Things to Do in Gijón

Discover the beautiful coastal city of Gijón on this walking tour where you will learn about the origins of the city, its history, how the city has changed into the modern city we see today and discover some of its former inhabitants. 

We'll start at "stairs No. 3" to the San Lorenzo beach and delve into the historic neighbourhood of Cimavilla. We will talk about its Roman heritage, its cathedral of the sea (the Church of San Pedro), get to know more about one of its most illustrious former inhabitants (Jovellanos), visit the place where the neighbours would go to wash their clothes and go up the Cerro de Santa Catalina where we will talk about one of the symbols of the city. We will then go to the old docks, pass by the Marquis' square and finish at the city hall. 

The whole walking tour usually takes 2 to 2 and a half hours.

I recommend bringing comfortable walking shoes.

Gijón, also known as the capital of the Costa Verde, is the maritime capital of Asturias and one of the most interesting coastal cities in Spain. Discover its Celtic origins, its most iconic buildings, and its pleasant seafront promenade with this guided tour of Gijón.

We'll meet at the chosen time in one of Gijón's most iconic locations: the Marina. With the harbor's sailboats as a backdrop, we'll retrace the history of this city of Celtic origin, which passed through Roman and Christian hands without relinquishing its freedom.

Strolling along the dock, we'll arrive at Revillagigedo Palace, the first stop on this free tour of Gijón. This majestic 18th-century palace has a unique feature: although its two towers look like twins, one of them is 300 years older. In front of it, we'll find a statue of a knight carrying a cross. Can you guess who it is? It's Don Pelayo, the first Asturian king and a beloved figure among Asturians.

The tour of Gijón will continue in the fishing district of Cimadevilla, a place that embodies the purest essence of Gijón. We'll experience how the neighborhood's maritime atmosphere blends with the Roman remains of its streets, the oldest in the city.

From Cimadevilla, we'll continue our walk toward the coast. We'll admire how San Lorenzo Beach merges with the sea as we stroll along the famous Muro de Gijón, a wide avenue that runs parallel to the Cantabrian Sea and connects the two ends of the city center. We'll also take the opportunity to share some interesting facts about this legendary street.

The final stop on the free tour will be the elegant Plaza Mayor, the perfect setting to say goodbye after two hours of exploring Gijón's main attractions.

Do you want to know the "Gijón of the soul" that Vicente Díaz sings about?

This 5,000-year-old seaside town invites you to relax on its promenade, lose yourself in its narrow streets, and get drunk on its cider.

Are you joining us?

We'll begin the tour by meeting at a legendary meeting point for Gijón residents, La Escalerona. The scent of salt and the sea breeze will welcome us on a tour of this port city filled with anecdotes, stories, culture, and art .

As we begin our walk, we'll have the opportunity to greet Caesar, who will tell us about the inhabitants of Gijón during its Roman past. The thermal baths from that period are a must-see during our walk along the beach.

Next, crowning the Paseo Marítimo , we come across the Church of San Pedro , a beautiful building and symbol of our city. Did you know that both the thermal baths and the church are located in the so-called Campo Valdés?

Our steps will take us to the Plaza Mayor until we enter the Cimadevilla neighborhood , Gijón's old town. Here we will find such characteristic buildings as the Palacio de los Valdés, the Palacio de Revillagigedo, and the Clock Tower .

In the Plaza del Marqués we will see the Monument to Don Pelayo , founder of the Kingdom of Asturias and considered the initiator of the Reconquista.

But there are still other characters to meet! A few meters away, we'll come across the house of Jovellanos himself , who will share his enlightened thoughts with us before we continue our tour.

A little gastronomy and popular culture couldn't be missing from the tour. We'll visit the renowned Plaza del Lavaderu and the Campo de las Monjas (Monks' Field) before ending with a stroll through the fishing village's streets.

Be amazed by the vastness of the Cantabrian Sea thanks to Chillida ! And of course, we'll tell you about the most modern, cultural, and indie side of Gijón, revealing aspects of Gijón's music, film, and literature.

Are you coming with us?

Gijón awaits you!

