As temperatures soar in southern Spain this summer, reaching a swoon-inducing 41C in Seville in mid-July, there’s a much better kind of cool further north. In Vigo, the largest city of Galicia, northwest Spain, daytime highs were an altogether balmier 28C, cooling pleasantly with the evening’s light breeze.
Vigo is on an inlet of the Atlantic, about 90 minutes’ drive north of the Portuguese city of Porto, four hours from Madrid by high-speed train and, since 2018, served by seasonal direct Ryanair flights from London Stansted.
The city is a main fishing port with a substantial cruise ship port and a jump-off point for the 40-minute journey to the pine forests and beautiful beaches of the Cies Islands. Vigo has a charming old town, botanical
