Our Slow-Travel Life In Galicia (Spain)

We’ve been in the Galicia region of Spain for about 1 month now, and I can confidently say that we’ve put the “slow” back into slow travel! We’ve been quite the homebodies for the last several weeks.

And “slow” applies to our posting frequency too, although honestly that is with good reason. Our current international lives have simply been more stationary, so there hasn’t been as much sexy content to talk about.

That said, we’ve been enjoying our slow-travel life in Galicia and, in many ways, it reminds us of when we lived in New Hampshire and upstate New York back in the USA.

Let us show you what we mean, as well as what we’ve been up to.

A Little Background About The Galicia Region Of Spain

Galicia is an autonomous community located in the northwest of Spain, bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the Cantabrian Sea.

Galicia is divided into four provinces: A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra.

It is a region with a rich history, culture, and natural beauty, characterized by its rugged coastline, mountains, and valleys. The climate is mild and humid, with significant rainfall throughout the year. In other words, it is extremely different from the climates of more well-traveled parts of Spain, like Madrid and the southern coast.

According to available data, Galicia has a population of just over 2.5 million people. This population is spread out over more than 1,000 villages, towns, and cities, with the largest being Vigo, which has a population of less than 300,000 inhabitants.

Galicia has a distinct culture and language, with a strong Celtic heritage. The official language is Galician, although Spanish is also widely spoken. The region is famous for its traditional festivals, such as the Festival of Saint James (Festa do Apóstolo Santiago) and the Festival of the Sea (Festa da Mariña).

From our perspective, the Galicia region of Spain is perfect for nature lovers. Although there are a handful of moderately sized population centers scattered throughout the region if one wants to enjoy urban amenities, it is easy to connect with the environment.

Mountains, forests, and pastures are ubiquitous here. And if you are near the ocean, you have the added perk of a relatively unspoiled coastline.

In a way, Galicia feels like the less populated areas of Ireland or Great Britain. And that is quite the compliment.

Why We Came To Galicia

Really, there were two reasons.

First, we were fascinated by the off-the-beaten-path reputation of Galicia. The idea of fewer tourists was appealing, and getting back to a more rural lifestyle (like we had for much of our lives in the USA) was a real draw for us.

Second, we had a promising Workaway volunteer gig near the town of Taboada (in the province of Lugo) lined up for May and June. Free housing was part of this deal and incentivized us to visit Western Europe, where rent can be really expensive.

Bottom line, getting to live in rural Spain at a discount seemed like a win-win!

If you want to find out what Workaway is and would consider signing up for an annual membership, use OUR WORKAWAY REFERRAL LINK and you’ll get an extra month!

At around $50 per year, a Workaway membership pays for itself pretty quickly.

How We Got To Taboada, Spain From Mexico City, Mexico

We checked out of our Mexico City Airbnb at 3 pm on April 29th and grabbed an Uber to Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México to catch our 7 pm direct flight on Iberia Airlines to Madrid, Spain.

Our one-way tickets were inexpensive, only requiring a total of 42,500 Avios points + $290 USD in fees when we booked back in October 2023. Check out our post on using credit card points to get cheap flights if you’d like to see how we pulled this off!

Although we could have taken the metro to the airport for pennies, the logistics (and risk) of carrying our luggage on a packed subway did not appeal in the least. So under the circumstances, our Uber ride was $7.50 USD well spent.

We arrived at the airport without issue and made it through security without any problems. We had to ask around for the location of our departure gate, but once we found it we just hung out and took advantage of the airport WiFi until it was time to board.

Boarding, as well as our 11-hour flight, went without any problems.

The only real complaint we had was that our coach-level seats seemed to be designed to cause maximum discomfort for anyone with above-average height. So neither of us got more than an hour or two of sleep.

That, and the inflight food was not exactly great by even our low standards. But still, we were happy just to be fed something during our long journey.

We landed in Madrid, Spain at around 1:30 pm drunk on sleep deprivation, but we exited the plane and breezed through customs without issue.

At the Madrid airport, we immediately grabbed a direct Renfre commuter train to the Madrid-Chamartín Clara Campoamor Train Station, at 3.10€/$3.32 USD per ticket.

Madrid-Chamartín Clara Campoamor Train Station was only a 15-minute walk to our minimalist overnight Airbnb stopover ($43.48 USD for 1 night). So when we arrived we walked there, checked in, and then promptly passed out from exhaustion.

At around 7 pm we roused ourselves out of bed and went to a nice local restaurant for deluxe burgers and fries, accompanied by an excellent bottle of wine, for 45.70€ ($48.94 USD) total. The food was way better than it probably sounds, especially compared to the airline cuisine we were exposed to for the last 24 hours!

We then staggered back to our Airbnb and fell right back to sleep, hoping to be well-rested for our train ride to Galicia the next morning.