Gijón is history, leisure, tradition, gastronomy ... During the approximately two hours we will be together, we will know that and much more. Taking the Plaza Mayor as a starting point and after visiting the marina, we will stroll through the Cimavilla neighborhood; Origin of the city, birthplace of Jovellanos and whose streets keep stories of sailors, cigars, fishmongers ... In short, people who have been printing its current character. From its watchtower, the Cerro de Santa Catalina, we can recreate with one of the best pictures of the town and, later, descend again to the church of San Pedro and the surroundings of the Roman baths. In addition, we will give you options so you can continue enjoying Gijón and Asturias on your own. Don't think about it anymore, WE WAIT FOR YOU!

👻 DISCOVER THE DARKEST SIDE OF GIJÓN!!🕵️‍♂️


Gijón is history, leisure, tradition, gastronomy, but behind its streets and buildings it hides legends of haunted houses, ghosts , carefully silenced secrets or crimes that made many people pale.

Come for a walk through the best-known streets of Gijón, but of which we sometimes ignore that, where today we drink a culín, enjoy the beach or savor a fabada, others lived much more tragic experiences .

Don't think twice and dare to discover the mysteries and legends of Gijón!!

⚠️ This visit touches on difficult topics that may make it not recommended for children.

Don't miss one of Gijón's most impressive monumental complexes: the Universidad Laboral, a city in itself that will leave you speechless.

It was built between 1946 and 1956, conceived as an orphanage for children of miners who died in accidents. Once construction had begun, it changed its focus to that of a vocational training school for about 1,000 students, thus becoming a Labor University.

It is the largest civil building in Spain. Its dimensions are imposing. The architect behind this magnificent project was Luis Moya, who based it on the classical architecture of Greece and Rome.

The tour will begin outside the main gate, our meeting point.

We'll enter the Corinthian courtyard, notable for its Corinthian-style colonnade. We'll then move on to the plaza, the heart of the complex, inspired by St. Mark's Square in Venice. The main buildings: the theater, church, and tower are located around it.

Facade of the theater in classical-Hellenistic style, simulating the temples of ancient Greece, we will see the sculptures of great Spanish writers such as Miguel de Cervantes, Quevedo, Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina or Lope de Vega.

We continued to the church with the largest elliptical floor plan in Europe. The exterior is richly decorated with the most important saints and educators of the Catholic Church.

We'll see the 130-meter-high tower, inspired by the Giralda in Seville, the Tower of Hercules, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. It is the tallest stone tower in Spain.

We will visit the gardens from which we will see the structure of the auditorium that resembles the shape of the bow of a ship

We would return to the entrance to put the finishing touch to the visit.


YOU CAN'T MISS IT.............

Gijón is one of Spain's most beautiful maritime cities, but as night falls, whispers of crimes, secrets, and magical beings roam its streets. Discover the city's most surprising stories with us on this free tour of the myths and legends of Gijón.

Intrepid traveler, we summon you to the door of the Church of San Pedro, along with other story seekers like you, to begin our nighttime tour. We will soon leave the protection of this Christian temple to begin the task entrusted to us: to unravel some of the most gruesome myths that occurred in the town of Jovellanos, to find beings that inhabit the Gijón nightlife, and other monsters that are not so mythological, but that will also make our hair stand on end.

" They say the cuélebre has the scales of a fish, that it lives in the river where no one sees it. The last time they saw it, it was in the village, disguised as a bagpiper..."

This is what Víctor Manuel sang in his song. Is it really what he tells us? We'll learn about this mythological Asturian creature and the story that links it to San Lorenzo beach.

We'll walk the streets of Gijón like haunting souls as we uncover Asturian crime stories . We'll discuss some of the area's most gruesome crimes , such as the Cruces infanticide, the case of the mourning girl, and others.

We will not remove our mourning, for many crimes remain tonight. Our steps will lead us to the epicenter of the macabre ... Traveler, you may be wondering: what place is this? You'll be surprised to learn how the Town Hall Square was a site of executions in the not-so-distant past, or how the Clock Tower was the city's former jail...

We'll travel back to the late 15th century, a time of superstitions and legends that permeated everyday life, where the strigias took center stage. Who are these characters? Myth or reality ? Come closer, traveler, and we'll tell you more...

In a maritime town like this, there's no shortage of haunting stories related to the sea and the creatures that inhabit its depths. Next to the breakwater, we'll witness one of the most famous trials among sailors.

After reading this , are you ready to join us in exploring the unknown side of Xixón?



⚠️👦🏻This tour is not recommended for children due to explicit content involving violence, sex, and criminal events.

In this dramatized tour, we will follow in Jovellanos ' footsteps and reveal the great work the Asturian did to transform Gijón .

