I’ve set this as a week’s trip but definitely it could be extended very easily or even shortened if you need to.

Getting around northern Galicia

Where do we start our adventure?

This depends on where you’re arriving into the region. If you’re flying, it’ll be to either Santiago de Compostela or A Coruña airport. Both are decent and both are well served by Vueling, EasyJet, Lufthansa, Iberia and a few more. RyanAir has pulled out of the region (much to my disgust).

Both work well as a starting point, both cities are delightful and if you can manage to add on time to visit the other city, you won’t be disappointed.

Road trip itinerary

I recommend taking a day or two at the start and end to explore these wonderful cities, they’re both incredibly beautiful and although this is a road trip, it would be remiss of me to ignore them or to suggest you do so.

Day 1 – Santiago de Compostela / A Coruña

Explore the city of your choice. Eat well (no need for recommendations, the food is generally excellent), and soak everything up

Day 2 – Day trip

Day 3 – Head north

I recommend taking water and snacks in the car. We had a few moments where we ‘needed’ the sugar rush of the chocolate I’d snuck into the car and these villages / locations are remote enough that there’s not always anywhere to stop if you need something. Also, if you love picnics like I do, take supplies.

The tent has a full outdoor kitchen set up (behind the hammock) as well as a fridge, toaster and coffee machine inside the tent. We took supplies with us for breakfast and snacky meals.

🗺️ If you don’t love the idea of a tent, check out my map of hotels in Northern Galicia for other options

💻 Reserve your hotel for the length of this itinerary, it’s a small enough region that you don’t need to change location every day.

Stop 1 – Estaca de Bares

Begin with a drive to Estaca de Bares, the Punto más septentrional de la Península Ibérica – the most northerly point of Spain.

The views are astoundingly beautiful. Follow the path past the lighthouse as far as you can go, past the goats, over the rocks until you are literally the last or first living thing in Spain.

🅿️ There’s relatively good parking here but there are no toilets or services.

+ people talk about the bench at nearby Loiba being the bench with the most beautiful views in the world. Definitely gorgeous, most beautiful, is a big claim. There’s one right here, just down the road from the Estaca do Bares that is also extremely beautiful.

From here, drive a short way to either O Porto de Bares (you’ll see down to here on your way up to the top of the peninsula and I promise you, you’ll be lost for words), or to O Porto de Espasante.

We chose the latter because there is a wonderful headland walk there that includes ancient ruins.

🅿️ Park at the Letras Espasante and follow the Estrado de Porto road on foot.

It’s technically a road but it’s so quiet and we didn’t see a single car on there. The whole walk is framed by views to make you weep at the beauty.

Stop at the Garita de Vela (an old military building) before carrying on to the Castro dos Prados and down to the small beach by the Porto de Espasante, Praia Da Concha.

This beach is absolutely surrounded by enormous fig trees. I could barely believe what I was seeing, so incredible is this spot. And the scent in the air, oh! I love the smell of fig trees so, so much.

🍽️ There are a few good restaurants here but I highly recommend booking in advance as we failed to get a table and had to leave hungry. You could pack a picnic with you and stop on the beach / headland to enjoy the incredible views here.

🏖️ If you’re visiting on a beautiful warm day, you could spend some time enjoying either the Praia Da Concha or the bigger Praia de Espasante, just next door.

Stop 3 – check into your accommodation & relax

If you do stay in Naterra, you may wish to simply stay and relax now, so beautiful is this location. If you aren’t good a sitting still, there’s a good pizza restaurant down the road, or you could head into nearby Orteguiera for supper and a stroll.

Day 4 – choose your adventure flavour

Time to choose (or stay an extra day and do both)

Option 1: Faro do Cabo Ortegal & Cariño

Galicia has so many lighthouses and the Faro do Cabo Ortegal is definitely (in my opinion) one of the most special. The Mirador del Cabo Ortegal is a great place to stop for amazing views on the way up.

🅿️ If you’re feeling energetic, it’s about an hour’s walk from Cariño to the lighthouse via some spectacular views. If you prefer to drive all the way up, be aware that the road is tight and the parking not the easiest.

Once you’ve visited the lighthouse and oohed and aaaahed over the dramatic cliff views, head into Cariño for lunch and an explore around the coast and beach.

+ If you haven’t had enough after this, there are numerous incredible miradores here, including Mirador del Limo, which I haven’t checked it out but it looks fabulous.

