At the beginning of September, DiscoveRent and a team of 7 of us went on a surf & yoga retreat in Galicia. And we decided to take on a little challenge: driving to Galicia from Brussels!
And honestly, I'm not going to lie to you, we were all a bit apprehensive about our decision when faced with the GPS indicating an 18h journey 😀
Will we make it? Isn't 18 hours a bit too long? Won't we be too tired when we get there? Wouldn't it just be easier to go by plane?
Well, in the end, once we'd done it, we were all very happy to have opted for this choice!
Here are 5 good reasons to opt for the car or train for your next trip:
1. A long journey brings you closer together
Didn't the numerous confinements we went through bring you a bit closer to the people you were living with at the time? Well, you have to realise that here we were confined together for 18 hours in this little space called a car! And frankly, it brought us a lot closer together. At the end of the journey, we really started to get to know each other: family, friends, hobbies, phobias, everything!
2. You're in for a real treat!
Between the mountains of the Pyrenees, the Spanish coast that we skirted for more than 5 hours, and the arrival in this haven of peace that is Galicia, we were in for a real treat! The journey we'd been dreading turned out to be a journey in itself. It took us through some superb regions that we'd probably never have seen before!
3. Galicia by car, synonymous with flexibility and freedom
The weather forecast when we arrived at around 3pm in Galicia was frankly... rotten. Wind, rain, storm, let's just say we didn't really have the carrot at the end of the stick 😀
But as it was sunny all along the Spanish coast, we decided to stop and take a longer break. We took the opportunity to have our lunch in a great little Spanish village on the beach, in the sun. What more could you ask for?
4. Galicia, a haven of peace to discover!
Galicia is in the north of Spain, 150km from the Portuguese border and just 65km from the famous Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route. But aside from these purely geographical figures, Galicia is also a land of natural beauty, with sandy beaches set among wild cliffs, and a green landscape maintained by recurrent rainfall rather than scorched by the sun. And the best thing about September is that you have the beach and the waves all to yourself! Not a tourist in sight!
5. Galicia by car: a lower carbon footprint than flying
Although the car may not be the mode of transport that emits the least CO2, it still represents a clear improvement in terms of carbon footprint for a journey like the one we made. According to of the computer developed by greentripperIf we drive from Brussels to Galicia, we emit 142kg of CO2 per person, compared with 456kg of CO2 per person for a return flight to Compostela and a train from Compostela to Ferrol.
