on your own, and if you stay the night, the same company offers another day the wolf watching, from age 14. If you come for the day from Oviedo or León, the Lakes and Bears Day in Somiedo plan combines the two.
- **Saliencia lakes route from La Farrapona** (4 h · 7.6 km · Families with children who walk): Somiedo's best-known high-mountain route and the most rewarding: it starts already at 1,708 m, at Alto de la Farrapona, on the boundary with Babia, and in a quarter of an hour you are at the first lake. It is circular, 7.6 km and three to five hours, with 318 metres of cumulative ascent. La Farrapona is the highest pass in Asturias that you can reach by road.
Getting there
From Pola de Somiedo, take the road north, past the La Malva hydroelectric power station, and turn right towards Saliencia via Veigas, Villarín, Arbellales and Endriga. Alto de la Farrapona is about 7 km above Saliencia, and there is a large car park at the top. On the León side there is no paved road: do not continue unless you have a 4x4. In winter the pass usually has snow; ask first at the park reception centre, which reports on the state of the passes.
The route
From the car park follow the PR-AS 15 southwards with a gentle descent to Lago de la Cueva, a kilometre away, and its viewpoint. Next to it are the remains of the Santa Rita mine, of iron oxide, which worked until 1978: after heavy rain, the remains of the workings stain the lake water red. Climb in zigzags along an old mining track to Lago Almagrera or de la Mina, the smallest, which may dry out in very hot summers. Take the branch to Lago Cerveriz, in a flat meadow with the Picos Albos behind, and skirt its shore to Lago Calabazosa or Lago Negro, the biggest and deepest, about 4 km from the pass. Return along the dam and the other side of Lago de la Cueva to La Farrapona.
With children
Apart from the slope in the middle, the path is good and easy to follow, and the return is downhill. Turismo Asturias recommends it for families: on the first stretch a rock wall makes an echo, and on the shore of the Calabazosa and in the meadows there is room to run. If they get tired, turning back at Lago de la Cueva or the Cerveriz is already worthwhile.
What to see on the way
Glacial landforms, rounded rocks and moraines, cows almost throughout the valley and, with luck and binoculars, golden eagles. From the car park you see the glacial valley you have driven up and, to the east, the Ubiñas massif.
Before you go
It is high mountain, close to 1,800 metres: go in good weather and, in fog, stay at the first lake. Bring water, a warm layer and food, because there are no services at the top. If you want to see the other face of the park on the same weekend, the La Pornacal brana is in the neighbouring Pigüeña valley.
- **La Pornacal brana from Villar de Vildas** (4 h · 13.1 km · Walkers; with children, only as far as La Pornacal): La Pornacal is the largest and best-preserved brana in Somiedo: a group of stone huts with broom-thatched roofs, the teitos, in a meadow in the Pigüeña valley where the vaqueiros de alzada took their cattle up in summer. Turismo Asturias counts some 33 teito huts here, out of the 370 recorded in the whole park. The river splits it in two and there is a natural spring where you can stop.
The path
It starts from Villar de Vildas, at the head of the valley, a village that was named Pueblo Ejemplar de Asturias in 2004. About 400 metres from the centre of the village you take a concrete track on the left of the Pigüeña river, which accompanies much of the climb. Around kilometre 1 you pass the first brana, Vildéu, and around kilometre 3.6 La Pornacal appears.
The full route continues up the valley. About two kilometres past La Pornacal, from a bridge, you see the Corralón waterfall across the valley; the forest gradually shrinks to a strip along the riverbank. About 400 metres after the bridge there is a junction: keep straight on to the Los Cuartos brana, also called Braña Viecha, older than La Pornacal and with broad views of the valley, about 6.5 km from the start. You return the same way.
Distance and time
In all it is 13.08 km out and back, with 556 metres of cumulative ascent, between 854 and 1,405 metres in altitude. Turismo Asturias rates it as medium difficulty and reckons over five hours for the whole route with stops; walking without dawdling it is about four. It recommends it in spring, summer and autumn.
With children
Go only as far as La Pornacal and back: it is the most interesting stretch and half the effort, about 7 km in all. According to Turismo Asturias the path admits a pushchair or baby seat, although it has a lot of concrete and some slopes, and it can also be done by mountain bike, even with children. Wear hiking boots if you go further: the path is stony and gets muddy after rain.
Cattle and dogs
There are loose cows in the valley. Keep your dog on a lead and do not approach the cattle. If you see mastiffs guarding a flock, do not approach, do not pet them or give them food, and do not let them follow the group. Take all your rubbish with you, including organic waste.
Before you go
The official page does not detail where to park in Villar de Vildas or the path's waymarking: ask at the park reception centre, in Pola de Somiedo, where they also give information on the state of the paths. There is nowhere to eat on the way; bring water and food, or eat afterwards in Pola de Somiedo. If you prefer to do it accompanied, the guided route through Somiedo covers the mountain and the branas with a local guide.
- **Full-day guided hike in the Somiedo mountains** (6 h · Adults and teenagers who walk · Desde 60 € per person): A day in the mountains with a local guide who chooses the route according to the season: the Somiedo mountains, their flora and some of the protected species that live in the park. It is organised by Somiedo Experience, a guiding company in Pola de Somiedo. It is about six hours along tracks and paths of medium difficulty, and costs €60 per person, VAT included.
What the day is like
You meet at about 9:00 in Pola de Somiedo, next to the pharmacy. The route combines walking with wildlife watching and interpreting the landscape: the guide talks about the customs of the vaqueiros, the branas, the native flora and the park's fauna, and carries binoculars and shows you how to use them. Groups are of 2 to 8 people; in periods of high demand more than one guide goes. It also includes accident insurance.
In winter, with snowshoes
When there is enough snow, the same route is done partly on snowshoes. The company supplies the snowshoes and equipment, and no previous experience or special fitness is needed. It depends on the weather and the depth of the snow, so it cannot be guaranteed in advance.
Who it is for
