Lebaniego 4-day hike at Picos de Europa National Park

• Kilometers: 28.5

• Difficulty: medium

• Estimated time: 8-9 hours

From San Vicente, we leave behind a blue landscape and so that the green color becomes more intense in its passage through La Acebosa, Hortigal and Estrada (this section can be done by vehicle to shorten the journey if the group wants). The Lebaniego Trek follows a beautiful mountain trail that leads to Muñorrodero. Here begins the Fluvial Path of Nansa that follows a forest of varied trees and wooden walkways. The signposted path ends at Camijanes, although we can continue parallel to the river to avoid the road until we reach Cades, where “La Casona del Nansa” hotel is located. Here we will spend the first night.

• Difficulty: medium-high

• Estimated time: 7-8 hours

We leave Cades and head to La Fuente where, in addition to accommodation, we will have one of the jewels of Romanesque art in Cantabria: The Church of Santa Juliana. A few meters to the right we will ascend to Burió and then to Collado de Hoz, with a beautiful panoramic view of the Lamasón valley, from where we will begin to descend 1,8 km to Cicera.

Another much more adventurous option is to cross Monte Arria, a route that follows the popular Desafío Cantabria race, from the sea to the mountain, and goes directly to Collado de Hoz.

From Cicera to Lebeña we will go through a forest of oaks and beech trees with a great variety of colors. We will go down to Santa María de Lebeña, which has one of the best Spanish Pre-Romanesque Art Jewels. A Mozarabic temple built in the year 925 by Christians fled from Arab territory. Here we will have 2 options:

Option A

Follow the old “Road of Diligence” over the Hermida Gorge to Castro Cillórigo. A spectacular road although with a quite aerial trail that can become delicate in case of rain. Thus we would arrive directly to Ojedo to sleep in the Hotel Infantado.

Option B

We can continue to Allende by road and then we will face a steep climb to Cabañes to reach the lodge. Another option is, just at the intersection to Allende, take a path to the left that leads directly to the Habario de Pendes, with its thousand-year-old chestnut trees.

• Kilometers: 13.7

• Difficulty: easy

• Estimated time: 3 hours

From Cabañes we go to the Habario de Pendes and in the village we pass by a cheese factory where we can taste and by some of the typical Liébana cheeses. We then descend to the hermitage of San Francisco. This road leads us to Tama although we can avoid the road by taking the Campañana route, a parallel trek to the River Deva that ends in the center of Potes. The Potes Hostel is in a privileged place, from which we can see the impressive Torre del Infantado, the most symbolic building of Potes and the most prominent one in Cantabria. From there we continue to the Monastery of Santo Toribio (4 km), which has guided tours every day during the summer. Here ends our tour.