Road trip in Galicia: best things to see and do in Galicia

Welcome to our page dedicated to Galicia. At the end of 2020 we decided to spend the winter "in the south of Europe" and as we had a friend who was opening a coliving in Galicia we came to this beautiful little corner of Spain with the idea of "stopping for a month" before going further south... Hmmm... how to tell you that everything did not go as planned ;) Between the coconut that made travelling difficult and our absolute love for this region of Spain located in the north west of the country, we ended up staying almost 5 months! And if there is one thing that is certain it is that we will come back! :)

All our blog posts about Galicia

At the end of this page you will find all the articles we have written about Galicia (a lot of hikes but also a lot of advice for road trips). But if sometimes you would rather see our articles according to regions (and not in chronological order), we let you click on the button below to display the map of all our articles about Galicia.
Show the map

When to visit Galicia?

Ahhh the big question! We didn't live a full year here so it's hard to give you our personal opinion on the subject... even if we can give you an advice: avoid the months from December to February ;) Galicia is known to be one of the regions of Spain where it rains the most and clearly, the majority of the annual precipitations are done during these 3 months. We experienced it and it is true that it is quite impressive! We had never experienced such a "volume of water" during our trips. After, listening to the locals it seems that this winter of 2020-2021 was particularly wet ;)

Afterwards, I want to tell you that with each "inconvenience" comes a lot of little treasures too. Of course, we were washed out all winter, BUT we also discovered a very green Galicia with its overflowing rivers and a very dense vegetation.
On a personal note, we LOVED the spring! The rain had almost stopped and we took advantage of the ultra green landscapes and a radiant sun to make beautiful hikes. With the many flowers everywhere, the scenery was simply incredible!

In the summer, Galicia is a favorite destination for Madrid residents who literally "bake" in the capital. It's hot, but let's say that the air is much cooler than in the south of the country and the nights are rarely "tropical" (meaning that the night temperature generally goes under 20°C and that we sleep very well) ;)
Our Galician friends assured us that the autumn was also a very very beautiful season to discover the area. Less tourism than during the summer months, but with a weather always very clement.

How to get to Galicia?

Coming to Galicia is really not a problem and there are plenty of options! :)

• By air: There are 3 international airports. In A Coruña, Vigo and Santiago. For flights see Skyscanner.
• By rail: There are trains to Lugo, Ourense, Pontevedra, A Coruña, Vigo and Santiago. You can find information on the Renfe website.
• By road: Many buses (such as Flixbus) serve the majority of the main cities of Galicia. By car it is also very easy. For our part we arrived by the Basque country and followed the freeway (magnificent by the way) which goes along the northern coast of Spain
• By sea: With more than 1600km of coastline, Galicia is not short of ports ;)

Getting around Galicia

Galicia is clearly what you could call a nature destination! Public transport works well between the big cities, but as soon as you want to go away for a walk it becomes much more complicated. During our stay we had a vehicle and we clearly don't regret it! We travelled with "Dahu", our van that we presented in this article ;)

Vanlife in Galicia is really great! There are many campsites, service areas but also many options for overnight stays in the wild. Of course, wild camping is not allowed everywhere but it is not forbidden overall. :) To find places to sleep we mainly used the Park4Night application (and our common sense) ;). We should note however that we were in low season. We didn't travel in Galicia in the middle of summer but we have no problem to imagine that there are more people on the different spots ;)
If you want to discover Galicia by van but you don't have a vehicle you can look into renting one. There are rental companies like Campstar that allow you to rent a van in the big cities but it is also possible to rent one between individuals. On Yescapa you can find a van from 60€ per day in Galicia.

See available vans on Yescapa

See the vans on Campstar

Afterwards, if travelling by van is not your thing, then it is of course possible to simply rent a car. Whether it's for a big roadtrip or just for a few days of excursions here and there. As usual, to compare the prices of rental cars we recommend you to have a look at Rentalscars.

