We have a trip to Northern Spain coming up in June. I have booked a hotel for 3 nights in Aviles to explore that city, Oviedo and surrounds before moving on to Ribadesella for 3 nights. I chose Aviles over Oviedo because it is smaller and on the coast but I'm reading that it's quite industrial. Should I reconsider and try to find a place in Oviedo instead? Thanks.

Avilés has a wonderful but small historical centre. But the nature in the area was almost killed off by the industry. Things are thankfully changing for nature. The new art centre was only opened for six months and is one of the many Spanish white elephants.
http://www.spain.info/en/ven/otros-destinos/aviles.html
Oviedo has it share of industry and is a city with a bit more tourism. It is not located on the coast. If you are worried about Avilés and you want the coast think about Gijón
http://www.spain.info/en/ven/otros-destinos/gijon.html

Close by Gijón is a very nice city by the coast: http://en.gijon.es/

A couple of photos: http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/m...00-playa-gijon
http://www.miguelprado.com/fotografi...ia.asp?pict=18

Thank you both. I'm tucking this info away as almost as soon as I posted DH decided that we'd do well to cancel our trip to Spain in light of unrest there and book in Scandinavia instead. Hopefully things will improve or at least stabilize in spain and we'll be able to use your advice in favor of Gijon on another trip in the future.

Avilés vs Oviedo?
My vote for Oviedo.

Oh, Julie you must be so disappointed!


For Julie's future trip, and for a future trip of my own, since we are on this topic, could we hear the pros and cons of Oviedo vs Gijon vs Aviles from those familiar with this area? Gracias!!

I don't know Gijon, but as between Aviles and Oviedo, there is no comparison in my mind. Oviedo is a small city, not much tourism, in fact almost no tourism from outside of Spain. The city itself is beautiful, charming, well preserved. It has great restaurants and hotels, the tourism infrastructure is excellent. The cathedral and historic core are everything you would expect. If you like pre-romanesque architecture there are several incredible places on Mt. Naranco. But more than anything, I would just say that it is one of the most gentile and charming cities in all of Spain.

Aviles, as ribeirasacra says, has a very nice small historic core, but not much else. It is just not a tourist destination, IMO.

And let me also throw in an unsolicited opinion that I don't think there's any reason to cancel a trip to Spain because of the demonstrations that have been going on. I can't imagine that the country is moving towards a period of civil unrest. Just my opinion.

JulieVikmanis I can see from your profile your last trip was to Buenos Aires and Rio.
Now after one day of peaceful demos and you run a mile. I don't understand it.
Read this about Spain
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1024.html
Argentina
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1130.html
Brazil
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1072.html

Now tell me which is the most dangerous place to visit?

One year anniversary of the 15M protest movement in Spain today, the predecessor of Occypy Wall Street etc.

One year of peaceful demonstrations, most of them in a quite festive mood, food drink and singing in the streets. The demonstrations have so far been absolutely no reason to cancel any trip to Spain, and I very much doubt that they will be so in the future either. Demonstrations are well announced and at special places at defined hours, and incidents have only occured in special occation frontline clashes between some of the most vigilant protesters and the police.

The heart of Madrid a couple of days ago, at the beginning of the one year "anniversary" of the protests. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JZmYsIqIs0

I am wondering what´s being shown on TV about Spain, because, seriously, the level of the protests is nowhere near what was last year, and normal life hasn´t been disrupted.

The worst thing right now is the sudden heatwave. One weekend we were wearing scarfs, boots and parkas, and two days afterwards we had to switch on the AC and get the summer clothing out.

Rgds, Cova

Ok, ok. We probably jumped the gun. I'll admit that we're a bit skittish based on our experience leaving Barcelona during the national strike earlier this year. Unfortunately our return flight was scheduled for that day. Our hotel wisely suggested that we hire a private driver since they had no idea whether taxis would or would not honor the strike. We left our hotel at 6 a.m. in an attempt to get going before any major disruptions occured. Even then we encountered early morning groups on the freeway to the airport lighting fire to stacks of tires and blocking freeway entrances. We managed to make it to the airport based on some clever maneuvering by our driver and were among the 20% of planes that made it out of the BCN airport that day, but we could have spent the day waiting in a line up just to get on the road only to have found our flight cancelled.

At this point in our lives we'd not enjoy more adventures of dodging protesters to get from one point to another and back home again. I'll admit it, we weren't afraid for our lives, just for our comfort and convenience.

To your point of Rio and BsAs being more dangerous than Spain, I agree completely. We were concerned but careful to take every precaution to avoid problems and it paid off. I guess, in some ways our decision to delay our trip to Spain falls into the same category--a precaution to avoid problems. That said, we will certainly reschedule as we love the country, especially the Northern coast where the trip we cancelled was to have taken us. When we go, I think I'll plan to spend quite a bit of time in Oviedo but will look for lodging in Gijon. The harbor there looks terrific. Thanks again to all of you for such good travel advice--and even for your chiding on our travel timidity. Perhaps next time I face a similar scheduling dilemma, I'll wait a bit longer before making my decision.

Thanks to lreynold1 for the take on Oviedo. I will have that city on my itinerary for the trip after the next one (which will be to the capital and the south) !

Julie: Wherever you travel this year, I wish you the best. And I'll be waiting to read all about your trip.

I related this posting quoting the bit about the “unrest” to a business friend. Without going into details I can say that she is also “connected” in the world of local politics.
She wonders where this is coming from.
Now you say you were in Barcelona during the general strike explains a lot. But please do not tar the rest of Spain with just a few hours experience, in which you were not threaten, with the rest of Spain.

riveirasacra, sorry to have tarred the whole country based on my experience in BCN, but we were reading in a NYTimes article about planned gatherings to disrupt things in several places in Spain including Madrid which was on our itinerary and as I said, we decided not to court inconvenience and discomfort for ourselves.

Here is a link to the article indicating plans for demonstrations in 80 spanish cities and suggesting need for austerity measures in Asturias, also among the areas to which we'd planned to go.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/wo...rations&st=nyt