Galicia gives travellers an alternative Spanish experience. With its strong Celtic connections, wild beaches and arguably the best seafood in Europe, this unique region in Spain’s northwest remains largely unexplored by the tourists flocking to Barcelona or the Costa del Sol.

While Santiago de Compostela is Galicia’s most famous city and one of the world’s biggest international pilgrimage destinations, this terra de meigas (land of witches, as Galicia is known) offers another unmissable stop: the magnificent rías, sprawling estuaries along its 1.200 km of coast. The rías are divided into the Rías Baixas (Lower Rías) in the southern part of the region and facing the Atlantic Ocean, and the Rías Altas (Upper Rías), bathed by the feisty Cantabrian Sea.