Asturias is a principality on the northern coast of Spain facing the Bay of Biscay, just a few hours’ drive west along the E70 motorway from Bilbao.

The area is renowned for its outstanding natural beauty, notably the mountainous Picos de Europa National Park, home of the Cantabrian Mountain range and some truly awesome scenery.

Asturias has always been an independently minded place, it held out against foreign invaders from the Romans to Napoleon, and it’s this independence of spirit that has protected the principality from over exploitation by today’s property developers. This means that you can still explore a region that has changed very little in the last 500 years.

This a perfect place for the adventurous explorer. It is a land of small villages and forests; B&B’s, farmhouses and camp sites; rivers, lakes and mile upon mile of pristine unspoilt coastline.

There are two large medieval cities to explore, Oviedo and Gijon, but nothing man-made will rival the impact that this region’s natural scenery has on even the most jaded of travellers.