Gijón

This northern Spanish harbourside town is one of the Asturian region’s largest coastal towns – surprisingly, you can easily explore its core on foot. The more popular town of Oviedo to the south may please you with more features, but Gijón has its own specific charms, including the panoramic golden beachfront bordering the blue waves of the Cantabrian Sea. Bigger, grittier and gutsier than Oviedo, seaside Gijón (khi-hon) – Asturias’ largest city – produces iron, steel and chemicals, and is the main loading ter­minal for Asturian coal. But Gijón has emerged like a phoenix from its industrial roots, having given itself a thorough face-lift with pedestrianised streets, parks, seafront walks, cultural attractions and lively eating, drinking and shopping scenes. Charming medieval sightseeing awaits in the fisherman’s harbourside quarter of Cimadevilla. Plazas in the old town are porticoed, and wide and scenic boardwalks line the coast. Families with kids will find loads to do – on land or in the waves. Also, it’s only around a 30-minute transfer east from Asturias Airport, a generally shorter ride than to Oviedo.