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Costa Verde Where to Stay

We are two couples in our youthful 70's who will be travelling from Porto, Portugal to the Bilbao/San Sebastian, Spain vicinity in early October - yes, October - of 2025. We are experienced travelers in good health, used to the usual physical, cultural, language etc. challenges and surprises that travel entails.

We would like to stay in one place somewhere on the Costa Verde for 5+/- nights and have begun to research several towns: Llanes, Cudillero, Ribadesella, Oviedo, Gijon, Luarca, and Luanco with the thought of picking one of those (or another, based on your suggestions). We prefer smaller towns (we consider Gijons and Oviedo "not smaller"), ideally one with convenient access to some services - cafes/restaurants, food shopping, and the like. A couple of different trips we took in recent years that have the flavor of what we seek included a week in Salema, Portugal and a week in Cadeques, Spain.

Here's the challenge: We hope to not have a car. We have studied the transportation options for getting from one town to another, but my question has more to do with staying in one smaller town that has both a coastal location and the basic services of the like I mentioned above accessible without a car. Bus would be okay, but walking distance, say 1km, would be ideal.

I realize that our time frame will not allow us to see all there is to see along the Costa Verde. And we might end up reconsidering our "no car" stance. But for the time being we're sticking to it.

Thoughts? And thanks in advance.

Posted by
7157 posts

Check out the bus and train schedules to get a better idea of a location that might work. Your list of places includes a number of small towns that may not be served regularly by public transportation.

Oviedo I believe is the largest so it should have more of what you’re looking for regarding restaurants and stores. Smaller towns can generally be seen in a few hours and you could become very bored if staying for 5 nights. Many small towns don’t have a large number of restaurants and that number decreases significantly if you’re there on days (normally Mondays or Tuesdays) when many restaurants are closed.

Posted by
530 posts

Thanks Jaime. I had written an additional post to your reply but I don’t see it now. If it shows up you don’t need to reply. I’m working on a modified approach.

Thanks again,
Mike

Posted by
7157 posts

We had a rental car when we were in that area and stayed in Ribadeo, but only for a night before proceeding on to locations further east.

Posted by
55 posts

I would rule out Cudillero. It is very scenic but tiny and probably does not have the best transport connections. It also has some very steep stretches, as you can see from photos. WE stayed overnight and found that to be enough.
Luarca, yes.
Ribasedella would be be one of my choices. Long beautiful beach and pleasant town with lots of services.
Oviedo is lovely; we spent three nights at the NH and were very happy..lots to see there and good transport. And you could go to Gijon for the day.

I would suggest renting a car, however. Then you can go to Cangas de Onis, the Lakes, Covadonga, etc.
Arriondas and around has many top restaurants. It is VERY easy to drive in Asturias and along that region of the coast into Cantabria and on to Bilbao. We took a very inexpensive flight from Bilbao to Lisbon on fueling; maybe there is one to Oporto as well.

A little out of the area you mentioned--to the east-Getaria is among my favorite towns on the northern coast of Spain.

IF you want some hotel ideas I can share but I need ti know your price range.

I've never heard that area referred to as the Costa Verde. Its usually known in Spain as either Asturias or Cantabria or the. Picos de Europa. And then, separately, the Pais Vasco, or Basque region of Spain.