1

Some tips (mainly for the Asturian part of your trip):

Don't forget to visit Oviedo itself!
Don't miss the Pre-Romanesque churches of el Naranco and S. Miguel de Lillo. You can visit other pre-romanesque churches in the area if you are interested.
Make a visit to the Playa de las Catedrales, in Ribadeo. Ribadeo is in Galicia, next to the border with Asturias.
Take a look also at places like Cudillero, Soto del Barco, Luarca, Avilés...
Go inland to Cangas de Narcea and the Natural Park of Las Fuentes del Narcea, Degaña e Ibias.
Get info on the ground about the Indianos and the Vaqueiros.
Don't leave Asturias without eating a fabada.

2

The main tourist attraction in Galicia is Santiago de Compostela, not only for its cathedral, but also for the rest of the city. I agree with Anillos that you should try to visit the Playa de las Catedrales. To really enjoy them you should try to visit at low tide, when you can enter the holes/caves. (See www.meteogalicia for the times of the tides. Use Foz or Ribadeo as reference point) If you like coasts, I strongly suggest you pay a visit to the Costa de la Muerte, the part of the galician coast between A Coruña and Cabo Finisterre. Today we visited Razo and enjoyed the beach there. It is a typical beach for surfers. I suggest you drive to Baldayo, have a look at the lagoon and then walk along the beach (appr. 1 hour) to Razo. In Razo eat "chipirones en su tinto" or "Bacalao a la galego" in "el Cordobés" and then walk back through the dunes to your car. This would give you a good idea what Galicia is like. Another suggestion would be to go to Carmelle, have a look at the museum of the "Aleman", and then continue along the coast to Camariñas. On the way you could stop for a little while at the memorial for the people of the "Serpent", who lost their live, when the ship ran ashore during a storm in that area.
If you want more information about Galicia come back with more specific questions.

3

Hello

Do you flight in and out from Asturias airport? Sorry, it´s not 100% clear to me. Any special place you have in mind to go? In 9 days, it´s not much time for both Galicia and Asturias in my opinion, but you can visit few places. Anillos said few things, among Oviedo and Gijon, Aviles can be visit as well in half day or so, for a beatufil city center and the new Niemeyer Center.

Gijon is quite popular place in summer in Asturias for locals and for tourist, you may find great atmosphere and lots of people in the streets at almost any time (despite the cider festival, there will be people around). Not sure if you want to have a "base" for few days in some place or just move around everyday...

If you have interest, in the sunday 26th of August, just take the car in the morning and drive west to Cadavedo (Valdes), around 35 min from the airport or 50 min from Oviedo or Gijon, for one of the most interesting traditional parties of Asturias: La Regalina. You will enjoy (starting around 11h) traditional local dresses , bagpipes bands and traditional dances in an amazing outdoor cape close to the sea.

Have fun!

4

Thank you for your suggestions, we are definitely going to ensure to follow some of the suggestions.
We will be departing from Oveiedo as well on the night of 2 September and will most likely spend that Sunday there.
Has anyone been to the Natural Cider Festival in Gijon, or heard anything about it? We are intending to get there on the Saturday afternoon and stay until Monday morning before we drive off towards Galicia. Does anyone suggest anything else in Asturias not to miss before we go to Galicia?
Also, we are aiming to get to Cambados as we want to do some wine tasting - Albarino of course :)
Thanks again.
Ramona

5

Hi again

Just a small note, the Airport of Asturias is not in Oviedo, in fact the closer city is Aviles, and then Oviedo and Gijon are quite at the same distance more or less, about 30 min driving. In Asturias you have plenty of things to see, but if you are thinking in going west to Galicia, then you´ll have to skip all the east side (Llanes, Lastres, Picos de Europa, and so on).

In my opinion, if you pick up the car in the airport, you could stop by in Aviles, visit the center in a couple of hours or less, and then go to Gijon for the night. Then enjoy the city on sunday, as well the Cider Festival. I´ve been there, and the main atraction to me is on friday 24, the world record of people "escanciando" cider in the beach (unfortunately you will arrive the next day...). It´s quite amazing.

But apart from that, you have a small market in "Los Jardines de la Reina", close to the marine in the center, with interesting products, cider and so on. On sunday there are few acts, a jury choose the best cider of the festival for instance, all in the center ( in Plaza Mayor and Campo del Marques).

You can see the program in spanish here:
http://www.gijon.info/multimedia_objects/download?object_id=117883&object_type=document

In your way to Galicia, you should try to see Cudillero and Luarca as main fishing towns, also quite nice small places are Puerto de Vega, Ortigueira, Viavelez or Tapia de Casariego. As a natural places, very impresive are Vidio Cape, Silence Beach, Busto Cape or Barayo Beach. If you start in Gijon in the morning and want to see this some of this places, my advise is try to sleep in Tapia or Ribadeo maximum, otherwise the distance will be quite large and you´ll have to skip a lot of places. Pick up some of the list, acording to your taste.

The next day, stop by in Cathedrals beach, close to Ribadeo (be sure first that the tide is up) before continue west. The alvarino wine is quite popular in all Galicia, not only in Cambados.

Have fun!