Cantabria and Picos de Europa travel guide, Cares route

Cares Route	Fuente Dé - Aliva - Espinama
Roman paved road of Mediaconcha	Santander walking tours
Sotres - Naranjo de Bulnes - Sotres	Poncebos - Naranjo de Bulnes - Poncebos
Fuente Dé - Naranjo de Bulnes - Sotres	Alta ruta por el Macizo Central
Walking at Pedreña coast	Walking at Comillas
Subida al Coriscao (por Oscar Oria)	Fuente Dé - Bulnes - Poncebos (por Oscar Oria)

CARES ROUTE

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Duration: 5 hours
Difficulty: Easy

There are two main ways to get to Poncebos:

By car, take the Santander -Oviedo highway and exit at Unquera, then take the road to Potes. Once in Panes, take the road to Arenas de Cabrales. Passed this village, take the road to Poncebos (it is perfectly indicated in Arenas).
By bus, through a travel agency. There are many travel agencies in Cantabria and Asturias that offer the Cares route.

Description of the route:

Without doubt this is the most popular route of Picos de Europa! It easy when wearing snickers and carrying a light backpack. The best months are May to October. If possible, it is better to avoid this route during August and the summertime weekends as it is quite crowded.

Park the car near the start of the route at Poncebos, cross a mountain tunnel and after a few minutes take a road on your right. This is definitively the "most difficult" part of the route as you will be starting walking up a hill. Once in the top of the hill, continue the route through a mild slope until you arrive to the Cares gorge. The road to Cain is unmistakable and very well indicated; you will see lots of precipices, after crossing several bridges you will get to some rock caves and soon to Caín (2h 30 min from Poncebos). Time calculation is approximate for all routes and for the Cares route this is even more true because you must stop several times and enjoy its beautiful landscapes!

Once in Caín, the return trip will be through the same route.

Note :

The "true" Cares route starts in Poncebos and finishes in Posada de Valdeón , but due to its long duration it is usually one-way. A way to complete it is to bring two cars and two groups of people, one car parks at Posada de Valdeón (get there through Cangas de Onís) and the other one parks at Poncebos. The two groups start walking and when they meet in the middle of the route (i.e. in Caín) they exchange the car keys and continue the route. Also, organized trips can arrange the complete route for you. For older or very young people who still want to enjoy the Cares route an option would be to go to Caín by car or bus and walk back the first kilometers of the route from there, which are very easy and spectacular.

If you want to go from Caín to Posada de Valdeón by car, take the road up to Cordiñanes and you will arrive after a short slope to Posada de Valdeón.

Interesting telephones:

Tourist information in Arenas de Cabrales (during the summer and weekends): 985.84.64.84