Playa de Rodas(Roda Beach)

If you get hungry, there are many great restaurants near Playa de Rodas.  Bar Restaurante Serafin offers a variety of excellent dishes including salads, seafood, chuleta, and huevos fritos con patatas.  Maruja Limon is an upscale restaurant in the nearby city of Vigo that offers amazing gourmet dishes with local Galician ingredients – this restaurant has been awarded a MICHELIN star and two RepSol suns.  Restaurante taperia Illas Cies offers a variety of excellent Galician dishes including seafood, meatballs, veal chops, and Galician pie.  Playa de Rodas Restaurant is a waterfront restaurant that offers many amazing dishes including salads, seafood, croquettes, burgers, and pasta – it also offers great ice cream.  If you are looking for another good and affordable nearby restaurant, Bocadillos Begona offers amazing sandwiches.  Another great modestly priced restaurant is Porto Santo in the nearby coyote of Vigo that offers many amenities including burgers, salads, sandwiches, and local Spanish dishes. 

If you are looking for a hotel near Playa de Rodas, there are many great nearby options.  Islas Cíes Campsite is a barapark camping site near the beach that offers camping in tents, and it also offers many other amenities, including a supermarket, a snack bar, a restaurant, and a cleaning station – the campsite also offers many fun activities, including kayaking and snorkeling.  The rest of the hotels are located in the nearby city of Vigo.  The 5-Star Pazo Los Escudos Hotel & Spa Resort is an upscale hotel that offers many amenities including a spa, multiple restaurants, a cafeteria, a spa, multiple gardens, and a pool.  The 4-Star NH Collection Vigo is another upscale nearby Roda Beach resort spa that offers many amenities including a restaurant, a bar, and a gym.  Another upscale hotel is the 4-Star Hotel Coia, which is located close to many of Vigo’s major restaurants and attractions, and it also has a restaurant and a cafeteria.  If you are looking for another good and affordable nearby hotel, the 3-Star Sercotel Tres Luces offers many amenities including a cafe, a car rental service, and a lobby lounge.

Playa de Rodas has lifeguards on a seasonal basis – lifeguards are posted here every day between July and August, and this beach usually has lifeguards on weekends in June and September.  In addition to lifeguards, this sandy beach and the area near it have a few other amenities including restrooms, a boardwalk, and picnic tables. 

Playa de Rodas offers many fun activities including sunbathing, beachcombing, hiking, fishing, swimming, paddleboarding, boating, snorkeling, scuba diving, water-skiing, jet-skiing, kayaking, canoeing, surf-skiing, and wildlife watching. 

This beach is ideal for beginner swimmers because the water here is usually calm and clear.  In addition, snorkelers also frequently visit here to explore the vibrant nearby marine biodiversity.   If you are planning to swim, snorkel, or paddleboard here, we recommend being careful because the water here is known to have unpredictable rip currents and dangerous waves.  In addition, the water here can also get extremely cold in winter, making it unsuitable for water sports.  Please also note that fishing is prohibited here.

This beach is ideal for visiting with children because it usually offers a relaxing and family-friendly atmosphere.  If you like hiking, many hiking trails near this beach offer a fun way to explore the landscape and biodiversity of the Cies Islands – there are many cliffs near the beach that are used as nesting sites by local birds.  There is also a lagoon near the beach named Lago dos Nenos that is also a popular bird-watching site, especially in winter. 

Playa de Rodas does not offer wheelchair access to visitors with disabilities. 

Getting to Playa de Rodas can be difficult because the only way to access this beach is by ferry – you can get a private ferry to the Cies Islands and Playa de Rodas mainly from the port city of Vigo.  In addition to Vigo, you can also get a ferry to the beach from Baiona, Cangas, and Sanxenxo.  You can easily walk to Playa de Rodas from the Rodas Ferry Pier near the beach. 

It is important to note that the frequency of ferry trips to Playa de Rodas from mainland Galicia can decline between September and June because relatively fewer people visit this beach.

If you are planning to visit this beach, you need to make an advance online booking for visiting here.  The reservation is usually required during the Easter weekend and between mid-May and mid-September.  You can visit the website of the Xunta de Galicia – which is the local government body – for more information about the reservation process.  If you are planning to visit here between June and September, we recommend visiting early because the beach can get crowded during this time.  We also recommend visiting this beach wearing layered clothing because the weather here can get unpredictable. 

If you like taking pictures with beautiful views, Playa de la Roda offers amazing Instagram-worthy views of the Cies Islands shoreline and the Atlantic Ocean, especially at sunset. 

There are many attractions near Playa de Rodas.  Alto del Principe is a hiking trail that leads up to the top of the Agudo Mountain – this trail offers a strenuous 60-minutes-walk in Illa de Monteagudo and it offers an interesting insight into the vibrant biodiversity and landscape of the Cies Islands.  It also offers amazing views of the northern coastline of the Cies Islands.  Ruta del Faro do Peito is a hiking trail that leads to a route named Faro do Peito – this hiking trail offers amazing Instagram-worthy views of the Cies Islands shoreline and you can also see many birds while hiking here.  Faro de Cies is a lighthouse that was built between 1851 and 1853 –  the path to this historic lighthouse can be moderately rugged but the area around the lighthouse offers excellent views of the Atlantic Ocean.  Museo do Mar de Galicia is a museum in the nearby city of Vigo that offers exhibitions on many maritime industries including fishing and aquaculture – it also offers interesting exhibits on marine biology, oceanography, geology, maritime archaeology, and ecology.  This museum also has an aquarium and it also offers a lighthouse.  If you are looking for another attraction near the beach, Castelo do Castro – also called the Castro fortress – is another popular attraction in Vigo that was built in 1665 to protect the local area from British attacks – this castle offers a unique insight into Spanish history and it also has beautiful gardens and a fountain.