Galicia beyond the guide books

I love it when I see us 'do justice' to somewhere amazing and that's what our brand new Northern Spain Signature Drive trip is.

We've been (re)working on it over the past 10 months or so, gradually unveiling better and better trips in the Basque Country, La Rioja and west towards the Picos de Europa mountains. This week we complete the journey with the addition of Galicia, Spain's north-western corner.

The stereotype of Galicians, Gallegos as they are known, is of indecision. It has been said compatriots of other regions....that if you meet a Gallego on the stairs, ask them if they are going up or down and they won't be able to tell you. But the truth is that any of us, faced with their embarrassment of cultural, culinary and scenic riches, would struggle to choose what to do.

Naturally, the first thing any of us would do in this situation is buy a guide book. We love a good guide book at Pura, it's a great way to begin to understand the region, the most popular spots, often with a bit of cultural or culinary background as well. But any guide book on Galicia is invariably going to be a guide book to Northern Spain, all 500km or so of it. So naturally there is a lot of heavy editing that goes on, stripping it down to the 'essentials'. Knowing what we know, the overall picture is that there's so much missing. By all means, follow it, but you'll end up seeing the same handful of sights as everyone else.

Our job has always been to go much deeper. We have myriad ways we do this, some bordering on obsessive discovery, but primarily we leverage the local knowledge of our guides and hosts to help us know what's what. We then go and see it all, guide book and way beyond, and put the puzzle together based on what we've loved the most, and what we think you'll love.

That's what I love about the way our new trips work, we've done the digging to work out the best choices. Often we're a bit bossy in telling you what we think you should do. Other times we lay things out for you, so you have a simple framework to build your own adventure.

A few examples from the road in Galicia...

The most famous beach on Spain's northern coast is the Cathedral beach in Galicia. It's a stunning sight at low tide, with its famous flying butress rock formations creating a series of arches down into the Cantabrian Sea. Its sense of drama is what gives the beach its name and naturally, it is an Instagram hotspot. From July to September you have to book a slot, and even then it's only restricted to 5,000 a day. That's not many grains of sand each. So see it if you can, but keep going up the road and you are on the very definition of a coastal road, where you can have huge swathes of idyllic white sand to yourself, with plenty of space to splash, stroll and swim. You can have your guide book cake and eat it, on a beautifully quiet beach.

Galicia's coast is also dotted with lovely little fishing villages and towns too, many of which still retain an authentic atmosphere. Most guide books will point you towards one or two, telling you how lovely they are. But what to do when you get there? How do you capture the details that give meaning to somewhere like Ribadeo? How do you distinguish between an Indiano house built by a 19th century merchant returning from the Americas, and the Modernist houses which were inspired by the movement coming out of Gaudí's Barcelona? That's our job. As is telling you to go for a coffee at the Parador because the garden looks out across the vast river estuary, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the most impressive Scottish loch you could imagine.

The guide books will tell you about Finisterre, the end of the Pagan world and a popular pilgrimage site for centuries, way before James set up shop in Santiago. But what about the little village of San André de Teixido, tucked away in the folds of the green hills above the Atlantic? It is one of Spain's quirkiest villages, with one of its quirkiest pilgrimage backstories. We'd tell you all about it, but that's a tale for when you're on the road.

Finally, you get to Santiago (via the 'Glass City' of A Coruña, another secret hiding in plain sight). Everyone in the world knows you need to go and see the cathedral, be you a pilgrim or tourist. Going in for a wander and a few photos is one thing. But going in through the side door to see the Portico - the cathedral's crowning glory and one of the greatest Middle Age artistic treasures in a country of Middle Age artistic treasures - is quite another. Having our lovely guide with you to tell you the cathedral's story is another thing still. Timing your visit to coincide with the midday pilgrim mass is the detail that makes your visit truly special.

So, as much as we love a good guide book, often it really is only the beginning of the story. For everything else, you need to go the specialists. That's why we exist, and why we've been sharing the hidden gems of Spain for 25 years.