Asturias

Four hundred kilometres of cliffs, beaches and small ports, with the east busier and the west emptier. The stretch between Cudillero and Tapia is the most varied and the least developed.

Gulpiyuri, an inland beach a few metres wide in the middle of a field, and Playa del Silencio, a shell of cliffs reached on foot. Both are small and both are worth the walk.

Cider, poured from a height into the glass and never stirred; fabada; Cabrales and Gamonéu blue cheeses; cachopo; and the seafood of the ports. The sidrerías of Oviedo and Villaviciosa serve the whole menu in one sitting.

The pre-Romanesque churches above Oviedo — Santa María del Naranco, San Miguel de Lillo — the cathedral and its Camino, and the mining valleys whose industrial heritage is only now being read as history.

Partly. Oviedo, Gijón and Avilés are on the rail network and there are seasonal buses into the Picos, but the coast's small ports and the mountain roads essentially require a car.

Everything, and it is a pleasure to drive: the coast road, the Picos, Somiedo, and the western valleys down to the Oscos.

June, September and early October. July and August are the busiest weeks on the coast and in the Picos; winter is wet and some mountain roads close.

August on the eastern coast, when Spain takes it over entirely; and expecting reliable sun. This is green Spain, and green means rain.