42.06° N · 3.52° W
A timber-framed village with Count Fernán González's tower, the Romanesque cloister of Silos with its monks singing, and the La Yecla canyon, an hour from Burgos.
What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
Plaza de Doña Urraca, timber-framed houses, the wall and the collegiate church with its counts' tombs · 1 h 30 · cloister and museum €5
The 10th-century defensive tower that guarded the ford of the Arlanza, with an exhibition of siege engines · 45 min · €6
The two-storey Romanesque cloister, the monks' apothecary and the museum, in Santo Domingo de Silos · 1 h · €4
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
In spring and in October, with the valley green or golden and the monuments open long hours. In winter everything opens less and the collegiate church closes on Tuesdays, but Silos and its chant do not change.
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.
Without a car this getaway does not work: Covarrubias, San Pedro de Arlanza, Silos and La Yecla are on minor roads and there is no useful bus on Sunday. With a car, everything is within half an hour of everything else. Leave the car outside the old towns and walk in.
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.
The Arlanza valley works for families if you pace it: a monument in the morning, an early lunch and something outdoors in the afternoon. Under-12s do not pay at the Silos cloister and pay €3.50 at the tower.
With teenagers, what hooks them is the physical and the genuinely historic: climbing a wall in a harness, squeezing through a narrow canyon, walking into a ruined monastery.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: Family-run hotel with eight rooms in a restored manor house in Covarrubias, opened in 2022, with a pool, garden and free private parking.
Why we like it: Three-star hotel on Plaza de Doña Urraca in Covarrubias, with 45 rooms in Castilian decor and a restaurant serving lamb and blood sausage.
Why we like it: Stone hotel on the Plaza Mayor of Santo Domingo de Silos, with 15 outward-facing double rooms and a grill restaurant with a wood-fired oven.
Why we like it: Family-run hotel opposite the Silos monastery with guesthouse-style, three-star and hot-tub rooms, apartments with a pool and a garage.
Services for this trip
Areas, for any way of travelling
| Area | Who it's for | Average night |
|---|---|---|
| Covarrubias | Timber-framed old town, tower, olla podrida | |
| Santo Domingo de Silos | Cloister, vespers, hotels opposite the monastery | |
| Hortigüela and La Yecla | Arlanza ruins, juniper woods, gorge |
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 olla podrida, the house dish, and roast lamb as a main; or the €38.90 tasting menu.
What to order: the roast lamb, the speciality of the wood-fired oven.
What to order: Ibeas red beans or Castilian soup, and a roast as a main; for dessert, curd cheese or rice pudding.
Map
The places to stay and services on the map are the ones for the way you travel. Turn on the layers you want and tap a point to see its details.
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
Tips
At 19:00 in the church at Silos. Arrive ten minutes early and sit near the choir.
It is closed Mondays, Tuesdays and the second weekend of each month. The hermitage of Quintanilla de las Viñas, the same.
The collegiate church of Covarrubias closes every Tuesday of the year, and so does Casa Galín.
With the thaw and the rains the stream carries water and the canyon sounds. In August it is almost dry.
Do the day the other way round if you arrive late: Silos in the afternoon for vespers, and Covarrubias the next morning.
Covarrubias and Santo Domingo de Silos are the two villages of the Arlanza valley, south-east of Burgos, that are visited together in a day. Covarrubias is a village of timber-framed houses around an arcaded square, with the tower that Count Fernán González had built in the 10th century and the collegiate church where he is buried. Silos, twenty kilometres further south, is a living Benedictine monastery: a two-storey Romanesque cloister and a community of monks who sing their offices in Gregorian chant. Between the two, the ruins of San Pedro de Arlanza in a bend of the river, the juniper woods of a natural park and the La Yecla gorge, with walkways between limestone walls.
By car. Covarrubias is about 40 km from Burgos, about 40 minutes leaving along the N-234 towards Soria; Silos, about 55 km and a little under an hour. From Valladolid or Palencia you arrive along the A-62 or via Lerma, in an hour and a half or less. From Madrid, along the A-1 to Lerma and from there to Covarrubias, in a little over two hours. This plan needs a car: by public transport you cannot chain the two villages in a day.
In Covarrubias, outside the old town, beside the Arlanza and the bridge, and walk in: the streets of the old town are narrow. In Silos you park on the streets around the Plaza Mayor, two minutes from the monastery. La Yecla has its own car park on the BU-910, at the exit from the tunnels.
One day is enough for the essentials: Covarrubias in the morning, lunch there, San Pedro de Arlanza on the way, and Silos and La Yecla in the afternoon, with vespers at 19:00 as the finale. With a night, sleep in Silos, hear vespers without looking at the clock and the next day add the Visigothic hermitage of Quintanilla de las Viñas, Territorio Artlanza or a guided route through the juniper woods.
May, June and October are the best months: the valley is green or golden and the monuments have long hours. In summer it is hot by day but cools down at night, and La Yecla carries little water. In winter everything opens less: the collegiate church of Covarrubias only on Sunday morning, the tower at weekends in the morning and the chapel of San Olav closes from December to February. The cloister at Silos is open every day of the year except 1 January and 25 December.
The walk starts in the Plaza de Doña Urraca, continues along streets of adobe and timber houses to the gate in the wall and ends at the collegiate church of San Cosme y San Damián, with the tombs of Count Fernán González and his wife, and a cloister with a sacred art museum (€4, closed on Tuesdays). Next to it, the tower, with an exhibition of siege weapons (€6). Two kilometres away, the chapel of San Olav commemorates Princess Kristina of Norway, who married a Castilian infante in the 13th century and is buried in the collegiate church.
The monastery cloister, with the pharmacy and the museum, costs €4 and is free on Wednesday afternoons and for under-12s. Vespers in Gregorian chant are at 19:00 every day, and on Sundays the conventual Mass is at 11:00. 3 km away, the La Yecla gorge is walked in a quarter of an hour along metal walkways.
In Covarrubias you eat olla podrida, the village's red-bean stew, and roast lamb: Casa Galín is open on Sunday at midday and closes on Sunday evening and Tuesday. In Silos, the grill of the Hotel Tres Coronas has a wood-fired oven. For sleeping, the Hotel Rural Covarrubias, small and with a pool; the Nuevo Arlanza, in the square; and in Silos, the Tres Coronas or the Hotel Santo Domingo de Silos, opposite the monastery.
Questions
About 25 minutes by car, passing San Pedro de Arlanza and Hortigüela.
Vespers are at 19:00 every day, and compline at 21:40. On Sundays, Mass is at 11:00.
€4 general admission. It is free for under-12s and for everyone on Wednesday afternoons.
Every Tuesday of the year. In winter, on Sundays it opens only from 10:30 to 12:30.
Yes. It is a 15-minute walk along walkways, without difficulty, although with stairs and no pushchairs.
Olla podrida, the red-bean stew with pork, and roast lamb, with wine from the Arlanza D.O.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/castile-and-leon/covarrubias-and-silos
