Desfiladero de La Hermida & Picos de Europa Day Trip
Llanes sits at the perfect jumping-off point for one of Spain's most dramatic inland drives: 40 kilometres south through the Desfiladero de La Hermida gorge brings you from the Atlantic coast into the heart of the Picos de Europa National Park, passing sheer 1,000-metre limestone walls before emerging at the mountain village of Potes. It is the most rewarding half-day excursion from Llanes by a co
The gorge drive
The N-621 road from the coast at Unquera follows the Río Deva into an increasingly narrow gorge where the cliffs close in until they blot out the sky and the road squeezes between rock face and river. Griffon vultures circle the thermals overhead and the temperature drops noticeably as you enter the shadow of the walls.
Stop at the village of La Hermida itself — a cluster of stone houses with a Romanesque church — and at the natural hot spring that seeps from the cliff face beside the road, staining the limestone orange with iron deposits.
Potes and the Picos beyond
Potes is a medieval market town of arcaded streets and a 15th-century tower, ringed by peaks. Have lunch here — the local speciality is cocido lebaniego, a hearty chickpea stew with mountain sausage — and buy a wedge of Lebaniega cheese to take back to Llanes.
If time allows, drive the further 23 km up to the Fuente Dé cable car, which ascends 800 metres in four minutes to a high plateau at 1,823 m with views across the entire Picos massif. On a clear day you can see all the way to the Cantabrian coast you drove in from.
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