Near the Bardenas Reales: Tudela, Pitillas and the Moncayo

Choose for the day you have, not from a checklist

None of these places stands in for Castildetierra. They give what the park does not: shade, a meal, a church, birds, or a morning when the track cannot be driven.

Park closures (rain, hunting, rallies, exercises) change from week to week. They live on the notices and are summarised in when to visit. This page does not copy them, so they do not go stale here.

See the park without going in: the Virgen del Yugo

The hermitage is in Arguedas, about 5 km from the village, on a hill of 491 m that Turismo de la Ribera describes as one of the highest points in the municipality. A local road leads up. She is the patron of Arguedas. Local tradition places an apparition of Mary here; the present building is from the 17th century, by the architect Pedro de Arrese, with brick walls, buttresses, a bell gable and a nave of three bays under star vaults.

For a Bardenas visit, the point is not the vault. It is the position. The hill sits at the gate of the park. It works if you arrive before the centre opens, if you want a view of the whole without taking the track, or if the day’s notice advises against entering and you still want to see the ground. It does not replace Castildetierra and it is not an entrance to the 25 km loop.

That sheet does not publish the hermitage’s hours, or whether you can park at the door. The view is from the hill; the interior, if it is shut, can wait.

To watch the sunset, which you cannot do inside the park, see where to watch the Bardenas sunset outside the park.

Tudela, the city and the vegetables

Visit Navarra puts Tudela 14 km from the Bardenas. It is Navarre’s second city, the one with the railway station, and the seat of the Bardenas Community (Calle San Marcial, 19). If you arrive by train, the park is not a walk from the station: from Tudela you leave towards Arguedas, entry at NA-8712 km 0.8. The detail is in how to get there.

The city page (in Spanish) highlights the Plaza de los Fueros, the Jewish quarter, the Torre Monreal, the Cerro de Santa Bárbara and the cathedral of Santa María. The cathedral is Gothic, with the Portada del Juicio and a 12th-century Romanesque cloister; you enter through the Museo de Tudela. This is not a ten-minute stop between two tracks. It is the city morning, with a meal.

The food of the Ribera is the other reason. The Tudela artichoke has its own designation of origin, and the dish the page treats as the emblem is menestra, a vegetable stew. The Fiestas de la Verdura of 2026 ran from 17 April to 3 May; on 7 October 2026 the 2027 date was still not on that page. We do not keep a restaurant list: the menu and the booking belong to the place.

Next to the park: Sendaviva and La Oliva

Sendaviva is in Arguedas. Visit Navarra describes it as a nature and leisure park “next to the Bardenas Reales Natural Park”, with more than 800 animals along 8 trails. It opens in seasons. Dates, prices and whether there is a bird show that day are on its website, not here: an October season from another year does not apply to yours. It is the clearest plan with children when the track is too hot, too muddy or too short for the group.

La Oliva monastery, in Carcastillo, north of the Bardenas. Monks still live there. Visit Navarra highlights the Cistercian church, the Gothic cloister and the chapter house. Carcastillo is also the El Paso side: if that park access is closed, the monastery gives the morning a shape instead of forcing a track. Visiting hours, which are not the park’s hours, are on the monastery’s website.

Olite and Ujué

The Royal Palace of Olite has been a national monument since 1925. The New Palace is open to visitors; the Old Palace is now the Parador hotel. Tickets and guided tours are at the online ticket office. We do not copy the price: it changes with the season and the type of visit.

Ujué is a stone village with the fortress-sanctuary of Santa María at the top. Visit Navarra writes of views over the Ribera and the Pyrenees, and recommends migas de pastor (shepherd’s fried breadcrumbs) and caramelised almonds. Olite and Ujué fit in the same day: the second day of two days in the Bardenas when there is no need to repeat the Blanca.

On the slope of that same Ujué range is the Laguna de Pitillas. It is not a stop on the palace tour. It is the wetland in the next section, and it fits if that day you want birds as well as stone.

