Where to stay in Ourense

Ourense; Spanish: Orense is a city and the capital of the province of Ourense, located in the autonomous community of Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is on the Camino Sanabrés path of the Way of St James (Camino de Santiago), and is crossed by the Miño, Barbaña, Loña and Barbañica rivers.

This is an obvious place to cross the River Miño, so the Romans created the town of Auria and built a bridge. They also appreciated the natural hot springs bubbling out on the north riverbank. After their Empire collapsed and they left, the Suevi Celtic people made it the capital of their territory. But when the Moors occupied Spain in the 710s, the northern fringes of their conquest became a depopulated badlands, and Ourense was a ghost town. The Moors were rolled back from the 10th century and there began a frenzy of repopulation and church-building, mostly south of the river in Ourense.

Getting in

Santiago de Compostela (SCQ) 115 km northwest is usually the most convenient airport, as the tourism and pilgrimage trade brings flights from across Europe. A Coruña (LCG) 170 km north and Vigo (VGO) 90 km west have domestic flights but seldom from beyond Spain. Trains from Madrid Chamartin run every hour or two and take 2 hr 30 min via Segovia Guiomar and Zamora. Some continue to Santiago, A Coruña and Ferrol, or to Vilagarcia, Pontevedra and Vigo Urzaiz. One train a day comes all the way from Alicante. From Barcelona change in Madrid. The service from A Coruna and Santiago is hourly.

Getting around

Most sights are in walking distance. Avanza operate some 30 local bus routes: Buses 1, 3 and 33 ply between Praza Mayor and the railway & bus stations every few minutes. A "tourist train" potters four times a day between Praza Mayor and Outariz geo-thermal springs.

Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.