Tazones
Worth a detour on a weekday, and worth avoiding on a summer Sunday unless you arrive by one o'clock.
Lunch by a small working harbour, then a coastal walk.
At a Glance
- — Weekend August crowds
Tazones is a working harbour village with a handful of streets, a quay, and seafood restaurants that fill up on summer weekends. In 1517 Charles V landed here on his way to claim the Spanish throne, which is the footnote the village has been dining out on ever since. The real reason to come is the shape of the place: houses standing almost in the water, fishing boats at the quay, and a walk out to the headland. Arrive early, eat at lunchtime, and leave before the afternoon traffic does.
How it got here
In September 1517 the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V arrived at this harbour after a storm diverted his fleet from Santander. This unplanned landfall marks the point where the monarch first set foot on Spanish soil to claim his crown. The village commemorates the event with a symbolic re-enactment each August. Beyond this royal footnote the port functioned as a commercial hub for the surrounding coast of Asturias. Its survival relied on the maritime trade of the Cantabrian Sea and small-scale fishing operations that sustained the local population for centuries, leaving behind the architecture of stone and timber that defines the harbour layout today.
Where it sits
The village sits at the mouth of the Río Valdediós on the central Asturian coast. Dense eucalyptus forests and steep cliffs surround the narrow inlet. The narrow streets descend directly to the fishing quay where boats tie up at high tide. Roads leading to the village wind through sharp hills, turning difficult when summer crowds fill the limited parking spaces near the shore. Winter rains and coastal winds scour the headland, keeping the atmosphere quiet until the heat of the season arrives. The landscape holds the raw verticality typical of the Asturian littoral between the mountains and the sea.
What to eat and drink
Asturian kitchens here rely on the catch from local boats and the products of the cider orchards. Order pixín, the local term for monkfish, usually cooked in a sauce of garlic and parsley or simmered with rice. Fabada asturiana, a heavy stew of white faba beans, chorizo, morcilla and salted pork, provides the standard regional meal. Drink sidra natural, the tart and unfiltered apple cider produced in the nearby hills. It is poured from a height into a wide glass to aerate the liquid before consumption. Finish with arroz con leche, a creamed rice pudding finished with a scorched sugar crust.
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
Pair It With
In Asturias
In Asturias
In Asturias
Linked from elsewhere
Entries that name this place in their own nearby lists.
Logistics are verified only. We don't publish schedules we haven't confirmed.
Appears In
Experiences worth booking ahead
Spain Field Guide may earn a commission when you book through selected links. Recommendations are editorial and independent of commission.
Ready to build Tazones into a trip?
You've found a place worth going. When you're ready to turn discovery into an itinerary, Travel Itinerary Co picks up where the Field Guide leaves off — with your saved places already in hand.
Build this into a tripContinues on Travel Itinerary Co
Spain Field Guide may earn a commission when you book through selected links. Recommendations are editorial and independent of commission.