The main reason to stop in Arenas de San Pedro is to make your way up to the villages of El Hornillo and El Arenal, respectively 6km and 9km to the north, the trailheads for some excellent mountain walks . There are no buses but it's a pleasant walk up from Arenas to El Arenal on a track running between the road and the river - start out past the sports centre and swimming pool in Arenas.

 

EL ARENAL has the accommodation, including the Hostal Isabel (tel 920 375 148; ¬18-27), whose owner is knowledgeable about routes through the range. You can walk over the top of Gredos from El Arenal - the path via the pass at Puerto de la Cabrilla has been somewhat improved recently - and strike out along the ridge in either direction, to the main road at Puerto del Pico or back to El Arenal. EL HORNILLO , however, is the more common trailhead, and the beginning of the Circo de Gredos, one of the main recognized trekking routes over the Gredos watershed.

An alternative trek is to head due south from El Arenal, along a well-defined path over a broad pass to Candeleda; this is a long day's walk but it's more or less all downhill