The village of Ons — simply called A Aldea, the village — sits on the sheltered eastern slope of the island above the ferry pier, a compact cluster of stone houses with a small church, a bar-restaurant, and the national park visitor centre. It is the only settlement on the island, and it has the slightly suspended quality of a place that survived depopulation without quite recovering from it.
The houses that remain are well-kept; the church of San Xoaquín, in the upper part of the village, is a modest eighteenth-century building worth a look. The bar is the practical centre of island life and the only place on Ons to buy food or drink — it gets busy at lunchtime when day-trippers return from the beaches. The visitor centre offers a short introduction to the national park and the island's ecology.