There is no single best month to walk the Saja-Besaya reserve, and anyone who tells you otherwise is really just selling one particular week. What there is instead is a full year of very different walking, each stretch of it good for its own reasons. Here is the honest version, month by month, so you can choose the walking that suits you rather than the one a brochure wants you to book.

A lot of people assume the safe bet is high summer, book accordingly, and never test the alternative. The shoulder months make a quieter, and in some ways stronger, case for themselves — this guide is as much about those as it is about the obvious picks.

Spring: the green comes back hard (March to May)

After the wet winter the Cabuérniga valley greens up almost violently. The meadows fill in, wildflowers come up along the verges and field banks, the streams run full, and the birds get loud again. Walking the GR trails above Fresneda is soft underfoot and generous with colour, and the light after a passing shower is the kind photographers travel for. The catch is honesty about the weather: Atlantic spring is changeable, a bright morning can turn to rain by lunch, and you walk in layers with a waterproof in the bag. Some days the sun holds all afternoon; others you're glad of a hood by three o'clock. If you like the land at its most alive and you don't need guaranteed sun, spring is a genuinely good time to come — and because it isn't the obvious pick, the trails and the villages are quieter than you'd expect for scenery this good.

This is the week we do it: Solar Eclipse in Northern Spain.

Ask about a place →

Early summer: is June the sweet spot?

Quite possibly. The days are long, the light lasts well into the evening, and it's warm without the fierce glare the Mediterranean coast turns on. The high tracks are clear of haze, the beech woods are in full leaf, the hay meadows are cut or close to it, and the walking days stretch out enough to reach a village bar and back with time to spare before dinner. For kind walking temperatures and long days on the hill, late spring into June is hard to beat — it's the window a lot of regular walkers quietly prefer, before the busier weeks arrive and before the heat properly sets in further south.

What about the height of summer?

July and August are warm and, crucially, still green. The thing people miss about Green Spain is that it stays comfortable and lush while the Costas bake — you can walk a full morning here without wilting, and the evenings are long enough for a slow dinner outside under the trees. An Atlantic front will roll through now and then, drop a shower and clear off, rarely settling in for more than a day. The trade-off is company: this is the busier stretch, on the trails and at the coast, and the village bars fill up in the evenings. It suits walkers who want to mix the hills with the sea, since the surf beaches around San Vicente de la Barquera are about forty minutes off and genuinely beginner-friendly at any age — a fair reward for a hot afternoon.

Autumn: colour, and the roar

From late September the beech and oak begin to turn, and by October the hillsides run through gold and copper, nowhere more so than on the climb up towards the Palombera pass. The air sharpens, the summer haze lifts, and the walking becomes some of the loveliest of the year — cool, clear, quiet. This is also when the berrea, the red deer rut, fills the woods at dawn and dusk, a spectacle we've given its own write-up rather than crowd in here. Autumn is mid-season: cooler and calmer than high summer, the trails noticeably quieter, and for many walkers the pick of the whole calendar.

Is winter walking off the table?

No — but be honest with yourself about it. The days are short, it's the wettest stretch of the year, and the tops can hold snow, with the Palombera pass closing in a bad spell. The high, exposed GR days may be out, but the lower river-valley and woodland walks still go, and the reward is a valley with almost nobody in it and a fire waiting at the end. It isn't for everyone, and we'd never pretend a wet January week is a sun-trap. Some days are grey and stay grey; some are crisp, bright and unforgettable, the kind that make you glad you came anyway. If a winter walking week appeals, ask Rob and María what's actually running rather than assume it's on the calendar.

So when is the walking genuinely best?

It depends what you're after, which is the honest answer a brochure won't give you. For kind temperatures and long light, aim for late spring to early summer, or September. For colour, October. For solitude and a fireside, the winter edges. Whatever the month, the walking starts at the door and half board is waiting at the end of it — breakfast, a home-cooked dinner from the garden, and the house wine, beer and spirits poured through the day. The scheduled walking weeks are run with the walking specialists Walkwise and booked through Spice Escapes (ATOL 9046), so tell them the kind of walking you're after and they'll steer you to the right week rather than the nearest one. Come alone or as a couple, too: there's no forced single supplement — twin-share is matched with a same-sex room-mate at no extra charge, or you can take a room of your own for a clearly-priced supplement. Prefer to keep a group to yourselves? The whole catered house is available to book outright, whatever the season.

Not sure which month is yours? Tell us how you like to walk and we'll be straight about the season that fits — come and say hello, or see what Spice runs across Green Spain and beyond →.