O Grove is a small fishing town on a peninsula jutting into the Ría de Arousa in Galicia's Rías Baixas. It is Galicia's seafood capital — the town lives and breathes shellfish, and the Festa do Marisco (Seafood Festival) in October draws huge crowds for ten days of open-air eating along the waterfront.
The harbour is still a working port, lined with brightly painted fishing boats and restaurants serving whatever came in that morning. Percebes (goose barnacles), pulpo (octopus), mejillones (mussels), and navajas (razor clams) are the specialities. The bateas — floating mussel-farming platforms — dot the ría and are a defining feature of the landscape.
The peninsula has good beaches on both sides. A Lanzada, on the exposed Atlantic side, is a long sweep of white sand with big waves, while the sheltered beaches facing the ría are calmer and warmer. Boat trips run to the Illa da Toxa, connected by a bridge and known for its tiny chapel covered entirely in scallop shells, and further out into the ría to see dolphins.