Located in the municipality of Ribadeo, in the North coast of Galicia, the Beach of the Cathedrals - Playa de las Catedrales in Spanish, and Praia das Catedrais in Galician - owes this name to all its arches that the sea slowly formed through time in its cliffs.

In fact, its real name is Beach of the Holy Waters (Playa de Aguas Santas), but due to its characteristic appearance, people started calling it Playa de las Catedrales, and nowadays everyone knows is by that name.

The cliffs of Playa de las Catedrales are made of slate and quartzite, and those rocks are partially responsible of its arches: slate is a foliated metamorphic rock, and the way it gets eroded favors their appearance.

It is recommended to visit this beach with both high and low tide, but if you have to choose we would go with low tide: only that way you will be able to walk around the beach, seeing its arches from below and entering in its caves.

Despite the fact that most visitors visit the Playa de las Catedrales in Summer, we recommend to visit it during Spring, Fall and even Winter (unless the weather is too rough). That way, you will enjoy a calmer visit, without too many people around, what will make the experience more special and rewarding.

That being said, if you visit the beach in a cold day, we recommend that you bring a nice raincoat and specially a good pair of rain boots, because despite low tide there are puddles all across the beach and sometimes it might be necessary to cross those puddles in order to visit all its caves and arches.

Lately the Playa de las Catedrales has become quite renowned, so much so that the regional government (Xunta de Galicia) had to create a system to restrict the amount of visitors per day during high season. Therefore, if you would like to visit the Playa de las Catedrales, you will need to verify in this website if the visits are restricted on that date, and if they are you will need to request an authorization online.

If you would like us to organize a visit to the Playa de las Catedrales, you can email us, give us a call or contact us through our online contact form. All those contact details are available here.