Last October, Pablo and I guided our Riglos & Alquezar trip. We haven’t run this itinerary since the pandemic and I’m so glad to be leading it again as it is definitely one of my favourites!
We spent the first half of the week exploring Riglos, famous for its ‘mallos’ – high red conglomerate cliffs that glow in the evening sunset. Our first days hiking was a spectacular circuit around the Mallos de Riglos. The three-hundred-metre-high cliffs literally tower above the village and despite looking impossible to scale, there’s actually quite an easy path that winds up between the cliffs. From the top, you get magnificent views across the plains and along the cliffs.
Join Our Newsletter
Get updates when we publish new blog articles and information about the Pyrenees
Riglos y Alquézar
Twin centre guided holiday
10 – 17 May 2025
11 – 18 October 2025
That evening we swam in the outdoor pool at Hotel Aguas de Los Mallos. Although the air temperature wasn’t that warm, the water was like a bath at 36 degrees, all heated by 36 geothermal wells that reach 120 metres into the ground, heating the pool water and providing geothermal heating for the hotel.
The hotel was built to be very ecological, and despite having a spa and outdoor heated pool, is self-sufficient in energy with air pumps for heating/air conditioning, a biomass boiler and solar panels, in addition to the geothermal wells.
Our hike the following day was around another set of conglomerate cliffs called the Mallos de Aguero. The day started off brightly, but as we headed up to the summit of Pico Commun the clouds came down and unfortunately we didn’t get the views over the Pyrenees that we should have had. We continued our hike around the cliffs, but about twenty minutes from the end of the hike, we were caught in a torrential downpour! The rain bucketed down and waterfalls appeared from nowhere on the cliffs above us. We raced as fast as we could back to the vans and headed back to the hotel to dry out!
I’m afraid we weren’t lucky with the weather the following day, with low threatening cloud. We adjusted our route, starting with a visit to the 11th-century Loarre Castle – one of the finest in northern Spain. From Loarre, some of the group braved the rain that was now falling hard and hiked with Pablo to the lovely Ermita of the virgin of the cliffs. This small church is perched on a seemingly inaccessible spot, high on the cliffs. I took the rest of the group for a much drier visit to the amazing monastery of San Juan de la Peña. Consecrated in 920, the first three kings of Aragon are buried at this monastery, which is buily under huge overhanging cliffs.
Thursday saw us moving across to the beautiful village of Alquezar, regularly voted as one of the prettiest in Spain. It’s winding streets are overlooked by the Colegiata above, originally an 8th-century Moorish Castle. On the way, we stoped for a fantastic wine tasting at the modern vineyard of Sommos, known as the Guggenheim of the Pyrenees.
For our final two days hiking, the weather cleared, and we finally had sunshine and blue skies! One route explored the Vero Canyon, starting at a viewpoint called Portiacha, where we had great views down into the canyon and saw griffon vultures leaving their overnight perches and begin to circle up on the thermals. the route passes by three caves with neolithic cave art. These date from between 8000 – 3000 BC and are in spectacular locations. The third cave we passed, which you’re not allowed into has art dating back to 22,000 BC! Crossing over several different limestone and conglomerate side canyons, we finally descended down to the Rio Vero where the brave amongst us had a swim, before the final climb up to Alquezar and a cold beer!
The Mascun Canyon was the venue for our final day. A famous climbing venue, with hundreds of ridiculously hard overhanging routes, the canyon also has excellent hiking. We headed down to hike along the floor of the canyon. With the rain that fell earlier in the week, the river which is usually just a dry bed, was in full flow and we had to put our sandals on and cross it about a dozen times. The upper part of the canyon is spectacular with spires of rock and dozens of vultures roosting the cliffs. We were lucky enough to spot the bone-eating bearded vulture – the rarest vulture in Europe with a huge wingspan just short of three metres.
We had a lunch stop at the abandoned village of Otin, before tackling the Faja Mascun. This is an optional but spectacular section of narrow ledge that winds high on the cliff face giving incredible views of the canyon. It was then time to work our way back to the village of Rodellar for a celebratory beer to mark the end of the final hike! This is a spectacular days hiking that I’m afraid the photos don’t really do justice to.
Take a look at these two videos of the routes:
Our final night’s meal was at the lovely La Pardina restaurant. Alquezar has some excellent restaurants, the other place that we all really enjoyed was Cueva de La Reina where we tried a tasting menu with some beautiful elegantly prepared dishes.
We hope everyone had a great week discovering this area – thank you all so much for coming. It’s one of my favourite trips to run and for me has a bit of everything – dramatic scenery, cliffs, canyons, hotels with pools and excellent evening meals!
We’ve still spaces left on our Riglos & Alquezar holiday for our trips this year on the 10-17 May and the 11-18 October. Why not come and dicover this beautiful region for yourself!
0 Comments