For those who walk confidently and want to understand what they see. On the minimum age, the company's website gives two different figures, 8 in the summary and over 12 in the price section: ask before booking if you are going with children. If you are looking for something shorter and easier, the La Pornacal brana or the Saliencia lakes can be done independently.
What to bring
Mountain clothing and footwear, a cap, sunglasses and sun cream, a warm layer even in August, and plenty of water and some energy food. They ask, if possible, for dark-coloured clothing, which scares wildlife less.
Booking and bad weather
Book by email, at somiedoexperience@gmail.com, with the type of route, the date and the number of people, or on 657 081 953. Payment is by bank transfer in advance or in cash on the day. If the weather turns bad, the date can be postponed in the preceding days, but once the outing has started it is not cancelled, and there is no refund for bad weather or for not seeing animals.
To combine it, the company's bear watching outing is at dawn or dusk, so it fits in the same weekend.
- **Guided bivouac in Somiedo Natural Park** (Fit adults · Desde 150 € per person): A night sleeping under the open sky in the heart of Somiedo Natural Park, with a guide who knows the spots: clear skies, the sounds of nocturnal wildlife and sunrise in the mountains. Somiedo Experience, the same local company that organises the bear watching, offers it as a guided bivouac: no tents are used, you sleep in a sleeping bag and bivvy bag under the stars.
What the outing is like
You meet at 16:30 in Pola de Somiedo, next to the pharmacy. From there you follow the guides in your own car along paved mountain roads to the starting point. On foot you do about three hours of interpretive route, in which the guide explains the park's fauna and flora and you look for wildlife with binoculars and a telescope. You have dinner outdoors, sleep at the chosen spot and in the morning have breakfast in the park, with some free time before returning. The return to Pola de Somiedo is at about 14:00 the next day. The departure time may shift with sunrise and sunset depending on the season.
What is included and what it costs
It costs €150 per person, VAT included. It includes the guide, the interpretive route, binoculars and telescopes, a headtorch and all the sleeping equipment: sleeping bag, bivvy bag, mat, pillow and sheet. Also dinner and breakfast, and accident insurance. If you have allergies or there is something you do not eat, say so when you book.
Days, groups and age
They go out on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The minimum age is 12. On group size the website itself gives two different figures, 3 to 8 people in one section and 2 to 6 in the FAQ, with a minimum of three: confirm when you book. They recommend doing it in the milder months, because mountain weather changes quickly.
What to bring
Comfortable clothing and footwear for walking on tracks and paths, and a proper warm layer even in August: hat, gloves and a fleece or a down jacket. At night and at dawn, keeping still in the mountains, it is cold.
How to book
By email, at somiedoexperience@gmail.com, stating the activity, the date and the number of people, or on 657 081 953. Payment is in advance by bank transfer or in cash on the day.
If you stay before or after in Pola de Somiedo, you have the Castillo del Alba hotel and the Casa Miño hotel a few steps from the meeting point.
- **Guided Iberian wolf watching on the edge of Somiedo** (4 h · From age 14, with patience · Desde 60 € per person): The bear is the animal that brings people to Somiedo; the wolf is the one almost nobody manages to see. Somiedo Experience, the wildlife guides of Pola de Somiedo, propose trying in a wolf area on the edge of the council that they say they have studied in depth, with groups of only two to four people.
What it is like
About four hours: an approach walk to the observation point and a wait of around two hours, motionless, with binoculars and spotting telescopes that the guide provides and shows you how to use. Meanwhile, the guide talks about the surroundings, flora, fauna and the life of the Iberian wolf, its habits and its situation today. There is never an approach: you observe from a distance so as not to disturb the animals. If demand is high, more than one guide goes out.
Price and conditions
It costs €60 per person, with VAT and accident insurance included. It is only for over-14s. The meeting point and time are not fixed: they depend on the time of year and are agreed when you book. The company is clear that the wolf may not appear that day: hiding is its way of surviving. What they guarantee is taking you to a good area.
What to combine it with
If you come for a weekend, it fits with the company's dawn bear watching trip, which admits from age 8, and with an independent walk to the Saliencia lakes. To sleep close to the departure points, Pola de Somiedo, with the Castillo del Alba or Casa Miño.
- **Guided reptile and amphibian walk in Somiedo, by day or with a torch** (3 h 30 · From age 8; very good for curious children · Desde 30 € per person): Somiedo runs from about 400 metres of altitude to over 2,000, and in that range there is room for Mediterranean-climate species, such as the ocellated lizard of the holm oak woods, and high-mountain ones, such as the alpine newt. Somiedo Experience has an outing dedicated to them: three or four hours looking for reptiles and amphibians with a specialist guide, walking slowly and alert to any movement.
Morning or night
In the morning, in March, April, May and July, reptiles are sought in the sun, along with some amphibians. In the evening, in spring and in October, the route includes a night section with torches to see amphibians, which is when they come out. In late winter and spring they gather in ponds to breed: there are egg masses, tadpoles and mating calls. The site changes with the month and the weather.
What you learn
How to tell a viper from a grass snake and a newt from a salamander; how they are studied and conserved; and their relationship with people. There is a chance to do macro photography with the guide's help, and sometimes abandoned buildings are checked to rescue trapped animals. On the company's list there are 21 species, among them the Seoane's viper, the only venomous snake in Asturias, and the golden-striped salamander, an endemic that lives only in Asturias, Galicia and northern Portugal.
Price and meeting
It costs €30 per person, VAT included, from age 8. You meet in front of the pharmacy in Pola de Somiedo around 8:00 or 18:00, and from there each group follows the guide in its own car.
It is a good alternative with children to the bear outing, which requires getting up early or coming back at night and a lot of stillness.

