Playa del Silencio

The Playa del Silencio, also called El Gaviero, is a crescent of white pebble and coarse sand about five hundred metres long, backed by an amphitheatre of green cliffs and closed at each end by rock spurs, with a scatter of sea stacks offshore that break the swell. It faces north and gets no development at all, the nearest building being a hamlet on the clifftop. Access is down a long stone stairway from the parking area, several hundred steps, which keeps numbers down but makes the return hard work. The name refers to the quiet, though in summer that is relative. The rock formations offshore make snorkelling worthwhile, and there are no facilities of any kind on the beach.

The landscape

• The pebble crescent - a curved shore of white stone and coarse sand.
• The cliff amphitheatre - green slopes enclosing the cove.
• The offshore stacks - rocks breaking the swell across the bay mouth.
• The stone stairway - a long descent from the clifftop parking.

When to go

May to September for swimming; the Cantabrian sea is cold and the beach is exposed to northern swell. August fills the small parking area and the beach. Autumn storms make it spectacular but unswimmable.

What to expect

The stairway is long and the climb back is hard, ruling it out for anyone with mobility problems. There are no facilities, shade or lifeguards, and swimming is over pebbles into cold water with currents.

Nearby

Cudillero lies east; Cabo Vidio and the western Asturian coast run west.

Key facts