Best National Parks in Spain

Teide National Park surrounds Mount Teide (3,715 m), the highest mountain in Spain, which rises out of the vast Las Cañadas crater floor. Drive up from Puerto de la Cruz or the southern resorts in about an hour, or take the TITSA bus that runs once a day from each side. The cable car climbs to 3,555 m; from there the last stretch to the summit uses the Telesforo Bravo trail, which needs a permit booked on Tenerife ON, 15 euros for visitors from outside the Canary Islands since 2026 and free for Tenerife residents, often released weeks ahead and gone fast. The alternative is to sleep at the Altavista refuge and take one of the sunrise slots on the summit path. The easy classic is the 3.5 km loop around the Roques de García, next to the parador. Bring layers: it can be freezing at the summit when the beaches are 25°C, and the cable car stops in high wind.

Picos de Europa, created in 1918 as Spain’s first national park, spreads across Asturias, Cantabria and León. Three limestone massifs reach 2,648 m at Torre Cerredo, and the sea is only 20 km away, which is why the valleys are green and the summits are so often in cloud.

The Cares Gorge is the most famous walk: 12 km each way between Poncebos in Asturias and Caín in León, on a path cut into the cliff above the river. Most people walk part of it and turn back, since the two ends are hours apart by road. From Poncebos a funicular climbs inside the mountain to Bulnes, a village with no road, and the path beyond leads toward the Naranjo de Bulnes (2,519 m), the sheer rock tower that is the symbol of the park.

On the Asturian side, the Lakes of Covadonga, Lake Enol and Ercina, sit at about 1,100 m above the sanctuary of Covadonga. In summer, at Easter and on long weekends the road is closed to private cars and you take the shuttle bus from Cangas de Onís. In Cantabria, the Fuente Dé cable car rises about 750 m in four minutes to a viewpoint at 1,823 m, the start of easy high walks. Brown bears live in the western Cantabrian Mountains but are rarely seen here; for bear watching, the Somiedo valleys in western Asturias are better.

Ordesa y Monte Perdido in Aragon is a huge glacial canyon under Monte Perdido (3,355 m), the highest limestone massif in Europe. The base is the village of Torla. At Easter, from late June to late September and on autumn weekends and long weekends into early November, the road to the Pradera de Ordesa is closed to cars, and a frequent shuttle bus runs from Torla instead. The classic walk follows the valley floor past waterfalls to the Cola de Caballo (Horsetail Falls), about 8 km each way and 3 to 4 hours up; return along the Faja de Pelay, a balcony path high on the canyon wall, for the better view. Fit walkers continue to the Góriz refuge, the base for Monte Perdido. The quieter Añisclo, Escuaín and Pineta valleys belong to the same park.

Sierra Nevada rises about an hour’s drive from Granada and holds Mulhacén (3,479 m), the highest point of mainland Spain, and Veleta (3,398 m). In winter the ski resort at Pradollano is the main draw. In summer, the most popular route to Mulhacén starts on the south side in the Alpujarras: a park shuttle bus from Capileira takes you up to the Alto del Chorrillo, leaving a walk of about 2.5 hours to the summit. The road over the top from the north is closed to private cars above the Hoya de la Mora. Snow lingers on the high slopes into June; July to early October is the hiking season.

Sierra de las Nieves, declared in 2021 and the newest national park, lies between Ronda and the Costa del Sol. It protects forests of Spanish fir (pinsapo), a tree left over from the ice ages, and limestone peaks around Torrecilla (1,919 m). It is an easy day trip from Málaga or Marbella and is best in spring and autumn.

Along the coast east of Almería, Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park is a natural park rather than a national one, but it is the wildest stretch of the Spanish Mediterranean: volcanic cliffs, the Arrecife de las Sirenas and beaches such as Mónsul and Los Genoveses, where car access is limited in summer.

Doñana National Park, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir between Huelva and Cádiz, is one of Europe’s great wetlands, with marshes, dunes and pine woods. Access to the core is restricted, so you visit on official 4x4 tours from the El Acebuche visitor centre, or by boat up the river from Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Book a few days ahead. The village of El Rocío, with sandy streets and a white hermitage facing the marsh, is the best base and has bird hides at the water’s edge. November to March brings overwintering geese and ducks; spring brings flamingos, spoonbills and herons. Doñana is one of the last homes of the Iberian lynx, but sightings are rare; the Sierra de Andújar in Jaén gives better odds in winter.

Monfragüe in Extremadura, between Plasencia and Trujillo, is the easiest wildlife park in Spain for independent visitors. A road runs through it with lookouts, and at the Salto del Gitano crag griffon vultures nest across the river at eye level. Black vultures, Spanish imperial eagles and black storks are all regularly seen from February to June. The hamlet of Villarreal de San Carlos has the visitor centre, and the climb to the Monfragüe castle gives a view over the Tagus.

The Atlantic Islands of Galicia include the Cíes Islands, Ons, Sálvora and Cortegada. The Cíes, off Vigo, have the white sand of Rodas beach, a lagoon, and cliff paths to lighthouses with seabird colonies. Ferries run from Vigo, Cangas and Baiona from Easter to autumn, and there is a daily visitor limit: you first get a free authorisation from the Galician government’s website, then buy the ferry ticket, which takes a few minutes but sells out on summer weekends. There is a campsite on the islands that must also be booked.

Cabrera, south of Mallorca, is reached by day boats from Colònia de Sant Jordi. Most trips include a swim in the Sa Cova Blava sea cave and a few hours on the island to climb to the castle above the harbour.

There is no entry fee for any Spanish national park. You pay for cable cars, shuttle buses, boats, guided 4x4 tours and the Timanfaya coach tour. The permits that matter (the Teide summit, the Cíes Islands, La Cumbrecita) are limited, and the Teide one costs 15 euros for visitors from outside the Canaries, so book them as soon as your dates are fixed, and check the official sites before you go because quotas and seasons change.

A car is the practical way to reach almost every park, and the shuttle buses at Covadonga and Ordesa start from towns you can drive to. Public transport works for Sierra de Guadarrama (trains and buses from Madrid to the Navacerrada and Cotos passes), for Teide (one TITSA bus a day from each coast) and for the Cíes (ferries from Vigo, which has trains to Madrid). For the island parks and Canaries combinations, see our Spain islands guide and getting around Spain.

Mountain huts (refugios) in the Pyrenees and Picos must be booked in summer, usually online, and serve dinner and breakfast. Wild camping is banned in national parks; bivouacking above a set altitude is allowed in some Pyrenean parks for one night from dusk to dawn, so check that park’s rules.

The high mountains are snowbound from about November to May, and their huts and shuttles run from June to October. The Canary Islands parks are open all year and are at their best from October to May, though Teide can have snow and closed roads in winter. Doñana and Monfragüe are best in winter and spring, when the birds are there and the heat is not: inland Andalusia and Extremadura regularly pass 40°C in July and August.