## Dónde comer
- **Casa Miño Restaurant** (Restaurant, Pola de Somiedo, €€). Qué pedir: the pote de berzas and, for a main course, the meat from its cows
- **Hotel Castillo del Alba Restaurant** (Restaurant, Pola de Somiedo, €€). Qué pedir: the gochu asturcelta, Asturias's native pig; for the walk, the picnic bag

## By car: A valley at the end of the road
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.
Presupuesto orientativo: 70–130 € por persona y día.
### Dónde dormir if you're driving
- **Hotel Castillo del Alba** (Hotel, desde 60.5 € / night): The Castillo del Alba is a three-star hotel built in 2001 on Calle Flórez Estrada in Pola de Somiedo, the capital of the council and the geographical centre of the Natural Park and Biosphere Reserve. It is small, with seventeen rooms, and medieval in feel inside and out: it was decorated by the interior designer Chus Quirós with slate, wood and marble.
Slate, wood and marble by Chus Quirós
The building, of stone and wood, has a garden and a children's play area. One detail worth knowing beforehand: in some of the rooms the bathroom is open to the bedroom, with the bath or washbasin in view and the toilet behind a door. Others have a closed bathroom. If you prefer that, ask when you book.
Doubles of 20 m², suites of 28 and bunks for four

Doubles, about 20 m², with a double bed or two beds, a shower, flat-screen television, minibar, hairdryer, toiletries and free wifi.
Suites, about 28 m², roomier and with panoramic mountain views: a hydromassage bath, a separate shower cubicle and a sitting area with a desk.
Family rooms: several doubles have a small sitting room that converts into a bedroom with two 90 cm bunk beds, for families of up to four.

