Spain is a whole different culture. Stay up late and party with the beautiful people. Enjoy the beaches, Spanish wine, and the delicious cuisine.
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| Isla Cies |
Galicia
Galicia is the Northwest Corner of Spain. It is mountainous, with a Celtic heritage and huge marine resources. The beaches in Galicia are the most beautiful I have ever seen, and I've lived for 6 years in Florida. The water clarity is amazing. The sand, shells and sealife if beautiful. And so are the people. The people of Spain make an effort to be beautiful, and on the beaches they let it show.
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| This couple was just too romantic to ignore. |
Cies is about 2 miles long. There are a few beaches on the main island, one beach known as "The German Beach" is totally nude. So if you are not into that, then stay south of the pier. The sand is coarse, and it can be windy, so bring sunglasses and a beach shelter if you can. The water is clear and blue, and very cold. Unless you bring a wetsuit, you won't be doing much snorkeling. I love to snorkel and swim, but the longest I could stay in the water was just a few minutes. I believe the water was 62 degrees Fahrenheit (16.5 C), and that was in August.
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| View from the lighthouse |
Isla Cies is a mountainous island topped with a lighthouse. You can take a ferry from the city of Vigo, or the resort town of Cangas. Another Island named Ons looked very similar. Camping is available, but be sure to reserve a spot well in advance with your ferry ticket purchase.
Isla Cies made the list for one of the best beaches on Yahoo! But it is just one of the beautiful beaches in Galicia. Another beautiful beach is in Nigran. Nigran Beach is also known as the Armerican Beach, or the Surfing Beach. For some reason, small swells roll into this beach. You can take surfing lessons at the surf school.
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| Incredible scenery at Nigran. Fog is rolling in off the Atlantic |
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| Kids playing soccer on the beach |
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| Riding the waves at Nigran's surfing beach |
The beach at Nugran is very wide, maybe 150yards. But the tide here is incredible. In just 2 hours the beach may be only 15 meters wide. the view of nearby hills, and Isla Cies makes Nigran special. Just across the street from the beach is large patio area with a few cafes. Stop by and get a top notch gin and tonic with brand named liquour for about $3 (USD). Nigran Beach is also a great place to bring the kids, because they will love all the space to play and riding the waves.
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| Baiona Beach with the fortress (back left) |
Just a few miles south of Nigran is Baiona. Baiona has a castle fortess that protects Baiona Bay (Baiona is the word for bay). For some reason, Baiona Beach had the warmest water. We actually could swim for a a few minutes. Lots of fish were swimming up along the shore. With goggles, we dove down and chased them.
Bayona also offers views of the islands. this beach was fairly long with relatively few people. There are places along the beach to get groceries, which is convenient. the prices were reasonable.
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| Barra Beach near Cangas |
To the North of Vigo we found Barra Beach. We called it Barrass, because the west end of the beach is totally nude. But you would never know because the topless beach (normal in Spain) is seperated from the nue beach by giant rocks. Barra was my favorite because of the rocks that bordered the beach. When the tide woudl come it, it would leave pools of water in the rocks. Each pool was a little aquarium, full of schrimp, fish, sea urchins, and the most starfish I had ever seen. They were yellow, purple. The beach is very popular with locals, and parking is tight. To be sure to get a parking spot, get there before 11 AM.
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| Enjoying a cold drink at a shack on Barra Beach |
Don't worry about bringing food or drinks. You can buy food and drinks for reasonable prices at the little refreshment shacks along the beach. Step in out of the sun and get a cold drink and a bocadia (sandwich) at one of these dives.
Barra is close to the resort town of Cangas where you'll find hotels, vacation apartments, condominiums, Tapas bars, and shopping. We stayed at Hotel Las Vegas in Cangas. The hotel came with three beds, a balcony, TV, bath, swimming pool and free continental breakfast. We were within walking distance of downtown. The cost was approximately $115 per night. we could have found something cheaper if we had taken the time, but we liked what we saw and booked the room.
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| Beautiful Denise, enjoying the beach at O'Grove |
The last beach we visited was O'Grove. This beach was something out of lifestyles of the rich and famous. Endless sand, Island views, the Atlantic Ocean, and beautiful sailboats provided an incredible view. the water was totally clear. Beacuase there was so much space, the beach was not crowded. Its not near any major cities either, so this helped. It looks like there were a lot of vacation homes and condos along the beach, but they were well beyond the nearby road. Like Barra, refreshment shacks are all along the beach ever 400 yards or so.
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| Jenna drinking Kas |
However, at O'Grove, you can get a full meal with table cloth. We had a rack of ribs, sausages, potatos, calamari, salads, soda for the kids and gin and tonic for the adults for about 40 euros ($55 USD). What a deal!
A soda that the kids got there is called Kas. Kas is a citrus/lemon Pepsi product which can be described as a combination of Mountain Dew and Squirt. the kids loved it.
Other than beaches, we enjoyed three cities in Galicia. They were Vigo, Ourense, and Santiago de Compostela.
