Galicia received around 9.5 million visitors in 2011, consolidating its position as one of the main tourist destinations in Spain. Although the development of the tourism sector has been late, if we compare it with the east of Spain, each year the number of visitors increases due to differential factors such as the fact of being the goal of the Caminos de Santiago or the quality and authenticity of Galician gastronomy.
With 123,885 accommodation places, Galicia has a wide and varied offer in hotels, hostels and pensions, more than a hundred (115) of campsites (more than 34,793 places) and 593 Rural Tourism accommodations. This potential places it fourth in Spain in terms of the number of hotel establishments, after the Balearic Islands, Andalusia and Catalonia, and seventh in the number of rooms in the State (behind the three mentioned CC.AA, plus Canary, Valencia and Madrid ). By provinces, Pontevedra, is the fifth of Spain in hotel establishments.
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NATURAL SPACES
Galicia looks out over the Atlantic Ocean and the Cantabrian Sea with two millennia of history, something that is immediately perceived by the traveler who comes to visit us. To travel through these lands of the northwest of Spain allows to live a unique adventure of tradition, lush landscapes and unique cities. In Galicia, the borders between land and sea are neutralized. Both merge along 1,300 kilometers of coastline, 772 beaches and their river characteristics, navigable 365 days a year.
Each visitor can rescue from the memory of this town the enigmatic castros with their peculiar citadels; and in them, perhaps, discover the Celts, ancient settlers of a totally suggestive granitic world (the castros of Baroña – Porto do Son -, Viladonga – Castro de Rei – or Santa Tegra – A Guarda – are the best preserved). He also travels to Gallaecia, Roman Galicia. Still standing is the great Roman Wall of Lugo, a unique fortified enclosure, with a circular structure and a perimeter of 2,200 meters preserved since the 3rd century, which makes it unique in the world, and declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site in the year 2000.
Immediately something different is perceived here. In this fertile land undoubted connections with the Celtic towns are seen.
Galicia is also the land of the thousand rivers. From the mountains of Os Ancares, O Courel or Pena Trevinca (with altitudes exceeding 1,800 meters) the waters of many of them descend. Father Miño crosses Galicia from northeast to southwest to end placidly on the border with Portugal. The fluvial channels are as varied as the landscape: thus, the impressive Sil Canyons in the Ribeira Sacra (whose river is the main tributary of the Miño and through which you can sail in a comfortable catamaran), a land of marked unevenness and conducive to the cultivation of the vine.
The exit from Galicia to the sea takes place through the estuaries. Highlands and Baixas that rub shoulders with the landscape and provide an incomparable framework for the practice of Nautical Tourism, with 17 blue flag ports: Nautical Club of Ribadeo, Ria de Ares Nautical Club, Nautical Club of Sada, Royal Nautical Club A Coruña Marina Real , Marina Coruña, Puerto Deportivo de Camariñas, Club Náutico de Portosín, Club Náutico de Ribeira, Marina Cabo de la Cruz-Boiro; Marina of Vilanova de Arousa, Puerto Pedras Negras, Portonovo Nautical Club, Juan Carlos I Marina, Baiona Marina, Combarro Marina, Marina Dávila-Vigo, and Monte Real Yacht Club.
SANTIAGO’S ROAD
The Camino de Santiago was, and continues to be, the oldest, busiest and most celebrated route in Europe. For more than a thousand years on the Camino de Santiago millions of people from all over the world have lived a unique religious, spiritual and cultural experience.
In the ninth century begin pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela following the discovery of the tomb of the apostle Santiago. Throughout the following eight centuries, the continuous flow of pilgrims from all over Europe marks the routes that converge in Spain to go to Santiago de Compostela, the final point of convergence of all the Xacobean routes and the goal of the pilgrimage.
On the Camino de Santiago there is a link between the different people from all corners of the world and the inhabitants of the populations they pass through, creating a feeling of welcome in the latter. These interactions give those involved, in addition to a positive spiritual value, a good basis for the spread of languages, customs, currents of thought or, for example, artistic styles. On the Camino de Santiago the knowledge of the West and the legacy of all cultures converge. Since the Middle Ages in this universal way, pilgrimages have attracted knowledge, dialogue, innovation and cultural diversity to Galicia.
The Camino de Santiago, declared a historic-artistic complex in 1962 by the Spanish State, has achieved multiple international recognitions. The Council of Europe distinguished it as the First European Cultural Itinerary in 1987, granting it in July 2004 the category of Great European Cultural Itinerary. It was included in the List of Goods declared World Heritage by Unesco, in its tracings throughout Spain and France (1993 and 1998, respectively).
However, the Xacobea Route attracts the visitor for its many riches, since each year the number of people who want to know its intricacies is greater. The spiritual, artistic or cultural vitality, as well as the welcome and hospitality of its people, added to the beauty and variety of the landscapes that are crossed is a great stimulus for thousands of pilgrims, either on foot, on a bicycle or on horseback, they set out to conquer the roads.
GASTRONOMY
The main attraction of its cuisine is its variety, but with a clear common point: a familiar and affectionate, artisan, slow and abundant way of cooking.
The same product is prepared in multiple ways and in each place it has a different flavor. The new Galician cuisine has not forgotten its essence, which has incorporated great doses of creativity to achieve dishes of widely recognized culinary value. Nowadays, the flavors of the Galician gastronomy and its wines are present in the most prestigious restaurants in the world.
More than eighty varieties of sea fish and half a dozen rivers, as well as a wide range of seafood species (spider crab, lobster, crayfish, scallops, oysters, shrimp, crabs, mussels, crab, barnacles, etc.) They can taste in restaurants and bars. Empanada, octopus ‘á feira’, Padrón peppers, lacón con grelos, cheeses made from cow’s milk and the exquisite Galician veal meat, prepared in a thousand ways, are the best showcase of Galician gastronomy.
CITIES
The cities are monumental and welcoming. Santiago de Compostela (the administrative capital) is the medieval city. Declared Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity and end of the Paths of pilgrimage of the Christianity towards the tomb of the Apostle Santiago. A Coruña, with the Tower of Hercules also a World Heritage Site, as a standard, is the city of light and beauty of modernism, as the Neoclassical is Ferrol, traditional naval and military center. The Rías Baixas have two main population centers: Vigo, bathed by an Atlantic ocean of resting waters that provide some of the best seafood (such as oysters), and Pontevedra, the end of an extensive sea tongue that penetrates inland and It melts with the waters of the Lérez River.
Pontevedra impresses us with its historical center, one of the most interesting in all of Spain. Lugo and Ourense are the two main urban events in the interior. The first, as we have already pointed out, is a living testimony of the Roman past.
Both are bathed by a mighty river Miño that, in its wake, leaves indigenous forests with centennial oaks and chestnut trees that have inspired artists around the world dozens of times. Ourense stands out for its Roman bridge, its burgas – thermal hot water emanations – and the entrance portico to the Cathedral, called Portico del Paraíso, the work of Maestro Mateo.
THE LAND IN GALICIA LEADS, IN SUM, TO THE SEA. AND IN HIM, FISTERRA, IN WHICH THE ROMANS SITUATED THE END OF THEIR KNOWN WORLD. FROM HIM, ALL THE COMPLETE DESTINATION IS OPEN TO THE VISITOR.