The suites and the upper floor have air conditioning. Turismo Asturias counts 35 places, three of them on extra beds, and a laundry service, a meeting room and a television lounge. Parking is private and free for guests. Check-in is from 15:00 and check-out before 12:00.
Picnics for the braña and guided outings
The hotel restaurant serves traditional Asturian cooking, with the gochu asturcelta, the native pig, and is also open to those not sleeping here. It prepares takeaway food and made-to-measure picnic bags, which suit a day at the Saliencia lakes, where there are no services up top, or at the braña of La Pornacal.
The hotel sells the Enjoy Somiedo package, which combines the stay with a guided outing: bear watching, of about four hours; a route through the park of six to eight hours; a one-night bivouac; the deer rut; reptiles and amphibians; the wolf, or environmental education. It does not publish prices: ask for them. If you prefer to go on your own, Somiedo Experience's bear-watching outing meets in the Pola.
No charge on booking, cancellation fifteen days ahead
Turismo Asturias gives indicative rates of €60.50 to €77 a night. High season runs from 15 July to 10 September, plus Easter and long weekends. It closes from 10 January to 10 March.
Book on its website, by phone or WhatsApp on 669 303 542, or on 985 763 996. You are not charged on booking: the card is held as a guarantee and they may charge the stay in the fifteen days beforehand. Cancellation is free up to fifteen days before; if you do not arrive or warn of a delay before 21:00, the booking is lost with no refund.
- **Hotel Casa Miño** (Hotel, desde 60 € / night): On calle Rafael Rey López, in the centre of Pola de Somiedo, the capital of the council area and the gateway to the Natural Park, Casa Miño is a two-star mountain hotel. The family that runs it also has rural apartments, a guesthouse in the village and the ground-floor restaurant, with meat from its own cows. It was renovated in 2019.
In the Pola, where the routes start
Sleeping in the Pola has a concrete advantage in Somiedo: the guided bear outing meets in the village, at about 7:30 in the morning or 17:30 in the afternoon, and you walk to the meeting point; from there you follow in your own car to the start of the route. The park reception centre, where you can ask about routes and the state of the passes, is also in the Pola. Turismo Asturias notes a public transport stop less than 500 m away.
Fifteen rooms, apartments and a guesthouse
The building is mountain-style and the fifteen rooms are rustic in feel, with bathroom, heating, television and free wifi. There are doubles and quadruples, and Turismo Asturias counts 29 places, three of them on extra beds. The same family rents four rural apartments with two bedrooms and one with three, with kitchen, and a six-room guesthouse in the centre of the village: ask which suits you when you book, because they are separate establishments with different conditions.
The common areas have a bar-café and a lounge with television and fireplace. Cards are accepted. For the car, there is free public parking.
The ground-floor restaurant
Downstairs is its restaurant, serving Asturian cooking: pote with cabbage from its garden, onions stuffed with tuna, cachopo with smoked Tineo cheese and meat from its cows. It serves lunch from 13:30 to 15:30 and dinner from 20:00 to 22:30, and closes on Tuesdays except in August and on public holidays. After an afternoon bear outing, dinner is in the same building.
Closed from mid-December to March
It closes from 15 December to 1 March. High season is August, Easter and long weekends; the rest of the year is low season. Turismo Asturias gives indicative rates of €60 to €75 a night. Book on 985 763 730 or at informa@hotelcasamino.com.
The Lakes and Bears Day in Somiedo plan is designed as a return trip from Oviedo or León; sleeping here, the dawn bear outing does not require an early start from far away.
- **Palacio Álvaro Flórez Estrada rural hotel** (Small hotel, desde 80 € / night): Sleeping in a palace
The hotel occupies the palace of the Flórez Estrada family, in La Pola, the capital of Somiedo: a manor house whose origins go back to the 15th century, with a well-preserved late-medieval tower. The economist Álvaro Flórez Estrada, who gives the house its name, was born there, and rests there. Turismo Asturias classifies it as a two-star rural hotel, with ten rooms and 17 places: according to the Turismo Asturias blog, seven doubles, two singles and one special double. The former stables and hayloft were converted into apartments, keeping part of the original structure.
The house stands in a garden with centuries-old trees, beside a clean river and a meadow.
A hotel for silence
The owners insist that their priority is silence and rest. The Turismo Asturias blog records that there is no television in the rooms or in any lounge, and that wifi is only in the common areas; the hotel's official page, on the other hand, lists television and wifi. If one or the other matters to you, ask when you book.
Services
According to Turismo Asturias it has parking, a café bar, fireplace, garden, pool, lounge, meeting rooms, safe, heating, laundry and cot service, and you can pay by card. The house hosts the Flórez Estrada Rural School, with activities through the year: workshops, games, storytelling and poetry evenings, an introduction to birdwatching and wild plant courses.
Price and season
The indicative rate from Turismo Asturias is €80 to €115 a night, with breakfast. High season runs from 16 July to 15 September, plus Easter and long weekends; the rest of the year is low season. It opens from mid-April to early December: it closes from 1 January to 13 April and from 10 to 31 December. Its website is under construction: book by phone, on 985 763 709 or 616 170 018, or by email at info@florezestrada.com.
Who it is for and what is nearby
It suits couples and families who come to walk and want to sleep in a house with history, without screens. From La Pola start, or are reached in a short time, the park's classic routes: the Saliencia lakes, the La Pornacal brana and the bear watching outings. In the same village you have the park reception centre and, for dinner, the Casa Miño restaurant or the Castillo del Alba restaurant.

