Galicia is that hidden corner of Northern Spain you hear whispers about. It’s on your mental bucket list, but you’ve not quite got your head around how you’re going to make it there .. This is the place that quite literally stole our hearts in the September of 2024. We’re headed back there for 2025 and these are the reasons we think this could be your new favourite surf destination ..
Reviving our sense of adventure..
One of the reasons we started our Explore Series of surf trips has been to get off the beaten track a bit more, away from the usual surf towns that are always fun, but sometimes feel too familiar. Don’t get us wrong, we love finding our home creature comforts abroad, like the familiar taste of an oat latte from an instagram friendly cafe. But we were craving old school surf travel, to get out of our comfort zone and immerse in a culture completely different to our own.
As soon as we hit the roads into Galicia we knew we had hit gold, quite literally, surrounded by fields of corn! We were suddenly hit with a new and completely unfamiliar world to explore. Everything slowed down, the world in our phones and the world outside Galicia melted away and we were right in the moment. Just what we were looking for!
Empty beaches ..
It was not unusual for us to be the only people surfing at the breaks we surfed, and ‘a crowd’ was just a few more surfers. Uncrowded waves = less hustling and more waves to go around which = faster progression. A dream scenario if you only have a week to spare for a surf trip! With multiple breaks picking up different swell directions to choose from & a winding coast line delivering protected coves and exposed beachies in equal measure, we were spoilt for choice for our entire stay.
Wild Beauty & big skies ..
The natural beauty of the Galician coastline is truly breathtaking. There are no straight lines here, just an endless wending of sweeping white sand bays, secluded coves, forested headlands and wild rocky peninsulas. Huge skies host the daily cycle of sunrise, sunset, moon rise and moon set over hills peppered with wind turbines. Empty but impeccably maintained roads forge through the small villages and farmland that feeds Spain. Almost none of the beaches we surf at are built upon in any way, few cafes and even fewer surf shops.
4) Uniquely Galician .. from the food to the landscape, every turn of the road seemed to deliver fresh intrigue and talking points. This quietest corner of Northern Spain is truly unique and fascinating, you think you have been to Spain and then you go to Galicia ..
We found ancient stone corn stores punctuating endless corn fields, that feel like the setting of a 70s romance novel, in contrast with the sometimes stark and minimal architecture. Our senses were tickled with the sound of cowbells and cockerels in the morning and the scent of eucalyptus forests sneaking through the van windows after the rain.
All of our meals are lovingly prepared by a lady who has lived in the village her whole life. Hearty, delicious and overfilled plates emerge daily from her kitchen, sourced from produce grown in the village or on neighbouring farms.
Sometimes we felt we were in Switzerland, then a more wild Cornwall, or was this like New Zealand, even a Himalayan hill town in the Summer when the snow has melted. In the end the comparisons stopped and we could just see Galicia, a beautiful part of the world, very quietly doing its thing
Whats not to love? Maybe the water temperature, a teeny bit colder than Cornwall, that caught us off guard! Gotta love some obscure cold currents. Don’t worry though we’ll be popping the thicker suits in the van for the trips in September!
Want to join us? We have just a couple of spots remaining for our Galicia 2025 trips .. head here for the lowdown
