43.48° N · 5.44° W
What to do in Villaviciosa: visits to El Gaitero and a cider mill in Amandi, the Conventín de Valdediós, Tazones and its dinosaur footprints, the estuary and the MUJA.
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.
Cider mill and collection · 1 h 30 · €5, free up to age 14 · The cellars of Asturias's best-known cider, with tasting
Pre-Romanesque and Cistercian · 1 h · €7, free under 8 · Audio guide included · Closed Mondays
Fishing town · Half a day · Free · Two districts of fishermen's houses, fish market, lighthouse and dinosaur footprints at low tide
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
All year: the cider mills and Valdediós also open in winter, though with shorter hours. May, June, September and October are the best months for Tazones and the coast; in autumn the new cider begins and the estuary fills with wintering birds. In August, Tazones gets crowded and the MUJA opens every day.
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.
Villaviciosa is 37 minutes from Oviedo and 24 from Gijón by motorway, and everything worth visiting around it is less than half an hour away: Tazones, Valdediós, the estuary and the Jurassic Museum. The car is the convenient way; for the cider, let whoever is not drinking drive.
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.
Villaviciosa with children means looking for dinosaur footprints at Tazones, seeing the museum that explains them and stopping at a cider mill that does not charge. Everything is less than half an hour away by car, so you can go back to your lodgings at midday.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: A 19th-century indiano mansion with nine rooms and a garden of more than 5,000 m² with a sequoia, in Amandi, five minutes from Villaviciosa. Open all year.
Why we like it: Three-star hotel renovated in 2018, a few metres from Villaviciosa's old town, with 51 rooms from €51 a night and pets allowed for a supplement.
Services for this trip
Areas, for any way of travelling
| Area | Who it's for | Average night |
|---|---|---|
| Villaviciosa | Old town, cider houses, El Gaitero, hotels | |
| Amandi | Sidra Cortina cider mill, rural manor house | |
| Tazones and the estuary | Port, dinosaur footprints, birds, Rodiles | |
| Valdediós | Conventín and Cistercian monastery |
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: a bottle of pouring cider with PDO, fabada or pote and a free-range chicken rice for the table
What to order: the cider from the cider mill next door, tortos with picadillo and Cabrales and something from the grill; the welcome menu if you are coming to try things
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
43.35° N · 5.13° W
By car
43.46° N · 5.06° W
By carLuxury
43.36° N · 5.85° W
Car-freeBy carBy plane
43.06° N · 5.39° W
By car
Tips
El Gaitero asks for confirmation at least a day ahead; Cortina is booked on its website.
The dinosaur footprints on the beach can only be seen properly at low tide.
From October to March it closes at 13:30.
Villaviciosa is the capital of the Comarca de la Sidra (Cider Country): a town with an old quarter at the head of an estuary, surrounded by apple orchards and cider mills, less than half an hour from Gijón. From here you go to Tazones, the port where Charles V landed, to the Conventín de Valdediós, a pre-Romanesque church consecrated in the year 893, and to the beaches at the mouth of the estuary.
By car, along the A-64 from Oviedo, in about 37 minutes, or along the A-8 from Gijón, in 24. From Santander it is around an hour and three quarters on the A-8, and from León, an hour and fifty via Oviedo. To get around the area you need a car: Tazones, Valdediós and the Jurassic Museum are between 15 and 25 minutes from the town, each in a different direction.
In two very different places. El Gaitero, in La Espuncia, is the factory of Asturias's best-known sparkling cider: an hour and a half through its cellars and its collection, with a tasting, for €5, and free for under-14s. Sidra Cortina, in Amandi, is a family-run mill making natural cider: a culín (small pour) straight from the barrel, ice cider and local cheeses for €10, with its cider house, Casa Cortina, next door. Both require a reservation.
Tazones is the little port at the mouth of the estuary, with two quarters of fishermen's houses and dinosaur footprints in the cliff by the beach, visible at low tide. The Jurassic Museum (MUJA), in Colunga, explains those footprints and is the rainy-day plan with children. Inland, Valdediós brings together the Conventín and the church and cloister of the Cistercian monastery; it is closed on Mondays. And the estuary is a nature reserve and, after the Eo, the second area in Asturias for wintering waterbirds.
La Casona de Amandi is an indiano house (built by a returned emigrant) with a garden and nine rooms, open all year, in the same village as the Cortina cider mill. In town, the Hotel Arcea Villaviciosa accepts pets. For eating, the Sidrería El Roxu, on Calle Cervantes, with a long list of ciders with Denomination of Origin, and Casa Cortina, in Amandi, with a garden for the children. In Tazones, fish from the fish market on the harbour terraces.
A day covers a cider mill, Tazones and the estuary. With a night you add Valdediós and the MUJA without hurrying. From here, Ribadesella and the eastern coast are less than half an hour along the A-8.
Questions
€5 per person, redeemable in the shop at the end; under-14s, free.
Yes, the Sidra Cortina one in Amandi, with a culín from the barrel and a tasting, for €10.
A fishing port with two historic quarters, the lighthouse and dinosaur footprints on the beach.
Around Tazones and on the paths, on a lead. In the estuary reserve, on a short lead; they are not allowed into El Gaitero.
The Jurassic Museum, Valdediós and a visit to a cider mill.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/asturias/villaviciosa-and-tazones
