Getaways from Ávila: day trips and destinations close by.

Over the Malagón pass, the short way to El Escorial

Ávila is at the junction of four roads, and each one leads to a different kind of plan. To the east, the AP-51 joins the AP-6 at Villacastín and the Sierra de Guadarrama: the Navacerrada pass, Valdesquí, La Pedriza and the Lozoya valley. For El Escorial there is a shorter way, the Malagón pass road, which enters through the Abantos pine forest. To the north-east, the N-110 crosses the plain to Segovia in an hour and continues towards Pedraza.

To the west, the A-50 takes you to Salamanca in an hour and a quarter. To the south leaves the N-502, the road to the Sierra de Gredos: on the north face you reach Hoyos del Espino and the Plataforma, where the Laguna Grande route starts; over the Puerto del Pico you drop to the south face, with Arenas de San Pedro and the Cuevas del Águila. To the south-west, the N-110 continues via El Barco de Ávila to the Jerte Valley and Plasencia.

Without a car, the Renfe station is a short walk from the old town. The Madrid train stops at El Escorial, so you can see the monastery in a day without driving, and there is also a train to Salamanca. Gredos and the Jerte, in practice, call for a car.

A five-hour route at the foot of the Gredos cirque

In an hour or less there are three Sunday plans: El Escorial (55 minutes), with the monastery, the La Herrería woods and the Abantos pine forest; Segovia (60), with the Aqueduct, the Casa de Moneda and the Alcázar, and the Laguna Grande de Gredos (60), a five-hour route at the foot of the cirque.

Between one and one and a half hours is the other face of Guadarrama and a city: the Navacerrada pass and Salamanca (75 minutes), La Pedriza (80) and Valdesquí (85).

A little further, between an hour and a half and two hours, are Pedraza (92 minutes), Peñalara and Rascafría (95), and, at 110, Peñafiel and the Jerte Valley. Alcalá de Henares is at 115 and Aranjuez and Chinchón at two hours, better with a night: Aranjuez and Chinchón for a weekend.

Past two hours, the trip divides between Hervás (122 minutes), which still fits into a Sunday, and the weekends: Sepúlveda and the Duratón canyon, at two hours; La Alberca and the Sierra de Francia, at two hours twenty, and Monfragüe and its birds, at two hours forty-five.

Ávila is cold and the snow is an hour and a quarter away

In winter Ávila is cold, and the snow is an hour and a quarter away: the morning snowshoeing at Navacerrada, the ski day at Valdesquí or the snow weekend in Cercedilla, from December to March and with chains. Segovia and Salamanca, with plenty to see indoors, work in any month.

In spring, between the end of March and mid-April, the cherry trees blossom in the Jerte Valley, and the Caozo waterfall runs between white orchards. It is also the season for Monfragüe and its birds.

In summer Gredos rules. The Laguna Grande is the June and July route, with access to the Plataforma regulated at weekends, and two nights in the sierra let you add the south face. In June and July, the Pilones of the Jerte are good for a swim. La Pedriza is not recommended in July and August.

In autumn, the nearest forest is La Herrería and El Castañar, 55 minutes away, in October and November. Further off, the chestnut trees of Hervás, with the Vía Verde by bike from Béjar during the Otoño Mágico of the Ambroz Valley, and the oak woods of Rascafría.

El Escorial by train and the Silla de Felipe II in the afternoon

• Without a car, in a day: El Escorial, the monastery and the Silla de Felipe II. Train to El Escorial, the monastery at opening time, Castilian lunch and the view from the Silla in the afternoon.
• An hour away, along the N-110: Segovia on a Sunday. The Aqueduct before the groups, the Casa de Moneda by the river, suckling pig in the Azoguejo and the Alcázar in the afternoon.
• To the west: Salamanca. An hour and a quarter along the A-50, the University in the morning, tapas in the Plaza Mayor, the two cathedrals in the afternoon and the Roman Bridge before returning.