Welcome to the first in a series of photography posts from a road trip through Galicia (the birthplace of my mother) with my ladyfriend Serena back in August of 2025. A rare summer trip, I might add, considering that I usually avoid traveling in the summertime due to the higher crowds (more people getting in the way of my photographic compositions – no bueno!) and higher prices for airfare and hotels.
Now, my usual long vacation time is December, when my business pretty much flatlines (and it’s low season in most places with far less tourists around). However, after traveling to Europe the past several years in December, coupled with a sudden desire to enjoy Europe when it ain’t freezing, I checked my past Augusts and found that it was actually my second slowest month of the year with only one project in the past two years (yay!).
Throw in the fact that early August flights to Spain were half the price of July flights, and that the last time I visited Galicia in the summertime was with my daughter and late wife way back in 2011, I figured it was time to return to a place that has created many special memories for me.
Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, Galicia
Besides my many visits there as a kid (a whole summer once!) and twice in my mid-twenties, it’s where my daughter and I spent our first Christmas in 2018 after my wife passed away that September. My mother was one of 16 children (and the only one who moved to the US in the 1960s) so there’s still plenty of family there. We would return to spend Christmas there in 2022 during a three-week trip to Portugal.
But I wanted this trip to Galicia to be different than any of the others.
Castro de Baroña
You see, in the past when I visited my family there, I was taken to several notable cities and attractions around Galicia by my many cousins and uncles – some truly spectacular locations, I might add. For this trip, however, I wanted to be free to explore Galicia on my own – by car, with my own itinerary. Something I have never done before.
Santuario da Virxe da Barca, Muxía
Serena trusted me to plan the whole trip on my own and plan I did. Scanning the region for its most beautiful cities, towns and attractions. Unlike my past trips, I avoided stays in major cities (not that there are a whole lot of them in the region) – instead looking for lodging in the region’s more rural locations. And instead of cavernous Cathedrals and fancy art museums, I was looking to experience the natural beauty that Galicia has to offer.
You know, nature. Something that hadn’t been all that high on my list of priorities when planning my past trips.
Noia
And by golly, I constructed one hell of a 20-day itinerary that featured 17 days in Galicia – hugging the coastline and the Atlantic Ocean for a good stretch of it. I mean, it wasn’t my first rodeo – I’d planned a few pretty complex trips in the past but I was still super excited about this particularly “unconventional” itinerary and the opportunity to introduce Galicia to Serena (and re-introduce it to myself). I was also pretty sure she would love it (unlike me, she loves nature trips and more rural lodging).
What I (we) weren’t expecting was that our trip to Galicia would affect us so deeply. But more on that part in a future post.
Torre de Hércules, La Coruña
The original plan was to fly into Madrid on August 2, then spend a night in Madrid doing what anybody spending just one night in Madrid should do – check out a flamenco show; which we did at the oldest flamenco tablao in the world, Tablao Flamenco 1911 located in Plaza Santa Ana (watch a video I shot from that night).
Then after a night in Madrid, we’d take a train the next day to Santiago de Compostela, capital of the region of Galicia. However, a few days before our flight out of Miami, I found out (to my great chagrin) that all the train tickets from Madrid to Santiago de Compostela were completely sold out(!) Apparently, most of central Spain takes their vacations in Galicia in August. Who knew?
Village of Combarro
So I came up with a quick Plan B on the fly: we’ll just rent a car and drive the 6+ hours to Galicia. But I’m also not a big fan of drives that run more than 3 hours so I figured that between Madrid and Santiago de Compostela, there was bound to be a city in Spain that we had not visited yet where we could spend a night in between (I mean, is there really a crappy city in Spain?). So I perused the route and found just the right place, León.
Monforte de Lemos
The city of León is the capital of the province of León – about a three hour drive NW of Madrid. And that, my friends, is where our story begins – in the 54th-largest city in Spain, home to the León Cathedral, one of the finest examples of French-style classic Gothic architecture in Spain, and a key stop on the popular French Way of the Camino de Santiago, making it a destination of both domestic and international tourism.
León Cathedral
We rented a car in Madrid (they talked us into upgrading to an enormous BMW X5 SUV that was way to big for Galicia but fit our three giant suitcases and camera bags just fine) and arrived in León from Madrid on August 3rd. We spent two days there – an absolutely charming city (but have you ever visited a city in Spain that wasn’t absolutely charming?) before taking another three hour drive to Santiago de Compostela to spend a few days with my family before heading off to the coast to kick-off my personal itinerary.
Mi familia Galega
We started in Noia, a lovely town on the Galician coast and worked our way up the coast to Muxía, pass through Camariñas on our way to A Coruña, then further east to wet our beaks in Asturias (the picturesque coastal town of Cudillero and the beautiful Playa de Peñarronda), then south to one of Spain’s most beautiful villages, Mondoñedo.
Ribeira Sacra
We would then continue south and spend a night in Ribeira Sacra, a stunning wine region known for its dramatic canyons carved by the Miño and Sil rivers, then continue south to the town of Monforte de Lemos, to catch their Fiestas Patronales in honor of La Virgen de Montserrat before heading to our final destination, Ribadavia, located in the province of Ourense in the southeast region of Galicia.
Then things would get a bit complicated…
Monasterio de Santa María de Monfero
Raging wildfires in the nearby region of Ourense, some of the worst the country has seen in decades, would affect the air quality considerably (the sky turned orange and tables in outdoor restaurants were speckled with ash!) causing us to change our final destination from the town of Ribadavia, where we had a lovely rural hotel booked for our final three days before taking the train to Madrid (and yes, I had purchased the tickets several weeks back!) and flying to Miami.
The new plan was to drive back west to cleaner air along the coast to the city of Pontevedra – braving the wildfires that were still burning along our two-hour drive.
Village of Cambados
It turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip as we would add two of Galicia’s most beautiful villages to our itinerary on the fly, Combarro and Cambados. As for our final night in Galicia? It was spent watching the sun set over La Lanzada beach, one of the most famous beaches in Galicia.
“Non hai mal que por ben non veña.”
Praia da Lanzada
Let me also add that we experienced no rain during our 17 days traveling across Galicia. Nothing but mostly sunny days (with a few welcome overcast days thrown in) that lasted until 10pm and cool, breezy nights. It was as if the land itself welcomed us (the spirits of my ancestors, perhaps?). It was a trip unlike any other I’d ever taken. The sights, the hotels, the “attractions” – all different. It was a trip we’ll never forget.
City of Pontevedra
Then, in a rather ironic twist, the 6 hour drive I initially avoided was the 6 hour drive we had to ultimately take back to Madrid to catch our flight back to Miami the following day. But after this trip, it felt more like an hour drive – all smiles and Spotify. You’re not gonna want to miss this series so SUBSCRIBE HERE (you won’t be sorry). Nuff said.
I researched many different travel blogs to build my itinerary but I constantly found myself coming back to 