Part of the Rías Baixas guide · Ría de Vigo and the Baixo Miño

The Ría de Vigo is the southernmost of the Rías Baixas: a sea inlet 33 km long and 176 km² in area, sheltered at its mouth by the Cíes Islands, with Cangas and Moaña on its north shore and Vigo, Galicia’s largest city, on the south (Turismo Rías Baixas). South of Baiona the coast turns to open Atlantic past Oia to A Guarda, where the Miño reaches the sea on the Portuguese border; the Baixo Miño district runs up the river to Tui. This guide covers each town and Vigo’s districts, the beaches, what to do, where to stay, how to get there and a two-day route.

Updated 7 November 2026 · How CostaMap researches its guides

At a glance

• Where the south-west corner of Galicia, from Cabo Home on the Morrazo peninsula round the Ría de Vigo to Baiona, then south along the open coast to A Guarda and up the Miño to Tui.
• Towns Cangas, Moaña, Redondela, Vigo, Nigrán, Baiona, Oia, A Guarda and Tui.
• Best for the Cíes Islands, city beaches such as Samil, oysters in Vigo, walled towns, hillforts and the Portuguese Way to Santiago.
• Getting there Vigo Airport (VGO) has direct flights to Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia and Palma; trains reach Vigo-Urzáiz and Vigo-Guixar, and the A-55 runs from Vigo to Tui and Portugal (Turismo Rías Baixas).
• On CostaMap guides to the Cíes Islands, Vigo Old Town, Samil Beach, Cabo Home, Praia América, Baiona, Monte Santa Trega and Tui.

Map of the Ría de Vigo and the Baixo Miño

The map shows the places in this area that have a CostaMap page. Tick a place type to filter, and click a marker to see the place in the panel.

Towns and villages

From Cabo Home along the north shore of the ría, round its head and back out along the south shore through Vigo, then south down the coast to the Miño.

Cangas and the Costa da Vela

Cangas de Morrazo faces Vigo across the ría, a short ferry ride away (spain.info). Its old town has the seafaring houses known as casas de patín, and Rúa Real has pazos with coats of arms and granite houses with white arcades (Turismo Rías Baixas). The former collegiate church of Santiago, mostly 16th century, has a Renaissance façade and Gothic vaults (Turismo Rías Baixas). West of town, the Costa da Vela runs out to Cabo Home: the beaches of Nerga and Barra, cliffs over 150 m high and the sanctuary on Monte do Facho. See our Cabo Home and Costa da Vela guide.

Moaña and the Rande Bridge

Moaña, the next town east, is also linked to Vigo by ferry; Turismo de Galicia calls Cangas and Moaña villages with an authentic seaside atmosphere (Turismo de Galicia). At the narrows, the Rande Bridge carries the AP-9 from Moaña to Redondela: 1,558 m long and 148 m high, and the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world when it opened (Turismo Rías Baixas). Here, in October 1702, British and Dutch ships defeated a Spanish treasure fleet and its French escort in the Battle of Rande; the silver and gold are said to lie on the bottom still (Turismo Rías Baixas).

Redondela and San Simón

Beyond Rande the ría widens into the cove of San Simón. Turismo de Galicia calls Redondela famous for its festivities and its empanada de chocos, a cuttlefish pie, and the Portuguese Way passes through the town (Turismo Rías Baixas). The island of San Simón held Knights Templar, a monastery burned after Rande, a quarantine hospital from 1841 to 1927 and a Civil War prison; today it is a centre for historical memory, open by appointment (Turismo Rías Baixas).

Vigo

Vigo is Galicia’s largest city and, says Turismo de Galicia, Spain’s most important fishing port (Turismo de Galicia); it grew from a village through industry and fishing (Turismo Rías Baixas). Its best-known districts follow.

Vigo: Casco Vello, O Berbés and A Pedra

The old quarter, the Cidade Vella, grew round the fishermen’s district of O Berbés by the port, with arcades, emblazoned houses and the neoclassical Collegiate Church of Santa María, built where Francis Drake burned a Gothic church (spain.info). O Berbés keeps its arcaded fishermen’s houses (Turismo Rías Baixas). Fish auctions run between four and five in the morning, and in A Pedra the oyster sellers offer oysters to passers-by (Turismo de Galicia). See our Vigo Old Town and Monte do Castro guide.

Vigo: O Castro and the centre

Monte do Castro has remains of a hillfort, a 17th-century fortress and anchors recalling the Battle of Rande; Turismo de Galicia calls it the best spot for photos of the city, above all at sunset. Below it, the Ensanche of around 1900 runs from the Porta do Sol and Francisco Leiro’s sculpture “O Sireno” along Policarpo Sanz to the García Barbón Theatre of 1913 by Antonio Palacios and the Alameda gardens (Turismo de Galicia).

