Costa da Morte
269 km · Día completo
Santiago — Noia — Muros — Ézaro — Fisterra — Muxía
La fervenza do Ézaro cayendo al mar, el faro del fin del mundo en Fisterra y el santuario da Barca en Muxía. Curvas pegadas al Atlántico todo el día.
Motorbike routes in Galicia from Santiago
Our favourite routes, designed and ridden by us. Rent a bike and take the GPX tracks with you, ready for your GPS or your phone.
Galicia is one of those regions that make more sense from a motorbike. In under two hours of riding you go from the open Atlantic of the Costa da Morte to the canyons of the river Sil, and along the way you find empty back roads, good tarmac and long strings of bends that never make it into the travel guides. Santiago de Compostela sits right in the middle of all of it: it is the easiest base there is for riding Galicia without repeating a single road.
These are the four routes we ride ourselves and hand over, already plotted, to everyone who rents with us. They are not itineraries traced on a map: we have ridden them, with the stops that are actually worth it, the places to eat and the stretches where you want to slow down because the view takes over.
Every route page comes with a downloadable GPX track, the map, a breakdown of the stops and an honest estimate of the timings: kilometres in Galicia take longer than the map suggests, because almost nothing here is straight.
The four routes at a glance
| Route | Km | Riding time | Difficulty | Best season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa da Morte | 269 km | Día completo | Easy | May to October |
| Interior Máxico | 151 km | 5 horas | Easy | Year-round |
| Rías Baixas | 229 km | 6 horas | Easy | April to October |
| Ribeira Sacra | 373 km | Día completo | Moderate | Spring, and especially September and October, for the grape harvest and the colours in the vineyards |
The routes in detail
Interior Máxico
151 km · 5 horas
Santiago — Pico Sacro — Fervenza do Toxa — Carboeiro — Lalín
El Pico Sacro y su leyenda, la cascada del Toxa y el monasterio de Carboeiro escondido en el bosque. Galicia interior en estado puro.
Rías Baixas
229 km · 6 horas
Santiago — Padrón — Cambados — A Lanzada — O Grove — Combarro
Mar, albariño y hórreos sobre el agua en Combarro. La costa que abraza las rías, con parada en la playa de A Lanzada.
Ribeira Sacra
373 km · Día completo
Santiago — Lalín — Chantada — Belesar — Cañón do Sil — Monforte
Miradores sobre el cañón del Sil, viñedos heroicos en las laderas del Miño y carreteras de montaña sin tráfico.
Tracks built on OpenStreetMap data (ODbL). They are a reference: on the road, road signs come first.
Which one is for you?
If you only have one day
Costa da Morte. It is the one people ask to repeat and the one that sums up Galicia best: cliffs, the only waterfall in Europe that drops straight into the ocean and the Fisterra lighthouse at the end. Leave early, have lunch in Cee or Corcubión and save the sunset for the cape.
If you came for the bends
Ribeira Sacra. The most demanding of the four: the Sil canyon viewpoints are earned with narrow mountain sections and tight bends one after another. Not the route for your first day on a bike you don't know yet.
If it is your first time riding here
Rías Baixas or the inland loop. Wide roads, calm traffic and fewer kilometres: 210 and 150. Perfect for getting comfortable on the rental bike before taking on a full mountain day.
If you ride two-up
Rías Baixas. Beaches, seafood and short stops all along, with no long stretches of pure concentration. It is the route that works best when your pillion is not a rider.
What comes with the bike
GPX tracks for every route
We give you all four tracks to load into your GPS or your phone. No dependence on mobile coverage or on a navigation app sending you down a motorway.
Full riding gear
Helmet, jacket and gloves included in the rental. If you are flying in, you don't need to bring anything.
Advice from people who live here
Where to eat without falling into a tourist trap, when the morning fog lifts, which bends carry gravel and where to fill up before the petrol stations run out.
Guides to the places these routes cross
Before you pick a route, have a look at the places it goes through. Each guide tells you what to see, how to get there and which route it fits into.
- Qué ver en Pontevedra: la ciudad sin coches, desde Santiago
- Qué ver en Vigo en un día desde Santiago, en moto
- Qué ver en Ourense: termas, casco viejo y ruta desde Santiago
- Playas de Sanxenxo en moto: cuáles merecen la parada
- Qué ver en A Coruña: un día desde Santiago, por la costa
- Islas Cíes: permiso, ferry y cómo organizar el día en moto
- A Lanzada en moto: la playa y la carretera que la bordea
- Isla de Ons: permiso, cómo llegar en moto y qué ver
- Playa de Samil (Vigo) en moto: cómo llegar y qué ver cerca
FAQs about motorbike routes in Galicia
- Which is the best motorbike route in Galicia if I can only do one?
- The Costa da Morte. Around 260 km from Santiago, a comfortable full day, and it concentrates the best of the Galician Atlantic: Carnota, the Ézaro waterfall, the Fisterra lighthouse and Muxía. The AC-550 is also one of the nicest roads to ride in the whole region.
- What is the best time of year to ride in Galicia?
- May to October is the safest bet weather-wise, with September as the ideal month: good temperatures, less traffic and fewer people at the stops. You can ride the coast perfectly well in winter, but expect rain and fewer daylight hours. In the Ribeira Sacra mountains, avoid icy days.
- Do I need an A licence for these routes?
- Not necessarily. A car licence held for three years lets you ride a 125 in Spain, and every route here can be done on one, although the longest ones will be tight on time. With an A2 or A licence you have access to the whole fleet.
- Should I book the bike in advance?
- In July and August, yes: the fleet is small and it fills up. The rest of the year we usually have availability at a few days' notice, but if your flights are already booked, reserve as soon as you have the dates.
- Do the routes start and finish in Santiago?
- All of them. You leave from our handover point in Santiago de Compostela and come back to the same place, so there is no need to change accommodation. Several days can be chained together without repeating a road.
- Are the routes self-guided or guided?
- Self-guided. We give you the GPX track, the map and the recommendations, and you ride at your own pace. If you would rather ride with company, we organise group departures on set dates through the year.
Fancy one?
Book the bike and we will send you all four GPX tracks with your confirmation, so you land in Santiago with the route already loaded.
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