Galicia for Digital Nomads

If like us you have decided to come to Galicia in "nomadic" mode then I promise you won't be disappointed! :) In general the mobile network is excellent and you will have no problem to find good wifis. But if Galicia is really great for nomads it's also because there is a great community and several coworking and coliving spaces!
During our whole stay we stayed at Anceu Coliving, a rural coliving space located in the countryside half an hour from Pontevedra. We had a real crush on this place and the people we met there. To know more about this coliving we invite you to discover our article here.

But in Galicia there is not only the Anceu Coliving to discover for the nomads (even if of course we warmly recommend it) ;)

Other coliving spaces in Galicia, Spain:

• Sende: They were the first rural coliving to open in Galicia. They are located in the province of Ourense, towards the border with Portugal. The first nomads were welcomed there in 2015 and since then almost 3500 people have passed through this small hamlet of... 20 inhabitants! See their website
• iSlow: A brand new coliving facility A brand-new coliving facility that opened recently. Located on the Costa Da Morte, this place is open to families. See their website

In addition to coliving, there are also the traditional coworking spaces. These are located in the cities and in Galicia you will find them mainly in Vigo, Pontevedra, A Coruña, Santiago, Ourense, Lugo or Ferrol. Not all coworking centers are open to nomads who want to come "by the day" but the vast majority offer weekly or monthly packages. In Pontevedra we can advise you  the Arroelo coworking space which is ran by a friend of ours. :)
And if you come to Galicia in nomadic mode we recommend the Facebook group "Digital Nomads & Expats in Galicia". It's full of practical information and a nice community.

To see in Galicia: Our favorite places

Oh dear, it's always very difficult to make lists like this but we thought that if you were planning to come to Galicia for 1-2 weeks we had to recommend you some things to see "in priority". :)

The Ribeira Sacra

Impossible for us not to include THE Galician wine region in our list. :) The Ribeira Sacra is, according to us, one of the must-see places in Galicia. If you like hiking, beautiful landscapes (and wine ;) ) there is a good chance that you too will come back totally under the spell of this little corner of paradise.

Read our post about Ribeira Sacra

The beautiful Cabo Home

The Galician coast is absolutely splendid and during our few months here we have seen many beautiful places! But I think that if we had to remember only one coastal hike it would surely be the one to Cabo Home! The color of the water is just crazy, and even though it is quite cool (let's not forget that it's the Atlantic Ocean), it clearly invites you to swim!

See our article

Cies Islands

The Cies Islands are a small paradise archipelago just a stone's throw from Vigo in southern Galicia. If you are looking for turquoise water, white sand, protected nature and beautiful hikes you should be served in the Cies Islands. However, as they are in the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park, you will need a permit to go there. But we explain you everything in our blog post below.

Read our blog post

Monte Pindo

Monte Pindo is a hike that we probably wouldn't have thought of doing without you (well, some of you!). During our road trip, several people answered our story to ask us if we had planned the Monte Pindo in our itinerary... That's all it took to arouse our curiosity ;) The view from the top is breathtaking but I think what impressed us the most was the sublime climb through the rock formations from the village of O'Pindo.

See the article

The Picon and Folon mills

The mills are a bit the "specialty" of Galicia. Whether on the coast or inland, they are literally EVERYWHERE! We love how the region and its inhabitants have decided to maintain them or at least to put them forward by making many hiking routes nearby! We loved the "Ruta de Piedra y de Agua" which we talked about here. But if we were to retain only one route passing by mills I believe that it is the one of the mills of Picon and Folon. It is a mini hike of hardly 4km which makes us pass by... attention... 60 mills which are all aligned "in cascade"! It's just great!

A coastal walk to Fisterra

I think it would be difficult to make a page dedicated to Galicia without mentioning at least once the famous way to Compostela ;) We never intended to follow this itinerary, but we did walk a small part of the section between Santiago de Compostela and Fisterra, the Galician Finisterre. And the least we can say is that this coastal walk is worth the detour!

See our blog post about this hike

That's it, this time that's all for this first presentation of Galicia. We leave you with all our articles below! I promise you, you'll find lots of ideas for beautiful walks and visits. We stayed 5 months and we clearly didn't have time to get bored ;) Enjoy your reading!

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