Flights and ferries to Galicia

Getting to Galicia by air

If you choose to fly to Galicia, how you get to the region will be determined by your point of departure (i.e. your home airport). For this reason we have split our flight information into two sections. The first covers flights from the UK and the second covers other departure points like the USA.

Flights from the UK to Galicia

If you plan to visit Galicia from the UK you have two flight options. The first is a direct flight and the second is a connection. The first limits you to specific London based airports whilst the second gives you a much greater choice in your UK departure airport.

Direct flights from the UK

You can fly direct, during the summer season, to and from the following airports with the carriers listed.

• Stansted airport (London) to Santiago de Compostela airport with the carrier Ryanair.

  This schedule operates four flights per week and runs from April to October. This schedule will be in place until the end of 2013. At that point it will be renegotiated.

• Heathrow airport (London) to la Coruna airport with the carrier Vueling (formerly Iberia and then Clickair).

  You will need to check with this carrier for full flight and seasonal schedule details.

• A third flight option, suitable for anyone staying in Southern Galicia (e.g. Vigo, Tui or even Pontevedra) is to take a direct flight to O Porto airport in Portugal. This destination is offered by a number of different UK airports and airlines.

  It is a comparatively short drive from O Oporto airport to the Spanish border. You would be advised to do some research on the Portuguese toll road charges for the driving section of this journey before you embark.

Connection flights from the UK

The alternative to a direct flight is to connect from another UK airport to either Madrid or Barcelona. Both of these airports offer internal shuttle flights to Galicia.

If you do this it is advisable to try and make this arrangement through a single booking. This way any delay in the first stage of the journey, that causes you to miss the connection, will be the responsibility of the carrier. It will then be up to them to resolve for transportation for the second leg of the journey.

Flights from the USA and other parts of the world to Galicia

If you live in the USA, Canada or another location outside of Europe, getting to Galicia will take a little bit more planning.

Your first task is to locate an airport and an airline that fly to Spain. The chances are that the Spanish destination airport will be either Madrid or Barcelona as these airports have the greatest level of international and transatlantic traffic.

Once you have found an airline that will transport you into Spain you need to book an internal flight from your Spanish arrival airport to Galicia. When travelling to Galicia from within Spain this becomes a much simpler task as Galicia has three regional airports.

La Coruna and Santiago de Compostela airports are in the central to northern part of Galicia and they will suit travellers who plan to stay in those cities, or who wish to travel up to the Lugo province. These airports also offer good road networks down to the cities of Pontevedra and Vigo. However the city of Vigo has its own small airport and this may be a better option if you plan to stay in southern Galicia. This airport does however have a limited schedule.

Direct flights from other parts of Europe

If you want to travel to Galicia from other parts of Europe you will need to check you r local airport for suitable schedules.

The destination airports in Galicia are, Santiago de Compostela airport, la Coruna airport and Vigo airport. Airlines that fly to Galicia from Europe include Ryanair and Vueling, but there are others.

Getting to Galicia by ferry (from the UK)

If you do not wish to fly to Galicia and you are travelling from the UK you have two further transportation options.

The first is to take your own vehicle and catch a ferry. The best ferry port for Galicia is Santander in the Basque Country. There is a new motorway route that runs east to west and then down into Galicia. This road takes you through the Basque country (region), into Asturias and then down to la Coruna and Santiago on the Galician road network.

The second option is to take the Channel Tunnel train and drive through France and then down into and across Spain. This is obviously not a journey to be undertaken in a day.