Western Pyrenees Circular Tour (Navarra and Aragon)

Ten nights circling the western Pyrenees, from the Basque coast to Spain’s first national park. Caminos arrange it as a fly-drive with the hire car included, though it is built with the ferry in mind if you would rather bring your own car.

The opening days are Navarran and partly French: the Baztán and Bidasoa valleys, the harbour at Hondarribia, San Sebastián and the Basque coast, and the rack railway that climbs La Rhune for a view over the whole Bay of Biscay. Pamplona sits behind it.

Then the landscape changes completely. Las Bardenas Reales is a semi-desert of clay badlands in the middle of Navarra that looks like it belongs in Arizona. Sos del Rey Católico and Uncastillo are fortified hill towns, the Castillo de Loarre is the best-preserved Romanesque castle in Spain, and the Mallos de Riglos are vertical rock towers with griffon vultures nesting on them.

The high Pyrenees come next. Ordesa y Monte Perdido was Spain’s first national park and still feels like it, and the Sierra de Guara beside it is a maze of limestone gorges. Alquézar hangs above one of them, Ainsa has a bearded vulture centre, and the Somontano vineyards sit at the foot of it all. Ten nights, a circular route, and a genuine range of country. The price is per person for two sharing, bed and breakfast, with the car included; flights are extra. Caminos have not published the final four days of the plan, so ask for them. It suits a driver who wants both the Basque country and the high Aragonese Pyrenees, and would rather not choose.