Rías Altas

This spectacular 1.5km sandy stretch is strung with awesome Gothic-looking rock towers, arches and chambers, sculpted by aeons of sea-water action. Avoid the hour or two either side of high tide when the beach is...

Four kilometres north of the workaday fishing town of Cariño looms the mother of Spanish capes, Cabo Ortegal, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Bay of Biscay. Great stone shafts drop sheer into the ocean from...

It was actually the Romans who originally built this lighthouse at the windy northern tip of the city, in the 1st century CE – a beacon on the furthest edge of the civilised world. The outer facing of the...

This bench 400m west of Praia do Picón affords magnificent panoramas along the jagged coast all the way from the Punta da Estaca de Bares to Cabo Ortegal. It has acquired celebrity status under the English name...

From San Andrés de Teixido the DP2205 winds up and across the Serra da Capelada towards Cariño. Six kilometres from San Andrés is the must-see Garita de Herbeira, a naval lookout built in 1805, 615m above sea...

From the lighthouse near the tip pf the Bares peninsula, a 500m trail follows the spine of a rock outcrop to the Punta da Estaca de Bares, Spain's most northerly point, with awe-inspiring cliffs and fabulous...

Take Rúa Castro up from the central Praza Irmáns García Naveira to the handsome Praza da Constitución, flanked by a couple of appealing cafes along with the Romanesque/Gothic Igrexa de Santiago, whose main...

Not just for techies, the National Science and Technology Museum will engage everybody. You'll see the first computer used in Spain (a monstrous IBM 650 from 1959), and the entire front section of a Boeing 747....

Pablo Picasso lived in this large apartment from the age of nine to 13 (1891–95), while his father taught art at a nearby school. The apartment is kitted out with period furniture and copies of the many paintings...

Founded in 1134, this grand old monastery, standing in splendid isolation, was abandoned in the 19th century but has been partly restored. It has three cloisters, but most impressive is the domed 17th-century...

This 14th-century Gothic church contains many carved-stone sepulchres of Galician nobility. Don't miss the sepulchre of Fernán Pérez de Andrade 'O Boo' (The Good), the local strongman who had the town's main...

The 16th-century Castillo de San Antón, the fort set on its own little promontory guarding the entrance to the port, now houses the Museo Arqueológico e Histórico, with a drily presented but extensive collection...

Kids love the seal colony and the underwater Nautilus room (surrounded by sharks and 50 other fish species) at this excellent aquarium on the city's northern headland. The focus is on the marine life of Galicia's...

Highlights at the sleek Fine Arts Museum include paintings by Rubens, Picasso, Tintoretto and Sorolla, an impressive collection of Goya prints and a fine exhibit of 19th-century Galician Sargadelos ceramics.

The stout, 18m-high Andrade Tower was erected in the late 14th century, probably by Fernán Pérez de Andrade 'O Boo' (The Good), who fought on the winning side in wars among Castilian royalty and as a reward was...

A few kilometres southwest of the Bares Peninsula, some of Spain's most dramatic and least-known beaches are strung along the foot of the spectacular Acantilados de Loiba cliffs. Easiest to reach is Praia do...

Busloads of tourists and pilgrims descend on the holy hamlet of San Andrés de Teixido, renowned for its sanctuary of relics of St Andrew, in a fold of the coastal hills a 12km drive north from Cedeira. You can...

Stately Plaza de María Pita is rimmed with cafes and dominated by the early-20th-century Ayuntamiento and a monument to the heroine the square is named after – she's depicted here repelling the 1589 English...

This hilltop park 2km northwest of the city centre provides exceptional views over the city and coast, and contains the Cúpula Atlántica, an observation dome with displays on A Coruña, as well as a maze, cafe,...

From the Parque Natural Fragas do Eume's visitors centre, a paved road leads 7.5km along the thickly forested valley to a stone footbridge, where a 500m path leads up to the Mosteiro de Caaveiro. This abandoned...