The hook
The "Coast of Death": Spain's wild Atlantic edge, named for the ships it wrecked, where granite headlands drop into cold surf, lighthouses stand at the end of the known world, and the seafood is arguably the best in Europe.
01Why it's worth it
Galicia is the part of Spain that looks like Ireland and eats like nowhere else. It rains, it's green, it has its own language and a Celtic streak in the music, and the coast is cut into rías, deep drowned valleys whose sheltered water grows mussels, scallops, and clams on an industrial scale while the open coast supplies percebes, goose barnacles prised off wave-hammered rock by divers who risk their lives for them. The Costa da Morte runs from Malpica to Fisterra, the cape Romans took for the end of the earth and where Camino walkers still burn their boots, past the Vixía Herbeira cliffs, among the highest in Europe, and beaches like Praia das Catedrais where the sea has cut stone arches. Offshore lie the Cíes Islands, a protected archipelago of white sand and clear water reachable only by ferry with a permit, one of the most surprising beaches in Europe given the latitude. Santiago de Compostela is inland, beautiful and, as locals note, thoroughly touristed, the coast is where they send you instead.
02How to experience it
Drive the coast slowly with a car, basing in a fishing town rather than a resort. Eat pulpo á feira, percebes, and whatever the day's catch is, in a place with no menu in English. Book Cíes ferries and the free permit well ahead in summer, and walk to Fisterra's lighthouse for sunset. Add the Ribeira Sacra's canyon vineyards inland if you have days to spare.
From the locals
Galicians answer the "most underrated" question with restrained pride and then try to keep it quiet: "Galicia is a little paradise. Everything about it is lovely," one wrote, drawing a joke about wanting outsiders kept away. On where exactly to go, the steer is away from the famous city: "Santiago is beautiful but full of tourists! Not a hidden gem. The towns in Costa da Morte is where you have the best seafood in the world, great coastal landscapes and warm welcomings." Another simply adds: "check out Cíes Islands, Costa da Morte and Carnota too."