La Peral
The right base for Somiedo, and the only one with any choice of beds. Book ahead in summer and at bear-watching season.
A quiet valley village with bears in the forest, from which every Somiedo walk starts.
At a Glance
- — You want restaurants, shops or company in the evening
La Peral is a small village on the road up the Pigüeña valley, and it is the most useful place to sleep in Somiedo: a handful of stone houses, a couple of small hotels and casas rurales, and mountains on three sides. Brown bears are resident in the forests above and below the village, and the local guides run dawn and dusk watching trips from here in spring and autumn, with telescopes from the road. It is also the trailhead for the brañas and for the walk up to the lakes. Do not expect a village with much in it; expect somewhere quiet to sleep with cows walking past the window in the morning.
How it got here
Somiedo exists as a rugged frontier where the mountains of Asturias meet the León border. Historically, this territory functioned as an isolated pastoral landscape governed by transhumance patterns. The high summer pastures held value for the cattle and horse breeders who moved herds through the mountain passes for centuries. Modern road access arrived slowly, preserving the traditional architecture of heavy stone walls and slate roofs that define the village. The isolation that protected these grazing rights created a landscape left largely unchanged by industrial expansion, keeping the village tied to the seasonal cycles of the mountain rather than the administrative centers of the Asturian lowlands.
Where it sits
The village clings to the slope above the Pigüeña valley where limestone peaks rise abruptly from dense forests of beech and oak. Brown bears roam these wooded corridors and the alpine meadows above. Winter brings heavy snow that blocks the higher trails, while autumn transforms the hillsides into rusted shades of gold. The track to the glacial lakes begins here, pulling visitors upward into a jagged terrain of karst ridges. Traffic remains sparse, limited to local livestock, forest workers, and those tracking wildlife through the morning mist before the clouds clear from the high summits.
What to eat and drink
Cuisine in this high valley relies on the endurance of the local larder. Fabada asturiana, a rich stew of large white beans, chorizo, morcilla, and pork belly, provides the necessary calories for the climate. Cabrales, a sharp blue cheese aged in mountain caves, pairs with the tart cider produced in the northern orchards. Beef from the Asturiana de los Valles breed appears in hearty cuts, cooked slowly over coals. For dessert, arroz con leche arrives as creamy rice pudding cooked with cinnamon and lemon peel, finished with a caramelized sugar crust scorched onto the top.
Asturias: the whole region
Asturias fits a whole coast, a mountain range and a serious kitchen into a province you can cross in two hours. Cider poured from a height, blue cheese, working fishing ports, and the Picos de Europa standing over all of it. It rains often…
Minimum 4 days · better 7 days · deep 10-12 days
What's Nearby
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In Asturias
In Asturias
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