Laguna de Pitillas, the other landscape

The Government of Navarre describes a 216-hectare wetland on the slope of the Ujué range: the Laguna de Pitillas Nature Reserve (RN-27). It is the largest endorheic wetland in Navarre, with no river outlet to the sea. It became a nature reserve in 1987, a special protection area for birds in 1991 and a Ramsar wetland in 1996. It is 3 km from the village of Pitillas.

It is not a zoo and it is not a cabezo with water. The point is the birds of the reedbed and the open water: the reserve’s own page names bitterns, harriers, bearded reedlings, geese and herons. A species on the sheet is not a species you will see that morning.

The observatory stands on a hill above the wetland, on the NA-5330 (31392 Pitillas). Binoculars and telescopes are there to use. Phone +34 619 463 450, email opitilla@navarra.es. There are three self-guided routes. The guided walk for the public, on the activities page, lasts about an hour and a half, is easy, is not suitable for wheelchairs and needs booking at least three days ahead, and only in season. If you go to the observatory on your own, check first whether they are receiving visitors that day.

Towards the Moncayo: the greenway, Tulebras and Tarazona

The Tarazonica greenway follows the old railway between Tudela and Tarazona: 22 km, on foot or by bike, along the Queiles valley. The surface is mixed, asphalt and compacted gravel. Those 22 km are the whole route, not a one-hour stroll. Tulebras is about halfway: enough for the monastery and back, or for carrying on by bike if you want Tarazona.

Tulebras grew around the monastery of Santa María de la Caridad. The nuns reached Tudela in 1147 and moved here in 1157: it is the first women’s Cistercian monastery in Spain, and other houses were founded from it, including Las Huelgas in Burgos. The community is still there. Visit Navarra describes it as Trappist. The visit is the church and the museum; the enclosure is not a tourist corridor. By the river there is a rest area, and the old greenway station.

Tarazona is already in Aragón, at the foot of the Moncayo Natural Park. The photograph above was taken from the town, not from Fustiñana. This project’s house is called El Balcón del Moncayo because of that range. We do not say whether the summit is visible from its terrace: that is checked there, not in a caption.

To the south: Fitero and Artajo oil

Visit Navarra groups three separate plans south of Tudela. They are not an evening after Castildetierra.

Fitero monastery is the first Cistercian house on the peninsula, founded in 1140, a national monument since 1931. Turismo de Fitero updated the free-visit hours for the cloister and chapter house on 25 March 2026: Tuesday to Saturday 11:00–13:00 and 15:45–18:00; Sundays and religious holidays, 11:00–13:00. They published €2, with a free audio guide in Spanish, French and English, and free entry for children under 8. Guided visits (cloister, chapter house, library and church), updated on 8 April 2026, left Tuesday to Saturday at 12:15 and 16:00, and on Sundays and religious holidays at 12:15, at €8.50 (€7 for pensioners, €4 for ages 8 to 12). A service can cancel a slot: they said so themselves for 11 April 2026. Confirm on that page the day you go.

The same Visit Navarra article names the Circuito de las Roscas: an 8 km walk starting in Fitero, along the river Alhama, named for the shape of the rocks. And the Fitero spa, which it calls century-old. Hours and treatments are at the spa, not here.

Separately, the oil. Visit Navarra places the Artajo mill 5 km from Tudela, in Fontellas, and suggests it for the organic olive grove and a tasting. Artajo’s website gives the address: Finca Los Llanos, A-68 motorway, km 102, 31512 Fontellas, phone +34 948 386 225. They publish a guided visit with a tasting, an express visit and private visits, in Spanish, French and English. You need to book. We do not copy the price or the Saturday calendar: they are on their sheet and they change.

When this guide is the plan, not the extra

Use the whole of it on a day when the park cannot be driven. In the morning, Tudela or La Oliva. If you only need to see the ground, the Yugo. If the group wants birds, Pitillas, after checking that the observatory is receiving people. In the afternoon, the Bardenas only if the notices allow it. It is not a day to “make up” by driving around a barrier.

If the park is open, this page is the second or third day, not a list to tick before you go back to the track. Two days with the Blanca first: the two-day trip.