The sea, a great attraction in the regions of Ferrol and Ortegal

Narón, which borders the departmental city, has grown significantly in recent decades and already has almost 40,000 inhabitants. Consequently, it also has a good infrastructure for events, such as the Pazo da Cultura or the Interpretation Center of the Industrial Mills of Xuvia (CIMIX) and the Pazo Libunca. The Pazo da Merced, in Neda, is also an option to host meetings. The hotel infrastructure to accommodate the congress participants is also excellent in the area. In addition to the aforementioned Almirante and Gran Hotel hotels and the rural pazos, in the heart of Ferrol, there is the unique Parador, with views of the military port and the Arsenal; the Odeón, in the commercial area of Narón; and the Valcarce.

Ferrol is a city of contrasts, given that its main economic engines have been, in recent centuries, shipbuilding, on the one hand, and the base of the Navy. The port of Ferrol Vello and the Arsenal (a prodigy of eighteenth-century technique, an essential visit with reservation) are the starting point of a city designed in the eighteenth century to serve military ships. The neighbourhood of A Magdalena is known by the locals as “the chocolate bar”, due to its perfectly rectilinear streets, adorned by romantic squares such as Armas (headquarters of the City Council) and Amboage and examples of modernist and bourgeois architecture uncommon in the rest of Galicia. Recommended visits are the Jofre Theatre or the food market.

The other Ferrol, the industrial one, is well worth an excursion with which you can complement a congress or a meeting. The Exponav Foundation offers visits for groups to learn about the city’s industrial heritage. The entity’s own museum is of great interest, as it shows how the complex ships of the line that dominated the seas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were manufactured. And then there is the popular and working-class Ferrol, the one in the neighbourhoods outside the historic centre. The one in Canido has a very curious attraction: for years, the neighbors have cleaned up its streets, at some point deteriorated, painting dozens of versions of Las Meninas by Velázquez. The company Ferrolguías offers guided tours of this and other locations in the city. Experiences based on other sports are also possible in the area, from a route through the mountains and viewpoints with the Ferrol Mountain Club or a bicycle route from the Valle de Esolle Mountain Bike Centre.

Beyond the almost continuous urban nucleus formed by Ferrol, Ares, Fene, Mugardos, Narón and Neda are the coastal municipalities of the north. Nature and beaches are the focus of the attraction of these lands. With its large whitewater beaches, Valdoviño is the oldest surfing land in Galicia: numerous companies, such as RSM, Asolas, Doniños, Friends&Family or Nordés offer experiences to get started in this trendy sport. Cedeira is another very interesting visit, with its small old town and lively boardwalk, and the sanctuary of Santo André de Teixido, where, according to tradition, those who have not been there in life will travel once they are dead, reincarnated as an animal. Between Cedeira and Cariño is the viewpoint of the Garita de Herbeira, with an overwhelming cliff that descends more than 700 meters above the Atlantic.

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