- The lovely Poo Beach near Llanes in northern Spain
I was delighted to see that in the Guardian this past weekend their top readers’ tip for beaches in Spain was Poo beach just next to the Picos de Europa National Park. It is located almost exactly in the middle of the north coast of Spain. Poo beach is somewhere we have been sending people for years as part of our holidays to the Picos de Europa.
When you are finished with the beach of Playa del Poo, there is the village of Poo, an island offshore called Palo del Poo which interestingly enough translates as Poo Stick, no AA Milne link that I know of though.
To get this out of the way straight away, it is pronounced po as in ponder.
The beach itself is particularly nice because, as you can see from the photo above, the mouth of the bay is protected by an island which takes the battering from the waves of the Bay of Biscay. This means that the waters on Poo beach itself are very gentle compared to other beaches on the north coast of Spain.
There’s a little restaurant at the edge of the beach and it is a short walk back into the village of Poo which is where many of our families choose to stay as part of their active family holiday to the Picos. We have some really lovely self catering apartments sitting towards the back of the village looking out over the coastal mountains.
The beauty of staying here is that you are still only 20 minutes or so from the high mountains of the Picos de Europa, in fact standing on Poo beach you can actually see the highest peaks of the Picos (+/-2,600m). See them, really they are towering over you as they are only about 5km away as the crow flies. It’s a very odd sensation to be standing with your feet on the sand looking at snow capped mountains which is exactly the case when I took this photo.
In the short piece in the Guardian, it says “The name puts children in a giggly mood before you even get there.” Children? It has been a source of some discussion, amusement, amazement amongst our Spanish guides over the years just how universal the giggling is amongst British clients.
A photo op by the entrance sign to the village is a staple even on our supposedly more mature small group walking holidays to the Picos.
Find out more about our family holidays or walking holidays to the Picos de Europa
Enjoying the empty slopes of the friendly Spanish ski resort of Cerler.
Mid-March rolls on and still no sign of the snow at Cerler melting so this image caught my eye today.
I’ll leave it to better skiers than I to say why Cerler is such a good resort for the variety of pistes, accessibility of safe off-piste, vertical drops and altitude (it’s the highest ski resort in the Pyrenees) . I’m a useless skier, Bambi meets the snow, but I do enjoy it. It’s best for everyone involved if I can be given lots of elbow room as I careen down the piste.
I also prefer it if there aren’t too many people at the bottom judging my style and skill, or lack thereof. Or just openly laughing.
Cerler and actually Spanish resorts in general (with the exception of Baqueira-Beret which I don’t like) are wonderfully unpretentious. There are all sorts up there, all on the snow for the love of being out there. That means there’s a home for me on the slopes, which I appreciate.
It helps that the place feels Spanish, in terms of the people, the quality of the food and the prices. I remember a few years ago being up on the slopes, having a coffee and a rest. As I was chatting with some of our clients, someone on the next table looked up, confused. He was a Brit. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
Turns out he was living in Barcelona and came up to Cerler most weekends in the season to ski. This was the first time he had ever met other Brits. He was visibly relieved when we said that we were staying just a week, he obviously wanted to protect his hidden gem.
Find out more about our skiing holidays in the Pyreenes or read our guide to skiing in Cerler
A surprisingly exotic looking family adventure holiday in Europe
This photo is too good to have been taken by me. This belongs to one of my colleagues Jaime Lahoz who happens to be a real photographer. This was taken last summer during one of our Pyrenees family adventure holidays which take place in the Pallars Sobira Valley.
The subject of the photo is the lower part of the Pallars River, Collegats, which is one of the most famous rafting spots in Spain. This is one of our families who have been kind enough/lucky enough to try out our family adventures in both the Picos mountains and the Pyrenees.
What I love about this photo is that it just looks so dramatic that I don’t think anyone would guess that this is relatively close to home (if you’re here in the UK). In fact it’s only 3 hours from the crush of humanity that is Barcelona.
I actually went to this particular valley for the first time this past spring. As ever, I was blown away. I’ve been going to Spain regularly for about 15 years now, for some of that time I spent more time there than in the UK. And yet, Spain still manages to suprise me pretty much every time I go.
In the case of the Pallars Valley, what amazed me was the variety. At the top of the valley is the Aigues Tortes National Park and some of the highest peaks in the Pyrenees. At the bottom of the valley is this river, great for not just rafting but also kayak, canyoning, hydrospeed and all sorts of other watersports.
One big advantage the Spanish have in terms of their landscape is that the country is pretty under-populated, outside of the main cities at least. With a population density around 1/3 or even 1/4 that of the UK, getting away from people is relatively easy. That much of Spain is mountainous and beautiful helps.
However, I personally would normally associate with remote, sparsely populated mountain areas with banjos and bad food. In Spain, nothing could be further from the truth. Here in the Pallars Valley there are some absolutely stunning places to eat, and sleep for that matter. Take Fogony – a father and daughter outfit in a small mountain town/village surrounded by beautiful mountains which is turning out exquisite cuisine.
I know I should want to explore new places but since Spain still manages to surprise and delight me, why wouldn’t I keep visiting? As long as my colleagues over in Spain (Xabi, Diego, Jaime, Alex, Peter, Tolo, Migel Angel) keep discovering and revealing new treats I think I’ll just keep going back.
In fact I’m off to the Picos in January, James is off to the Pyrenees in February…
Browse our full range of holidays to Spain or specifically our family adventure holidays.