Arriving in A Coruña
A Coruña Airport is a relatively small airport with only six gates. Flights are available from London on Vueling a few times a week and the only destinations outside of Spain as of September 2024 are Geneva, London and Milan. Other tourists can connect via Madrid or fly to a larger airport such as Santiago de Compostela, approximately 45 minutes away.
There is a half-hourly bus service from the airport to the city centre (service A4), operated by ALSA. The service costs €1,55 per person one-way so can be a much cheaper option than taking a taxi. From experience, the buses can get very busy in both directions and often runs behind schedule.
You can catch a taxi from directly outside the airport. There is no reliable Uber or rideshare service in the city so you have to rely on traditional taxis. A taxi from the airport to the city costs around €20-25.
Rental cars are available from A Coruña Airport. We did consider renting a car on our trip to explore more of Galicia, but prices seemed high. This could be different at other times of year.
Getting around A Coruña
The easiest way to get around A Coruña is simply to walk! The city is very easy to get around with tourist attractions relatively close together. The narrow streets in the city centre are a great place to just walk around and lose yourself within. During our four days in A Coruña, we only used a bus within the city once to get up to the Torre de Hercules.
Buses run regularly on routes throughout the city and, whilst walking is normally the easiest method, buses can help you to get from one side to the other or up to the Torre de Hercules. Fares are paid in cash or with a local Millennium travelcard (although this has a number of hoops to jump through to get). Timetables can be flexible so it is often worth waiting a few minutes past the scheduled time for your bus to show up.
The Bicicoruña cycle hire service is widely accessible, with 49 stations across A Coruña backed up with 45km of cycle lanes throughout the city. The service is accessed through an app, similar to most cycle hire services around Europe. A particularly good spot for a ride is along the coastal path around the top of A Coruña, passing the Torre de Hercules, the Domus and other major tourist attractions, finishing at either the Marina or Playa del Riazor.
Things to do in and around A Coruña
The most well known symbol of the city is the Torre de Hercules, the oldest known Roman lighthouse still in existence. Built in the 1st century and renovated in the 1790s, the tower is surrounded by scenes of Galicia’s rugged coastline. The Tower itself is a World Heritage Site and is definitely worth visiting.
MEGA Mundo Estrella Galicia is a beer museum located at the factory of popular local beer Estrella Galicia (one of my personal favourites and not to be confused with Barcelona beer Estrella Damm).
I chose to go on an English language guided tour with a beer serving experience at the end – in total, this cost €25 per person. Others on the tour chose to include a cheese or canned food tasting at the end, which cost slightly more. There are also self-guided tours available for €15 per person.
The tour itself was very informative and interesting with opportunities to try the ingredients involved in the beer making process, as well as the beer at its different stages of creation. You can also glimpse at the factory floor itself and some of the speciality beers created over the years (including an octopus beer pictured below). At the end of the tour, you get to try the final product as well as a tasting board of other beers.
Tours and self-guided tickets can be booked at www.mundoestrellagalicia.es (Spanish language only). For English tours, you can email [email protected] or phone +34 981 93 1906. English tours can be limited so there is the alternative of self-guided tours with English audio guides.
You cannot visit A Coruña without spending time at the Playa del Riazor. The crystal clear sea and golden sands are best enjoyed on a sunny day, when the beach fills up quickly with locals and tourists alike. I chose to spend an evening or two sat at the beach before most restaurants opened at around 8pm, and that seemed to be a popular choice with locals too!
Just up the coastline towards the Torre del Hercules is the Aquarium Finisterrae, which has a great variety of local aquatic life as well as going through the history of the local coastline. It also offers scenic views of the rugged coastline and quiet beaches that surround A Coruña from its terrace.
The Plaza de Maria Pita is the central square of A Coruña and where the grand City Hall is found. Surrounding the square is the City Hall on one side and three sides of buildings covered with A Coruña’s signature glass windows, with restaurants and bars on the ground floor. It is a nice place to take a break in a middle of a sightseeing day and a good spot to people watch!
