Costa da Morte · Laxe · Galicia
We write about what to see, where to swim and how to make the most of the Costa da Morte, so you can plan your Galician getaway with concrete, first-hand information.
In Laxe you eat freshly landed seafood and market fish: octopus á feira, goose barnacles, mussels and the catch of the day. The tavernas and seafood restaurants cluster around the harbour and the old town, about 5 minutes from Casa do Rancho. And if you prefer to cook, the house has a fully equipped kitchen and a barbecue.
Malpica de Bergantiños is about 40 min from Laxe: a fishing harbour with a surf beach and the km 0 of the Camiño dos Faros. Off its coast, the Sisargas Islands are the biggest seabird sanctuary in Galicia; you cannot land freely, but in summer boats sail from the harbour to circle them.
Muxía is a seafaring village on the Costa da Morte about 45 min from Laxe. The essentials: the Virxe da Barca sanctuary by the sea, the sacred stones (Pedra de Abalar and Pedra dos Cadrís) and their Way-of-St-James legend, the A Ferida monument to the Prestige disaster, and the views from Monte Corpiño. It fits into half a day or a full day.
Camariñas is the bobbin-lace town of the Costa da Morte, about 40 min from Laxe. The essentials: the Lace Museum and its lacemakers, the Cabo Vilán lighthouse (the first electric one in Spain), the English Cemetery, and wild beaches such as Reira and Lago. It works well as a day trip.
The Finisterre lighthouse is about 65 km from Laxe, just over 1 hour by car, so it makes a perfect one-day trip. Set off mid-morning, have lunch in the town of Fisterra and stay for sunset at the cape, the "end of the world" of the Camino. You can combine it with Muxía or the Ézaro waterfall.
The Ézaro waterfall (fervenza do Ézaro), on the river Xallas, is the only one in Europe that drops straight into the sea. From Laxe it is about 75 km (1 h 20 by car) and the best time to see it is the afternoon, facing the sunset. In summer there are often scheduled water releases and night lighting, so check the timetable before you go.
The Dombate dolmen (one of the great megaliths of Galician Neolithic) and the Celtic Borneiro hillfort are just ~15-20 min from Laxe and barely 1 km apart. The dolmen is visited under a canopy and the hillfort is an open-air walk: easy to combine in half a morning.
The Camiño dos Faros is a roughly 200 km, 8-stage coastal trail linking Malpica to Fisterra along the sea. Laxe sits right in the middle of the route: it is the end of stage 3 (from Ponteceso, ~25 km) and the start of stage 4 to Arou (~20 km), one of the most spectacular, with Laxe lighthouse, Soesto, Traba and the Penedos.
Laxe has a fine white-sand beach right in the village, the sea-glass cove of Praia dos Cristais, the Punta Insua lighthouse with the "A Espera" sculpture, the 15th-century Santa María da Atalaia church, the Museo do Mar and sections of the Camiño dos Faros trail — all walkable or within 10 minutes by car.
The best beaches near Laxe are Praia de Laxe (a calm town beach), Soesto (wild, for surfing), Traba (long and unspoilt), Arnado (intimate) and the curious Praia dos Cristais. All are under 25 minutes by car.
Based in Laxe you can see the best of the Costa da Morte in 3 days: day 1 the beaches of Laxe and Soesto plus the Borneiro hillfort; day 2 Camariñas, Muxía and the Camiño dos Faros; day 3 Fisterra and the Ézaro waterfall. Everything is under 1 h 20 by car.