## As a family: Bears, lakes and teito huts

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.

### What works best
Bear watching, from age 8, €25 for ages 8 to 12

The Saliencia lakes: the first one, 15 minutes from the car park

La Pornacal as far as the brana, 3.6 km, and back

### Sleep
Hotel Castillo del Alba, with bunk rooms for four

Casa Miño, with quadruple rooms and apartments

### Eat
Casa Miño, with cachopo and house beef

Picnic for the walk: in the mountains there is nowhere to buy anything

### Worth knowing
The bear outing starts at 7:30 or ends at dusk: bring a coat

In fog at La Farrapona, stay at the first lake

Seeing a bear is never guaranteed

### Qué hacer as a family
- Guided brown bear watching in Somiedo
- Saliencia lakes route from La Farrapona
- La Pornacal brana from Villar de Vildas
- Guided reptile and amphibian walk in Somiedo, by day or with a torch

## With teenagers: Tracking bears and sleeping under the stars

From age 12, Somiedo offers real challenges: a full mountain route, a dawn bear stake-out or a night under the open sky.

### What works best
Bear watching with a telescope, in groups of 2 to 8

Guided route of six hours through the Somiedo mountains

The full Saliencia lakes: 7.6 km at 1,700 m

La Pornacal as far as the Los Cuartos brana

### Sleep
Hotel Castillo del Alba, with rooms that convert into bedrooms

### Eat
Casa Miño, in Pola de Somiedo

### Worth knowing
No mobile coverage on much of the routes

Mountain footwear: the paths are stone and mud

### Qué hacer with teenagers
- Guided brown bear watching in Somiedo
- Saliencia lakes route from La Farrapona
- La Pornacal brana from Villar de Vildas
- Full-day guided hike in the Somiedo mountains
- Guided Iberian wolf watching on the edge of Somiedo
- Guided reptile and amphibian walk in Somiedo, by day or with a torch

## Consejos

### Sleep in Pola before the bears
The morning outing is at 7:30: from Oviedo you would have to leave at six.

### Always bring a coat
While waiting, sitting still at dawn, it is cold even in summer.

### Packed lunch for the mountain
There is nowhere to eat on the lake and braña routes.

### Call in at the park centre
It is open Wednesday to Sunday in Pola and tells you which routes are passable.

## Preguntas frecuentes

### How much does it cost to see bears in Somiedo with a guide?
€50 per person and €25 for ages 8 to 12, with Somiedo Experience. About four hours, with telescopes and binoculars.

### Am I sure to see a bear?
No. They are wild animals: it depends on the weather and the animal. The best times are spring and late summer.

### Which route should I do with children?
The Saliencia lakes as far as the first lake, or La Pornacal to the braña and back.

### Can you go with a dog?
On the routes, on a lead: there is loose livestock and protected wildlife. For the bear outing, ask the guide.

### Can it be done in a day from Oviedo?
Yes, with an hour and a quarter by car to Pola, but the morning bear outing means sleeping there.

### When is the best time to go?
In May, June and September.