Oviedo

Check out the usual web sites such as www.booking.com and www.venere.com for centrally located hotels.

NH Principado, C/San Francisco is very centrally located and reasonably priced and although the public areas are smart and the staff pleasant, as you would expect from the NH chain, the rooms, even for a three star, were disappointing and a bit on the shabby side.

Bodega 7 Plazas, C/Cimadevilla 11, this is a very pleasant bar with some good tapas and a truly excellent menu del dia at 10 euros including unusually a very decent bottle of wine.

Catu, C/Canoniga 18, this is a very modern upmarket bar attached to the restaurant La Corrada del Obispo which has a great reputation. The tapas looked appealing and it is worth seeking out as it is in a lovely square.

La Mas Barata, C/Cimadevilla 2, it specialises in rice dishes and the tapas we had were fine, it is a big place and was quiet when we were there so it lacked atmosphere.

Bar Guela Mila, C/Magdalena 9, a friendly local bar with a choice of free tapas with your wine or beer.

La Bellota Asturiana, C/Fruela 16 very smart bar with excellent free tapas, there are comments on it being overpriced but since we only had a wine and received some good free tapas this is not something we experienced.

Meson La Mezquita, Plaza Trascorrales, lovely setting in this pretty square and a small terrace but the service is off-hand, it specialises in Andalucian cuisine.

La Carta de Ajuste, C/Cimadevilla 16, popular and trendy bar open later than a lot in the city during the week, very pleasant staff. There are lots of comments about poor service but when we popped in after dinner we did not experience this.

La Corte de Pelayo, C/de San Francisco 21, very popular bar and cafe with nice outside tables.

Drink

Oviedo is famous for its cider and there is a whole street, Calle Gascona, dedicated to cider bars also with traditional Asturian food. The pouring of the cider from a great height is well worth seeing, the actual drinking of it is an acquired taste. El Cachopito at No 4 is a well known one, and Tierra Astur No 2 looks very good and has a great name for the value and portions of food, it also sells a different type of cider, worth trying.

There are a number of interesting architectural sites including the cathedral and a great selection of street statues including one of Woody Allen who filmed in the city. The old part of the city has some lovely squares and buildings.