Vigo: Castrelos

Castrelos Park, about 24 hectares, is the city’s main green space, with an open-air auditorium, the 17th-century Pazo de Quiñones de León housing the Municipal Museum and the Romanesque church of Santa María de Castrelos (Turismo de Galicia; Turismo Rías Baixas). The museum holds many of the inscribed altars from Monte do Facho.

Vigo: Bouzas, Alcabre and Samil

Bouzas holds a festival on the third Sunday of July, dating from 1605, with a procession, a regatta of traditional boats and fireworks (Turismo de Galicia). In Alcabre, the Museo do Mar de Galicia by Aldo Rossi and César Portela fills a former canning factory and has a small aquarium (Turismo Rías Baixas). Further south are Samil, the city’s longest beach (see our Samil Beach guide), and Canido, where the Roman villa of Toralla is the only fully excavated Roman villa in Galicia open to the public (Turismo Rías Baixas).

Nigrán

Nigrán’s coast is the bay of Baiona. Praia América and Panxón are joined by a Blue Trail through restored dunes (Turismo Rías Baixas); see our Praia América guide. Monteferro, a rocky, pine-covered spit about 1.5 km long and up to 150 m high, has views over Vigo, Baiona and the Cíes and old coastal guns (Turismo Rías Baixas).

Baiona

Turismo de Galicia calls Baiona the port that announced the discovery of America to the world. Its old town became a Historic-Artistic Site in 1993, the 5th centenary of the Arribada festival marking the caravel Pinta’s return, and has the 13th-century former collegiate church of Santa María (Turismo Rías Baixas). The Monterreal fortress, with 3 km of walls, was bought by the state in 1963 to become a parador (Turismo Rías Baixas). See our Baiona guide.

Oia

South of Cabo Silleiro the road follows the open Atlantic to Oia and its monastery of Santa María, first recorded in 1137 and Cistercian from 1182. Its monks and local volunteers guarded the coast, and in 1624 they turned back five Turkish ships, sinking two. Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque in parts, it has been a Site of Cultural Interest since 1931 (Turismo Rías Baixas).

A Guarda

A Guarda, the last town on the coast, is a fishing port whose old centre is laid out round the harbour, with sections of medieval wall, the Torre do Reló and indiano houses (Turismo Rías Baixas). Above it, Monte Santa Trega has one of the largest hillforts in Galicia (Turismo Rías Baixas); see our Monte Santa Trega guide. A 3.6 km Blue Trail follows the shore from the port to the mouth of the Miño (Turismo Rías Baixas).

Tui and the Baixo Miño

The Miño estuary, about 15 km long, forms the border with Portugal (Turismo Rías Baixas), and the Baixo Miño protected area takes in A Guarda, O Rosal, Oia, Tui and Tomiño (Turismo Rías Baixas). Upriver, Tui faces Valença in Portugal: a walled town with a fortress cathedral begun in 1120, the only Gothic cloister of any Galician cathedral, an iron bridge of 1886 and the start of the Portuguese Way in Spain. See our Tui guide.

Beaches and coves

Turismo de Galicia counts this ría among the places with some of Galicia’s best beaches: Barra and Nerga in Cangas, Samil and O Vao in Vigo, Praia América in Nigrán and Rodas on the Cíes (Turismo de Galicia). Details are as the official sources give them, checked in November 2026.

• Barra (Cangas) – about 750 m of fine white sand between dunes and pines on the Costa da Vela, a nudist beach, windy, with excellent water quality (Turismo Rías Baixas).
• Canido (Vigo) – a shell-shaped bay of fine white sand and calm water between Toralla island and Punta de los Pinos (Turismo Rías Baixas).
• Area Grande (A Guarda) – a town beach of fine golden sand facing the Atlantic, sheltered with moderate waves, within walking distance of the centre (Turismo Rías Baixas).

Things to do

Where to stay by town

Spain.info points to the paradors of Baiona, in the Monterreal fortress, and of Tui, set among mountains and rivers (spain.info).

Getting there and around

A two-day route

By car and ferry. Day 1 stays around the ría; day 2 follows the coast about 40 km south to A Guarda and then up the Miño to Tui.

FAQ

Other areas of the Rías Baixas

Sources and freshness

Checked 9 November 2026. Turismo Rías Baixas pages on the Ría de Vigo, Baixo Miño, each town and sight, the beaches and trails (all linked above) and how to get there. Turismo de Galicia on the Ría de Vigo and Vigo. Spain.info on Vigo, Samil and Nerga. Not confirmed: ferry timetables, bus routes, opening hours and prices; the Vigo, Cangas and Tui town hall sites could not be reached.