Galicia the heart of Green Spain

GaliciaSpain.net is designed to help you explore and plan a holiday in Galicia. It will tell you all about this beautifully scenic and culturally rich part of Spain and provide you with information about hotel, flight and car hire services. Most of all this site is intended to describe and illustrate the beauty of Galicia and offer a visitor's view of its major cities, picturesque towns, breathtaking countryside and limitless tourist attractions. Above all our intention is to provide you with as much information as possible about the beautiful northern Spanish territory called Galicia.

Finding what you are looking for - You can use the main menu that appears in the left margin of all pages to navigate to different parts of the site and some sections, e.g. the "Town guides index", will have their own menu area. Any bold text will probably be a link, so use those too. Finally, there is also a search box.

What is Galicia like?

Often described as green Spain or real Spain, this temperate north western corner of the Iberian Peninsula is rich and fertile with an abundance of beaches and spectacular mountainous views. It has historic cities like the famous Santiago de Compostela, a culture descended from the Celts and a warm and friendly welcome for all of its foreign visitors.

If you want to know more select a topic from the index to the left and start exploring.

Did you know - There are actually three Galicia's in Europe, one in Poland and another in Turkey, but the one that we are interested in is in the north of Spain and shares its southern border with Portugal. Spain's Galicia faces the Atlantic Ocean to the west and is bordered by another scenic Spanish region, Asturias, to the east. To the north lies the infamous bay of Biscay.

Here are a few holiday facts

• Galicia is made up of 4 different provinces, la Coruna, Pontevedra, Ourense and Lugo. The capital of the region is the city of Santiago de Compostela and it is this city that attracts 80% of Galicia's overseas visitors. Use this Santiago link to find out why.
• A direct flight from Heathrow London, Gatwick London, or Stansted airport in Britain will take under 2 hours to reach Santiago de Compostela, la Coruna, or Vigo international airports. For current flight information visit this flights to Galicia page.
• Booking hotels and villas in Galicia is not the problem many assume it to be. There is no shortage of town and city hotels and an increasing number of houses (or casas) are now been advertised for seasonal summer rental. Many of these properties are in beautiful rual settings or close to the coast. For regional accommodation information check out these two pages, Villa rental and Galician hotels.
• The single most popular attraction on Galicia's tourist map is Santiago de Compostela cathedral. This building is claimed to hold the tomb of Saint James, who is also the city's patron, and as a result it is the final destination for pligrims following the famous "Camino" Christian pilgrimage from France and Portugal. If you want to know more about the "Way of St. James", visit this page Camino de Santiago.
• Galicia is a popular holiday choice with many Spaniards living in the southern and central cities of the country. They like to holiday in the north to escape the oppressive heat and enjoy Galicia's famous seafood based gastronomy. For this reason the month of August (Spain's national holiday period) is always the busiest time. The months of May, June, July and September are much quieter and tend to be more popular with overseas tourists.

• The Galician's have their own language called gallego, but all speak "standard" Spanish too. The number of Galician's who speak English is also increasing in line with greater foreign tourism and most bars in the bigger cities will have waiters and waitresses who speak some English and possibly French or German. Hotel staff in cities like Santiago de Compostela, Pontevedra and Vigo often have some foreign language skills too, so you can usually make yourself understood. You will also find plenty of tourist offices and there are guides available who can show you anything from an historic building to offering you a complete city tour. This organised tours page will give you some tips on getting local tourist information or booking a guided tour for a small or large group.
• The population of Galicia is approximately 3 million and an amazing 90% of this number live by, or very close to, the coast or in one of the major cities. The region is known for having a fishing based economy, but many of these small towns now double up as summer holiday resorts. Agriculture is also a big part of the Galician economy and the most popular crop is the common potato. Sweet corn is also popular and is grown as an animal feed.
• The parliament of Galicia has introduced many initiatives aimed at increasing foreign tourism to the region. All tourist offices offer free maps and city guides and most are available in English and many also have bi-lingual staff. Most towns will have their own small tourist office offering local advice, so information is never hard to come by.

If any of this entices you to consider visiting Galicia, start by formulating a plan. This means deciding what you want to see, where you want to base yourself and what kind of transport you will require. There is plenty of help here, so bookmark this site for future reference and begin to organise your Galician adventure.

If you want to find out more about the geography and climate, or the history of Galicia, click on the appropriate link in the main menu.

Our privacy policy can be found at this page Privacy Policy.

.