We woke up with good energy and thankfully only a little bit jet-lagged from our flight. So we checked out of our Airbnb and made the 15-minute walk back to the train station to catch our high-speed Renfe/AVE train to the city of Ourense, in the Galicia region of Spain.

We boarded the train with no problems and departed promptly at 11:20 am.

The ride was super-smooth and the country views of the fields, hills, and mountains were really scenic. And we reached speeds of around ~160 mph! No big deal to some, but this was our first time on high-speed rail.

The only bummer about our train ride was that we made a strategic error traveling on May 1, which is Spain’s Labor Day holiday. This effectively doubled our train ticket cost!

In the end, two one-way tickets to Ourense cost 160.40€ ($173.36 USD) total.

Ouch. Live and learn.

We arrived in Ourense at around 2 pm, but we still weren’t done traveling!

The next public bus was scheduled to leave Ourense station for Taboada at 3:30 pm, so we decided to hang out at the station cafe and grab food and coffee, both of which were surprisingly good.

When the time came, we boarded an Arriva bus (at 4.65€/$5.05 USD per ticket) headed in the direction of Taboada, where our Workaway hosts live.

The buses were clean, very comfortable, and modern. And they had no problem stowing our luggage in the lower bus compartments.

And 45 minutes later, we were dropped off at the Taboada bus stop and were greeted by our Workaway host Lisa who picked us up in her car!

We then all headed off to her property to finally settle in our new home for the next two months.

Our Workaway Experience

We are currently staying on the property of Lisa and Stewart, a British couple who moved to Taboada about 17 years ago. Much to our surprise, they were former wetland/amphibian biologists back in Great Britain! So you can imagine that we have an awful lot in common and have tons to talk about.

When they first arrived, Lisa and Stewart purchased a very old homestead in a tiny village community outside of Taboada. Later on, they purchased a second unoccupied property in the same village. One of these properties was for themselves, and the other ended up being for one of their parents who lived with them for several years after the property was made habitable.

As part of these properties, they maintain an extensive garden area, have several outbuildings, keep chickens, and entertain a couple of cats

Over the years, Workaway volunteers have helped Lisa and Stewart with renovations and general construction tasks, which were extensive and necessary when the properties were first purchased. Seeing the before and after photographs of the work that they have accomplished makes you appreciate the love and care they put into their place!

Broadly speaking, our responsibility is to house-sit the former “casita” home of the parent and keep it well maintained. We’re told that it takes quite a bit of extra time and effort to keep the casita in shape, and having someone actually *living* in it is best for the overall condition and longevity of the space.

In addition, we help out with gardening, maintenance, firewood stacking, odd jobs, chicken and cat wrangling, and sometimes house-sitting the owner’s main property when they are away. Anything that Lisa and Stewart need a hand with really.

In other words, the tasks are perfectly reasonable and are well suited to our skill set.

Furthermore, Lisa and Stewart are always encouraging us to make sure we get out and enjoy the region when we can. At a loose expectation of 10 to 15 hours of help per week, they are hardly taskmasters and our work/life balance is excellent.

Where We Are Staying

Normally Rhonda and I provide lots of detail on where we are living with lots of photos of the place, but not this time.

Since we are staying at someone’s personal property we don’t feel it is right putting that sort of information out in the crazy world of the internet for anyone to see. The same goes for detailed accounts of their personal lives.

But I will describe our current living situation in more general terms.

The casita cottage we are living in is a renovated stone house at least a couple of hundred years old. The building is heated exclusively by wood, with one wood stove in the living room and another old-timey cast iron stove/oven in the kitchen. We have extensive experience running wood stoves from our former lives in upstate New York, so it was fun getting back into that when the weather was chilly!

The renovated casita has all of the major amenities, including electricity, fiber-optic internet (a very recent addition), as well as hot water. And there are furnished bedrooms, bathrooms, a living room, and a dining room.

The entire casita is very well appointed in our opinion and oozes country charm. It is a much better living situation than we were expecting!

We feel quite blessed to be here.

Our Simple Country Lives During May

Aside from our Workaway duties, we have been keeping things purposefully low-key during the month of May.

Sadly, we both caught colds on our way out of Mexico. I was under the weather for about a week, but Rhonda developed additional sinus and lung crud that has put her off her game for the better part of May.

And the local weather has not helped.

As is typical for Galicia during this month, it has been very rainy, and a bit chilly. So going off exploring on foot and getting soaked when you are recovering from a cold is not the best idea.

So our time has largely been fulfilling Workaway duties, reading, continuing our Spanish studies, catching up on videos, sneaking in short hikes in the countryside, socializing with Lisa and Stewart, and getting to know the local communities.

Lisa and Stewart have also been great about taking us with them when they drive out to different towns and cities like Lugo, Ourense, and Chantada.

They’ve also introduced us to some of their favorite local haunts in Taboada, namely cafes that serve wine, beer, and tapas!

