Where to stay in León

León is a city and municipality of Spain and the capital of the province of León located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, south of the Cantabrian Mountains in between the Bernesga and the Torío rivers.

The Roman legions conquered this area around 29 BC and set up a large military camp, which evolved into a garrison town from 74 AD. This they called Legio, just so the troublesome Celts understood who was in charge, and who got to keep the gold wealth mined at Las Médulas. When Rome weakened, they were supplanted by the Germanic Visigoths then by the Umayyad Caliphate, which in the 710s-720s captured most of Spain until checked at Covadonga near Oviedo. An autonomous Kingdom of León emerged in 910 AD, eventually to merge with Aragon and then with Castile in 1194.

Getting around

Walk, the city attractions are close together. Try not to bring a car into city centre, you could pay €100 for an afternoon's parking in a cramped dirty facility with inadequate lifts. The red city buses cost €1.20 (Nov 2024) and the blue interurban buses €1.65 (Nov 2024). Nextbike offers its bikesharing service. Renting a standard bike is €1/15min (Nov 2024). The standard bikes can be returned at any station in the city. With the app of Pidetaxi you get a metered taxi.

Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.