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My daughter and I will be starting in Bilbao on the Camino del Norte to the Camino Primitive and joining the Camino Frances for the last leg. This is our first time on the Camino, but we both have good fitness and I think that going at a reasonable (but not rushed) pace we'll have 3 'extra days'. Planning to stay mostly at Albergues, but would like to stay at paradors once every 7 to 10 day. Both the parador at Cangas del Narcea, and the town sound fantastic. Has anyone detoured from Tineo to Cangas del Narcea and back to the primitive at Pola de allande? How about staying at the parador there?
Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Dave Jelley
Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
My son lived in Cangas del Narcea for a year about 5 years ago. He was a teaching assistant in English for the local high school. I have to say I don't know how or why Cangas would be described by anyone as a "fantastic" town, at least not in the tourism sense. It is a mining town fallen on very very hard times, has a two or three street core near the river with some old buildings, but is generally a modern charmless place. The people, however, are fantastic. There is great ambiente in the downtown pedestrian core and very good food and tapas. But I would never go to Cangas just to visit the city.
The parador is huge, and was under construction while he was there. No one in town could believe that a parador of this size would make it in Cangas. I'm glad that it seems to be doing well. It is in a beautiful part of Asturias, this is true, and I have been to small villages and farms in the area that are wonderful and picturesque. But you would need a car to see those parts.
I popped over to Cangas twice from the Primitivo to see my son. From Oviedo, I got a bus back and forth (about two hours but fairly regular). I then also took a detour later on in the walk. There is a bus from Pola de Allande that takes school aged kids to Cangas and doubles as a public bus. I took the bus from Pola to go see him in Cangas early one morning and a cab back to Pola to start walking again.
That parador is ranked as the best rural hotel in the country, that says a lot. If it offers a lot of pampering within its walls then it may very well succeed. Or perhaps people use it as a base for daily road trips.Thanks so much for the info. I described the town as looking fantastic based on the pictures from Google maps. The pictures really are quite lovely. It sounds like they may show the pedestrian core you were talking about. I'm going to make sure that construction on the parador is done before making the effort to detour there. Thanks again.
But Cangas de Onis is nowhere near Tineo. My guess is that thr Palacio de Meres is about to get two new clientsI'm virtually certain that the construction has been done for several years, as the parador is in operation (it's outside of Cangas, the town is called Corias). Make sure not to confuse it with Cangas de Onis, which is a lovely town in Asturias and also has a parador.
Has anyone detoured from Tineo to Cangas del Narcea and back to the primitive at Pola de allande?
We stayed in Cangas del Narcea last year at the Hotel Peñagrande, about 2 kms out of the centre, with a lovely riverside walk into town. If you want to visit and stay in Cangas del Narcea then maybe take the bus from Salas and back. Having driven it we would not really want to walk from Tineo or Pola as it is on the main road with blind bends.Thanks so much for the info. I described the town as looking fantastic based on the pictures from Google maps. The pictures really are quite lovely. It sounds like they may show the pedestrian core you were talking about. I'm going to make sure that construction on the parador is done before making the effort to detour there. Thanks again.
Before starting out you may want to visit Gaztelugatxe, a place nearby Bilbao (to the northeast). It is being discussed now on the thread https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...s-movie-where-is-the-place.45336/#post-477629My daughter and I will be starting in Bilbao on the Camino del Norte
Whatever you decide about the parador in Cangas del Narcea (and I think it looks quite nice, btw), I would strongly encourage you to banish the thought about removing the Tineo to Pola stage from your itinerary. That first hour or so out of Tineo (once you get up to the top of the hill) is one of the Primitivo's most beautiful parts. If it were me, I'd take the bus from Pola to Cangas and then back to Pola to resume.
If you have the extra days, have you considered taking a short day from Tineo to Campiello and then walking the next day via Hospitales? That'd be another way to spend an extra day.
Buen camino, Laurie
and p.s. There is a parador-level hotel in Oviedo, the Reconquista, which featured in Woody Allen's Vicki Cristina Barcelona or whatever it was called. It is very nice, I had a splurge there a few years ago and it is as nice as the nicest paradors I've stayed in.
I am not sure why you are thinking of Tineo for the bus. I thought that more buses went from or through Salas daily as that is where the road turns off for Cangas. You may be aware of more buses but I suggest that you check all the bus times in Oviedo at the bus station before leaving Oviedo. Salas to Tineo is a reasonable length day.Thanks for the advice. After reading all of the responses to my post, I think we'll take the bus from Tineo to Corias/Cangas del Narcea and then back the next day, then do a short day from Tineo to Campiella (as you recommend) before the 'not so short' Hospitales route.
It is very dufficult to see one. There are around 300 in Spain, only in the mountains of the North.How common is it to see a bear? I lived in Spain for eight years and never saw one!! We had packs of wild dogs, but no bears. And it wasn't cold enough for polar bears ........ that's a joke!!!!
I knew that there were bears in Bosque de Muniellos, but I had visited several times Cangas and Degaña (last time in 2019, one week in a hotel in Cerredo) and I didn't know about bears look out points in Degaña. So, thank you for your information.In 2016 we stayed in Cangas del Narcea and spent a chilly evening at the bear look-out point near Degaña. (That was the first year we took the car) Just as we were about to give up as it was getting dark a bear walked over and along the top of the mountain opposite.
Just visible with the 'naked eye' but we had our binoculars. Made it well worth wearing about 3 layers of fleeces and our ponchos.
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