And we’ve gone out to some pretty excellent restaurants to take advantage of the lunchtime “menu del dia“, which is a pretty special thing in Spain.

In the Galicia region, for around 13€ a menu del dia will get you a meal-sized starter course (like black squid ink rice with mussels), a larger main course (like a half rack of ribs, with sausage and flank steak), a loaf of homemade bread, a glass (or two) of wine, water, and a proper dessert (like a huge piece of cheesecake or flan).

And sometimes coffee is included too.

Every time we get a menu del dia lunch we exit the restaurant overly full and not needing to eat for the rest of the day. And the quality of the local food here in Spain has been outstanding!

So yes, we have been more stationary and haven’t done any real tourism in the classic sense. We’ve just been living our lives like “normal” people in Galicia.

But now that our health and the weather are improving, we hope to be more adventurous for the month of June.

Getting Around The Galicia Region

From our comments to this point, you might think we are captives in our casita when Lisa and Stewart don’t take us out in their car.

But this is not the case.

The town of Taboada is only a 30-minute walk away from our place through some really pretty countryside. There we can load up on groceries, hit some pubs, get a haircut, or attend local festivals when weather and health permit.

We also have surprisingly good public bus access to many cool places, although illness recovery hasn’t allowed us to take advantage of this until recently.

Using the local Arriva and Monbus public bus lines, we can get direct buses to cool places like Chantada, Lugo, Ourense, and A Coruña on our own from the bus stop in the center of Taboada. And we can go even further afield if we don’t mind picking up a transfer bus off of these routes.

But honestly, when the weather is clear and warm, there is much to see on foot just hiking around the single-track paved and dirt roads connecting the tiny villages around Taboada.

It is a great area for spontaneous nature hikes, which is something that we have sorely missed. And thankfully, there are several modest hiking circuits we can take that haven’t overtaxed us during our recovery.

So How Do We Like Living In Galicia?

We love it!

Granted the overall raininess in May was a drag when combined with recovering from illness. But the rain is clearing out, the temperatures are warming up, and the region is really starting to show off its charms.

Galicia mixes our love of rural life, quaint small towns, natural landscapes, history, and excellent cuisine in a way we have never experienced before.

And we love the food culture in Spain!

When going out to eat with Lisa, Stewart, and their friends, we often spend HOURS eating and socializing with no pressure to free up our seats. Eating is a social event here, and that sort of behavior is expected. Lunch with friends has become a major event that we really look forward to.

Although you may spend between 12€ – 20€ per person ($12.98 – $21.63 USD) at one of these lunch events, you will get a multi-course feast! We are usually so full that by the time we are done, we need at least a few days to recover. So this keeps our eating out costs manageable. 😂

We do miss street food culture in Latin America. It’s just that Spain takes a different strategy for delivering a great high-value food experience.

And the cherry on top of this is that there isn’t a tipping expectation in Spain, supposedly because wait staff make living wages. At least in Galicia, gratuities are not solicited and may get you funny looks if you try to give one. I can’t emphasize enough how pleasant that makes the overall dining experience.

We have also fallen in love with cafe/bar culture in Taboada. At our favorite local bar, we can get glasses of excellent red wine that the owner makes himself for 1€ ($1.08 USD). Or an excellent quality local beer for 1.5€. In each case, a drink includes tapas, like bacon on homemade bread with melted cheese.

So if you keep drinking you keep getting fed! I have no idea how bars in Spain stay in business, but I thank them for their service.

Related to eating and much to our surprise, groceries are affordable in Galicia. I’d even go so far as to say that groceries may be less expensive overall than they were in Mexico.

Sure, certain items were much cheaper in Mexico. Beans, rice, key staples, and local produce at local markets. But other items in Mexico were surprisingly expensive when you deviate from products sourced from outside of the country.

The net result is a lower-than-expected grocery bill in Galicia when comparing apples to apples (literally). We get top-quality bread, honey, yogurt, granola, meat, cheese, coffee, and many types of produce, cheaper on average in Galicia.

Now this doesn’t mean our overall grocery bill has gone down. It just means we seem to get more bang for our buck in Galicia based on our food preferences. So the net result may be that we are still spending more!

We’ll see when our budget report comes out in a few days.

Closing Thoughts About Our Slow-Travel Life in Galicia

We had forgotten how much we enjoyed slow country life, so downshifting our lives in Galicia has been a nice change of pace. We are looking forward to what the next month will bring!

We’ve gotten along swimmingly with Lisa and Stewart and, assuming we don’t screw up our Workaway assignment too badly during our time here, we are considering a return trip sometime in the future.

We hear that the heat from climate change in Southern Spain (the most popular region) is causing locals and tourists to start looking at the Galicia region to scratch their travel itch.

Hopefully not too much! We’d hate for this area to lose its charm, although we do root for the locals to prosper.

Until next time…

Thanks for reading!

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