One of the best ways to explore the old streets of the city centre is simply to go and get yourself lost! There are lots of winding streets and alleyways full of bars, cafes, restaurants and shops, with plenty of choice for everyone. Besides the Plaza de Maria Pita, there are smaller squares and markets located around the city centre. When exploring, you should also keep an eye out for the city’s signature white glass windows, as seen in the photo below on the left.
The Museum of Science and Technology is the first national museum to be located in A Coruña and contains a variety of exhibits throughout recent scientific history. The key centrepiece of the museum is the cut out of a Boeing 747 cockpit, which certainly makes for interesting viewing for any aviation enthusiasts. Other exhibits include 20th century inventions and medical technology. As a Spanish national museum, it is free to enter. One point to note with this museum is that translations into English are only available in parts of the museum, with the rest only being in Spanish and Galician, so it may be worth having an offline translator app at your disposal.
The local tourist board has a good website covering the things you can do in and around A Coruña – they also have a monthly guide outlining events within the city and cruise ship arrivals (when the city can be coming busier). Their website is www.visitcoruna.com.
Where to eat
When in Spain, you have to do tapas and La Bombilla is the best in the business. A local institution since 1937 and located in the winding alleyways of the city centre, La Bombilla offers a great authentic Spanish tapas experience. Getting served at the bar is a very competitive experience in of itself, followed by the equal challenge of finding a place to sit or stand! Food wise, I can highly recommend the Spanish omelette (referred to locally as tortilla), the Choricito and the Croquetón, washed down with a glass of A Coruña’s own Estrella Galicia. Dishes are very good value for money and can either be a quick snack or a full meal.
For those with a sweet tooth, Bonilla a la Vista is another local institution, well known for its churros, thick hot chocolate and local brand of crisps/potato chips. There are several cafes located around the city and the one we visited appeared very popular with local families.
A good breakfast spot is Horno Sanbernedan, which has several branches around the city offering coffees, soft drinks and a wide range of sandwiches and pastries.
A dinner spot popular with locals is Milongas, an Argentinian Parrillada (barbecue meat) restaurant. A deal I can particularly recommend is the Milonga Campera, priced at €16,90 per person as of September 2024. This includes an platter of cooked meats such as beef and creole sausages, as well as chips/fries, which is topped up as often as you would like. The food is of good quality and the staff are very friendly.
For the more fussy eater, La Saporita and La Pepita are good options for Italian food or a burger restaurant respectively. La Saporita is located in the heart of the alleyways of the city centre, staff are extremely friendly and the food is very good value – I highly recommend!
A good place to go and enjoy a caña of Estrella Galicia beer is the bars on the Marina, and you certainly aren’t spoilt for choice! The locals take the view that it is better to keep ordering smaller glasses of beer rather than one large one, as it means your beer is always cold (as you can see from the beer, we learnt this later on).
Another nice bar is Sámana, located near to the Plaza de Lugo. This restaurant and bar offers a very modern and luxurious interior with friendly customer service. I would recommend it as a good place to pass the time when outside of the main city centre.
For something cheaper to eat, Gadis (a local supermarket chain) can be your best friend. The store near to the San Agustín Market is particularly good, with sandwiches made on the day and other snack food and drink available at a cheap price.
Where to stay
I stayed at the Hotel Plaza on Rúa Santiago Rey Fernández Latorre, near to the Fuente de Cuatro Caminos. The hotel offers a wide range of rooms to cater for all needs, a fantastic hot and cold breakfast selection, and also a Sky Bar (which happened to be right next to our room!). Nightly rates are generally affordable, particularly with a 10% discount offered for direct bookings through their website.
The other hotel I considered was Hotel Avenida, located just down the road.
The budget and any other advice!
Vueling is the only airline that offers direct flights from London to A Coruña. Ryanair and Vueling also fly to Santiago de Compostela. Flights can be found for as little as €50 for a return trip but you may need to be flexible on dates.
Public transport in A Coruña is very affordable, provided you have the right change with you, and is certainly preferable to taxis, which can be hard to locate and more expensive.
One piece of advice for A Coruña is either travel with someone who speaks Spanish or have an offline translator app ready on your phone. English is not as widely spoken as in other parts of Spain and you may find yourself unstuck. I speak Spanish so it was not an issue but this may be useful for those who don’t speak it.
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