Asturias, northern Spain

The region of Asturias in northern Spain is "a microcosm of the country as a whole", says Paul Richardson in the Observer.

Everything from "snowy mountains to sandy beaches, humble tapas bars to avant-garde restaurants, and raucous fiestas to silent valleys where wolves and bears still roam" is "crammed into its borders".

It has charms all of its own, too – including its "unique pre-Romanesque architecture", its "unspoiled harbour towns" and its robust, idiosyncratic local cuisine.

Yet despite all these wonders, the place receives very few visitors. However, new transport links look set to change that – so go now, if you can, in case the crush of mass tourism alters its character forever.

The spectacular mountains of the Picos de Europa cut off access to the region from the south, making it "the most isolated part of the country".

It was a kingdom "seven centuries before Fernando and Isabella invented Spain", and "formed the cradle of the reconquista, by which the rest of the peninsula was won back from the Moors".

The capital, Oviedo, has "some of Spain’s most venerable buildings", such as the "exquisite" ninth-century church of Santa María del Naranco.

It is a "compact, handsome little city" with a "lively cultural life", including a 19th-century opera house, a "superb produce market", some "wonderful old pastry shops", and "two or three of the country's best restaurants".

The region's wilds are a paradise for hikers, from the "Alpine landscape" of the Picos de Europa to the "primordial woodlands of Muniellos".

It boasts "some of the best beaches in the country", too, the loveliest of which, Torimbia, is a "mouth-wateringly beautiful sandy bay" accessible only on foot.

And no visit would be complete without a tour of the charming harbour towns of Ribadesella, Cudillero, Lastres and Llanes, with its pretty medieval quarter full of "crumbly palaces".

EasyJet (0905-821 0905; easyjet.com) flies from Stansted to Asturias airport, half an hour from Oviedo, from £40 rtn. ·