Itinerary

Are you ready to meet one of the greatest exponents of the Enlightenment in Spain ? At the scheduled time, we'll meet at the entrance to Jovellanos's Birthplace and begin a tour of Gijón that will leave you spellbound.

Gijón owes much to this illustrious figure, as he managed to transform the city in various areas, including culture, architecture, and the economy. Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos , born in 1744 in the Cimavilla area , was one of the great men of his time, and this is reflected in many of Gijón's corners.

Throughout this dramatized tour, we will delve into the biography of this Asturian writer, philosopher, jurist, and politician, visiting some of the landmarks that marked a before and after in his life, such as San Lorenzo beach and the famous wall he designed to contain the advance of the Cantabrian Sea.

Afterwards, we'll walk to Parchís Square , where the Jovellanos Institute is located. This is a perfect spot to explore Jovellanos' role in education. What were his contributions? You'll be amazed!

In addition, we will walk along Paseo de Begoña until we reach Plaza del Seis de Agosto , where we will remember the welcome Gijón gave him after being exiled from Asturias.

Gijón is a city of anonymous and well-known women fighters . During the tour we will see different points of the city through their eyes, we will tell about their experiences, their struggles to get job improvements or the lives of illustrious women who developed sporting feats, writers and suffragettes even participated in the taking of the city in the Middle Ages.
We will see through his eyes the fishing district, the marina and the modernist area.
We will take a journey through the history of the city while we get to know the most emblematic places where feats and daily events took place.
It will undoubtedly be a different visit and with another look.
We will wait for you!

Spain is different... but Gijón more so.
In Gijón everything is big (Molinón, mareona, acerona...) or small (rinconin,,,) we baptize everything even if... it already has a name (las chaponas, la lloca, el parchis...), we dress up monuments like Pelayo, we laugh at ourselves or we are cool asses or flat asses, we even had a flat Chinese guy who drank panther's milk and even... a hangman!!!!!!
You can discover all this and more on this visit to the fishing village of Gijón.

Gijón is stories , stories of the people who made it grow, from Jovellanos (who became Minister of Justice under Charles II) to the cigarette makers in the Plaza del Lavaderu,

We will stroll through its seaside district, the cradle of the city with streets that still retain the popular air, or we will leisurely contemplate the corners of the district with its palaces or popular squares where we can stop to have a cider, a popular and native drink.

During the 2 and a half hours that we will be together you will discover that Gijón or Xixon is full of charming corners.

Taking Campo Valdés as a starting point, next to the Church of San Pedro (on the beach), we propose a quiet walk through the historic centre of the Cimadevilla neighbourhood, the origin of the city and the birthplace of Jovellanos, visiting the Plaza del Lavaderu , or Plaza de la Soledad , a walk along the port where we will talk about the stories of the fishmongers who went up the Cuesta´l Cholo to sell their wares at the cry of "there are sardines" ... and if you still feel like it, we will give you advice on how to take a short walk through the streets of the most commercial centre and contemplate 19th and early 20th century Gijón with its modernist and Art Deco architecture.

In short, everything that has given it its current character.

Don't hesitate. BOOK YOUR TOUR HERE

With me you will be able to discover the most beautiful corners of the city and the most amazing tourist sites of the Gijón coast. I will recommend the best cider houses in Gijón where you can try the typical food of the region, drink Asturian cider, and see how this famous drink is poured. One of the strong points of Asturias is its gastronomy. Here, in the Natural Paradise, people eat a lot, until they burst. The most delicious typical dishes of Asturian gastronomy are: cachopo, Asturian fabada, Asturian pote, chorizo a la sidra, escalopines al cabrales, pitu de caleya, tortos de maíz, pastel de cabracho, or pixin, and all accompanied with cider. Asturias is the only province in the world where cider is poured!

What can you visit on this free tour?

With me you will explore this beautiful city where I will show you its most important tourist attractions, such as:

Marina, Old Town, Praise of the Horizon, San Lorenzo Beach, Museum of the People of Asturias, Promenade, Mirador de la Providencia, Botanical Garden, Monte Deva, Gijón Aquarium, Evaristo Valle Museum, Revillagigedo Palace, Cimadevila Clock Tower, Laboral City of Culture, Faro Torres, Railway Museum, Campo Valdés Roman Baths, Campa Torres, Piles River Park, or Isabel Católica Park.