Option 2: Ortigueira & the Miradoiro de Muronovo

Ortigueira is a really interesting small town, this is a good option for anyone looking for a bit of relief from too much nature 🌳 😉.

Here you can enjoy a walk along the estuary’s Malecón Promenade (and please, please, look out for the amazing spitting oysters here, I spent way longer than I want to admit watching and laughing in joy at every spit).

There’s an old windmill up on the hill, which is worth a walk up to visit.

Have lunch here before heading off in the car for an afternoon adventure

🪗 In July every year, Ortigueira hosts an amazing Celtic music festival that draws performers from all over the world, and probably visitors too, although mine was the only foreign accent I heard at any point when I visited for a few days.

Add in some extra fun

We actually began this section of our day by driving to O Barqueiro, finding there was a local festival so we couldn’t park. Instead we left and drove over the nearby bridge to park here for some fun with the three bridges, the gorgeous views (photo on right) and a walk on the beach to see Montefurado pedrafurada, a very cool outcrop of rock.

+ At the other end of Praia de Area Longa (beach in photo, left below) is El Varadero, a small outdoor café where you can grab a drink or a bite to eat.

From here we took a very winding route up to the Mirador de Muronovo. You don’t have to go quite as nuts as we did but it was fun 🤣.

We drove via Refuxo Muiño da Furada where there’s a small suspension bridge (above). Locals like to picnic here by the small river.

It’s absolutely gorgeous here, however, the route is not for the faint hearted. The first way we tried to reach it, we felt thwarted by an extremely narrow bridge we didn’t know if the car could cross at Refuxo de Ullo – don’t take this route unless you want to risk the tiny bridge.

We then found another route that was spectacularly beautiful but really, narrow roads. Luckily we didn’t meet a single other car the entire time.

🚙 If you’re at all nervous about driving, better to avoid this section entirely and take the ‘bigger’ roads to the mirador.

The views over the surrounding area once you get past the row of wind turbines is just incredible.

Day 5 – Praia das Catedrais & more

This is the day we didn’t get to have as the timings for the beach just didn’t work out for us but it’s top of the list for our next adventure. Depending on tide times, visit either the beach of Foz and the other spots.

Praia das Catedrais is a really special place that you need to visit at low tide to make the most of it. Once you’re down on the beach, you’re walking through natural caves and under flying buttresses 30m high, seeing incredible arches within arches.

Please note that between July 1st and September 30th and during Semana Santa (changes every year), you can not access the beach without registering first. It’s free but it’s to keep numbers down and to protect this area of natural beauty. → Register here

Or: you can take a one hour boat tour and see them from the ocean

Foz – really this is another beautiful town on an estuary with excellent bird life and plenty of opportunities for hiking.

+ just near Foz is the very first cathedral built in Spain, San Martiño de Mondoñedo, built in the 6th century.

The Castro de Fazouro is just outside Foz on the coast, a kind of Spanish Tulum (in terms of ruins on a cliff overlooking the ocean, not hippies and overpriced tacos 😉)

It has been historically linked to the Ancient Province of Mondoñedo and also linked to the arrival of Briton immigrants during the 5th and 6th centuries, fleeing by sea from the British Isles.

Ribadeo – this small ‘border’ town on another estuary has an interesting story behind it. It sits just inside Galicia and apparently, Galicia and Asturias have never been able to agree on the name of the estuary. According to Galicia it’s Ría de Ribadeo, and according to Asturias it’s Ría del Eo.

It’s also a beautiful town with surprisingly impressive architecture for somewhere so small (just 10,000 people live here) – yes, we can trace the riches back to the Spanish colonial greed, of course we can. Still, whatever we think of that (we all know what I think), it’s still fascinating to see.

Day 6 – Time to return

Take the day to drive back slowly to Santiago de Compostela, or A Coruña. You could stop off in Ferrol for lunch and a stroll if you’re interested in seeing this pretty city. Or, take time on the way back to visit Lago de As Pontes, if you feel like relaxing by a gorgeous lake, or, like we did, head to the Fragas do Eume for a forest hike and lunch by a stream (dreamy, it was dreamy to eat absolutely bathed in the magical rich greens of the forest with our feet in the stream above).

Or, if more beach time is what you need, simply pick a beach such as Valdoviño (above, right) or Playa de Santa Comba on the way back.

+ of course, a day or so extra in any of these three lovely towns wouldn’t hurt, either.