Still in Portugal having started in Lisbon then Porto and having the most wonderful time on all places I've stayed in. Now considering to start some adventure in Spain visiting not so popular cities. LÉON is my 1st planned city.
Does LÉON deserve the effort?
Any fellow travelers been there?
Thank you in advance! 🙏
Great city, amazing cathedral, fantastic "barrio húmedo" atmosphere, wonderful San Isidoro, possibly the best Parador in Spain, the Roman walls...Just great that you're visiting this massively ignored city by foreign visitors.
We loved León when we stayed there a couple nights in 2017. We stayed at the Parador on Plaza San Marcos. At the time it had free parking. The hotel was renovated shortly after our stay. The attached Convento de San Marcos was worth visiting. From the Parador we walked all over the city. The Camino de Santiago passes directly in front of it. The Royal Pantheon and Convento de San Isodoro was very impressive and the cathedral was very nice too.
A nice ice cream shop we enjoyed is Chocolatería Valor a few blocks from the cathedral. It is a chain and also has locations in Madrid and Burgos.
Note the accent in the name is on the Ó not the E.
Thank you both for the feedback about leon. I'm now convinced to go. Thank you
Big fan of Leon. Enjoyed all the above mentioned sites. Really liked our time spent there. Astroga is a worthy day trip.
Very good tapas scene. High point of our visit was getting a negative Covid test.
Brad
If you decided to visit Astorga, consider a short stop at Hospital de Óbrigo to see the Puente (bridge) de Óbrigo. Both Astorga and the bridge are on the Camino de Santiago. Astorga isn’t that large. When we visited in 2017 there was a large free parking at the base of the town wall. From it you walk up the hill to the town.
We didn’t go into the Gaudi Palace. While the interior of the cathedral was less interesting to me than other cathedrals there are some very nice carvings on the exterior around the doors. The main plaza was worth walking through.
Another very minor site in the area is Crucero de San Toribio outside of San Justo de la Vega, between Hospital de Óbrigo and Astorga. It too is on the Camino de Santiago and affords a nice view of the area and nearby town.
I have been to Leon 3 times and always do the audio guide in the cathedral. The stained glass there is magnificent. It is a party city so there are lots of places to eat and drink
Going to disagree about the cathedral in Astorga. I thought it looked rather different from the other cathedrals, especially the altars. They had a great virtual reality experience to do there too.
I highly recommend a visit to Astorga. The Palace is a marvel and the town enjoys a unique culinary tradition based on the food off the Maragatos. Nearby Jimenez de Jamuz is home of one of the most interesting meat restaurants in Spain; part of the dining room is tucked into caves.
From where will you head after Leon?
