Accidental Trip Itinerary-Cathedral Beach

I ended up visiting Cathedral Beach in Galicia by chance.

My boyfriend and I had planned a weekend in Galicia (we’re currently living in Madrid short-term for his job, but he’s from Galicia) and we decided to simply look for a casa rural (a rurally located B&B) that was a good price, and that was in a good location. Where, didn’t matter all that much.

So, we perused casas rurales online and booked one that looked good, was near the coast and was affordable (as most are!). We decided to plan the itinerary when we got closer as I had another trip I was planning ( a writing trip) the logistics for and didn’t want to mess with more planning and mapping.

The casa rural we found happened to be a few kilometers from a town called Ribadeo, in Northern Galicia. And, as Manuel realized once we booked, Ribadeo happens to be a 15 minute drive from Cathedrals Beach or Playa de las Catedrales (As Catedrais or Praia de Catedrais in Galician), the most famous beach in Galicia. Manuel had, of course, been there before but I hadn’t and we were both pretty excited about visiting.

Getting to Cathedrals Beach

Our next challenge was how to travel to the area. Galicia is pretty far from Madrid, with most areas we would normally want to travel to being 7+hours by train.

But, it turned out, that to get to the area we were going in Galicia that we could take the train from Madrid to Ourense in only 4.5 hours and then take a car from there. You cannot take a train to these types of rural areas in Galicia.  The other benefit to starting from Ourense is that I was planning on visiting the Ribeira Sacra (for winery visits, wine tasting and exploration) before we headed North and Ourense is also the closest train station to that region.

Other travel options:

If you wanted to fly instead of taking the train, you could fly into Santiago de Compostela airport (Ryanair) and then drive (about 2 hours) or, into A Coruna airport and drive (about 1 hour 45 minutes).

This area is also only about a 4 hour drive from Porto in Portugal (and this would make a fantastic road trip!).

About Cathedrals Beach/Playa de Las Catedrales/As Catedrais Beach

Cathedrals Beach (La Playa de Las Catedrales in Spanish or As Catedrais in Galician) is the most visited beach in Galicia. It’s famed for it’s stunning arched rock formations (and the fact you can only access it at low tide). And, though it’s a major destination by Galician standards, you will see mostly Portugese or Spanish tourists (and when it’s not summer you won’t see huge crowds). Nothing like the crowds you see in the rest of Spain in places like Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada, etc.

The fact it’s so far from the rest of Spain, and that a car is needed to get around to most of the sights keeps Galicia a destination that doesn’t get over crowded as often.

But, to avoid any potential tourist buses or crowds (our favorite thing to do) we opted to make the effort to access Cathedral Beach sin coche (without a car). We decided to take the walking trails from the nearby village of Rinlo.

We could have chosen to hike/walk from Ribadeo all the way to Cathedrals  Beach or to hike from the tiny village called Rinlo mid-way between Ribadeo and Cathedrals Beach. Thought we like longer walks and hikes we found there was a marathon scheduled that morning in Ribadeo and so we’d be better off parking in Rinlo and hiking from there.

Our Love Affair With Rinlo

Our decision to visit Rinlo, as a starting point was the best decision we made on our trip. A previously unknown village to my boyfriend, Rinlo was a welcome surprise for both of us.

It was everything I’d wanted to find in Galicia: tiny, picturesque, surrounded by ocean views, chock-full of amazing seafood spots and with no hotels or supermarkets in sight. The fact that you could start one of a handful of hiking trails from Rinlo made it that much better.

Once we arrived in Rinlo, we really wished we had known about it earlier and had booked our accommodation there. We felt we could spend a week in this little village, removed from the world simply listening to the waves hit the rocks, hiking, and eating from the sea.

As it was though, we had a day and we decided to take full advantage of our time there.  We showed up hours early (low tide was going to be at 5pm that day) and strolled around the village, grabbed coffee, took some walks down some of the trails and made reservations for lunch. Apparently Rinlo is a destination for people who are on their way to Cathedral Beach (or locals from nearby Ribadeo and other towns on weekends) due to the culinary specialty of the town,  arroz caldoso (hot soupy lobster rice in a cauldron like pot with a full steamed lobster in every pot).

You need to book a table ahead of time as well as place your order for this dish at least a couple hours ahead of time so they know how many lobsters to buy and have time to prepare them for each table.

There were 3-4 restaurants to choose from in Rinlo, and all served the arroz caldoso but we liked the look of a place ‘Porto de Rinlo’ the best (away from the perfectly painted harbor side restaurants). It also doubles as a cafe earlier in the day (lunch starts at 1:30).

We took off from the restaurant at about 2:45 to start on our walk towards Cathedrals Beach. The signs said it was about 6 km (or 3+ miles) so we knew we’d need to kill some time before the high tide time of 5pm. Luckily there were other beaches and lots of cool, misty, green scenery to enjoy on the way to Playa de las Catedrales.  

We stopped at all the other beaches along the way, and there were some beautiful ones (like Playa de Esteiro pictured above). The day was misty but with such a light mist (and quite warm weather) that it was actually pleasant.

The Cathedral Beach was definitely the show stopper, but we enjoyed our peaceful time at the other beaches as we had them all to ourselves.

I definitely recommend visiting this part of Galicia (and Spain!) and if you do go, stay in Rinlo (if you’re lucky enough to find a place) or in a casa rural near Ribadeo and hike from Rinlo to the beaches. It’s a great way to experience the area.

Cultural Tidbit: Did you know that bagpipes are the traditional instrument in Galicia? They call bagpipes the Galician Gaita. I had no idea either! We came across a man in a Celtic looking outfit playing his pipes along the cliffs above Cathedral Beach and Manuel explained. You will see the pipes played all over Galicia at traditional events (festivals, celebrations of Saints, etc).

Resources for Visiting this area of Galicia

Accommodation:

Toprural.com (for booking casas rurales): http://www.toprural.com

Apartmentos Rinlo (basic but well located): Email: info@rinlo.co  Phone: +34 670 646 980

Tourism and Access to the Cathedral Beach (they have started limiting visitors to 4800 people per day in the peak months July-Sept):

Xunta de Galicia (for reservations)

Turismo Galicia (for info on the area)

Restaurants: 

Porto de Rinlo (in Rinlo)

Note: when you book a casa rural in Spain you often have to send in your request through the website (Top Rural is the best) and then wait for a response from the owner. It is also quite common for them to ask you for a deposit of a % of the total booking to secure your reservation. Since most casas rurales are literally just people living out in the country and running their own small little B&B business you may have to put the deposit into their bank account (or if you’re Spanish you can send a check). Don’t let this deter you. If they are on Top Rural and have a bunch of reviews, you can assume that they don’t make a practice of stealing people’s money.