The Best Beaches Close By: Gulpiyuri, Torimbia, Vega and Rodiles

Forget what you know about Spanish beaches. The Asturian coast has no rows of sunbeds and no warm flat water. This is the Cantabrian Sea: green cliffs, cold clear surf, limestone coves, and cows grazing to the edge of the sand. The first of these beaches is thirty minutes from the terrace at Casa Llenín, which makes a morning in the mountains and an afternoon in the sea an ordinary day here.

Gulpiyuri: the beach that should not exist

Start here, because there is nowhere quite like it. Gulpiyuri is a beach surrounded entirely by fields. It lies about a hundred metres inland, a small oval of sand in a collapsed limestone hollow, fed by seawater that arrives through caves beneath the cliff. The tide comes in and goes out. There are small waves. And there is no sea in sight.

You walk along a farm track, and it appears below you. It is tiny, and word has got out, so come early or late in the day. At low tide there is little water; check the tide table and aim for the top of the tide.

Torimbia: wild, wide and unclothed

Torimbia is a broad horseshoe of golden sand under green headlands near Niembro, reached on foot down a track from the clifftop car park. The walk takes about fifteen minutes and the view from the top is the photograph you will take home.

There are no hotels, no sunbeds and no shops, only a simple bar in summer. It has been the best-known naturist beach in Asturias since the 1960s, though swimwear is just as welcome. The shape of the bay shelters it from the wind.

Playa de Vega, and lunch above the sand

If you only have half a day, come to Playa de Vega, near Ribadesella. It is a long, uncrowded beach backed by dunes, and on a clear day you can see the Picos de Europa behind you while you stand in the surf.

Above the beach is Güeyu Mar, one of the most celebrated seafood restaurants in the north of Spain, where chef Abel Álvarez grills the morning’s catch over embers on a terrace. A swim followed by grilled fish and cold cider here is one of the great meals the region offers. Reserve well in advance.

Rodiles: surf and the estuary

Further west, near Villaviciosa, Rodiles is a wide open beach where the estuary meets the sea. It is one of the prime surf spots in Asturias, with schools on the sand in summer. Even if you do not surf, the setting of dunes, pine and eucalyptus wood and Atlantic swell is worth the longer drive.

Practical tips

Beach	Drive from the house	Good to know
Gulpiyuri	about 30 min	Paid parking nearby, or free at Playa de San Antolín, 1 km on foot
Torimbia	about 35 min	Car park fills on hot days. Arrive before 10:00 or after 17:00
Playa de Vega	about 35 min	Book Güeyu Mar ahead
Rodiles	about 55 min	Surf schools in summer

• Water temperature: it peaks at around 20°C in August. Refreshing is the polite word.
• Wind: bring a layer. The breeze picks up in the afternoon.
• Safety: these are wild beaches. Outside the summer season there are no lifeguards, and the Cantabrian has currents. Swim where others are swimming.
• Tides: the difference between high and low is large. Gulpiyuri is best at high tide, Torimbia has most sand at low.

The usual plan from Casa Llenín is the lazy one. Coffee on the balcony, the coast by eleven, a swim, a long lunch, and the drive home inland with the windows down as the hills close in. By the time the stove is lit you will have salt on your skin and the mountains back in the window.