Santiago Airport to Vigo, the rías and northern Portugal

Where you actually want to go

Almost nobody flies into Santiago to stay in Santiago. The cathedral is the end of the Camino and the old town is worth two days, but the airport serves the whole of Galicia — and, increasingly, the north of Portugal.

The airport sits thirteen kilometres east of the city, at Lavacolla. It is a single terminal, easy to leave, and the road out is good in every direction. What changes is how far you are going.

Santiago to the city centre

Thirteen kilometres, twenty minutes. The bus runs every half hour and costs three euros. It is the right choice if you have one bag and your hotel is near Praza de Galicia.

The catch is the old town itself. It is pedestrian — a driver cannot take you to your door. The closest a car gets is Praza de Galicia or one of the gates, and from there you walk. With a suitcase on granite cobbles at eleven at night, that walk feels longer than it is.

Santiago to Vigo

Ninety kilometres down the AP-9, an hour and a quarter without traffic. Vigo has its own airport, but it takes far fewer flights — plenty of people land in Santiago because that was the flight that existed.

The bus takes two hours with a change. The train is faster but the airport has no station, so you need a taxi to Santiago station first, and then you are paying twice and carrying bags through two buildings.

A direct transfer is the honest answer for this one. It is not the cheapest way, but it is the only one that puts you at your hotel door with the bags still in the boot.

Santiago to Portugal

This is the part people get wrong. Porto is two hundred and thirty kilometres from Santiago — three hours by road, and the border is a sign on the motorway. Nobody stops you. There is no formality.

For anyone flying into Santiago and staying in the Minho — Viana do Castelo, Braga, Guimarães — the drive is under two hours. It is often cheaper to fly to Santiago and drive south than to find a flight into Porto in August.

We do this route. It is a cross-border transfer, priced as one journey, with one driver the whole way. No change of car at the border, no second booking.

The rías

Galicia's coastline is cut into deep inlets — the rías — and each of them is under an hour from the airport in some direction. Pontevedra, Sanxenxo, Combarro, O Grove.

The roads are good and the distances are short, but the last few kilometres are often narrow and badly signposted. A driver who knows the area gets you there; a hire car and a phone with no signal does not.

What it costs

Before you book anything

• Is the price fixed or metered? A meter charges you for traffic on the AP-9. A fixed price does not.
• Does it include tolls? The AP-9 to Vigo is a toll road, and so is the A3 into Portugal.
• What happens if the flight is late? Sixty minutes of free waiting from the actual landing time is the reasonable standard.
• Will the luggage fit? Four people with four large cases do not fit a sedan, whatever the booking form says.
• Where is the pick-up? At Santiago it is arrivals, by the exit. A driver with your name on a sign, not a phone call from the car park.

The routes we run from Santiago

Cross-border journeys into Portugal are quoted on the calculator like any other route — put the airport in and your hotel in, and the price comes back with the tolls in it.