Fisterra
Fisterra is a municipality on Galicia's westernmost cape, with around four and a half thousand residents. Its name comes from the Latin finis terrae, the end of the earth: the Romans took this cape for the edge of the known world. Pilgrims who have walked the Camino come here too — the road does not end in Santiago but runs another ninety kilometres to the lighthouse.
For anyone moving this is the edge in every sense. A Coruña is a hundred and eight kilometres away, Santiago ninety-eight, and there are no large hospitals or airports nearby. The town lives on fishing and pilgrims. Housing is very cheap. The climate is harsher than the Mediterranean: ocean wind, rain all year, a cold sea and a shore called the Coast of Death for a reason — ships were wrecked here for centuries.
- Cee · 12 km — the town next door, with the hospital
- Muxía · 30 km — the sanctuary on the ocean rocks
- Santiago de Compostela · 98 km — the cathedral and the end of the pilgrim road
Fisterra sits in Fisterra, A Coruña, right on the water. From November to March the town empties out: our rating is 1 out of 5. A resort in summer, shuttered bars and thin transport in winter. Winters are damp at 82% humidity, so ask about mould before you sign. The airport is 90 minutes away: meeting visitors and flying out both cost you half a day.
Hospital, terrain, getting around
Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratings for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.
Fisterra sea temperature by month
0 months above 20 °CsourceAverage sea surface temperature, °C, for 2015–2024 — NOAA OISST satellite series, grid cell 10.9 km from the centre.
Tourist load
Fisterra beaches and water quality
sourceFisterra has 4 beaches tested under EU bathing water rules, at 4 sampling points. In the 2025 season, all 4 were graded excellent. The last “poor” grade here was in 2015: Playa Sardiñeiro.
The grade is bacteria in water samples over the last four seasons — not sand, views or crowds. “Poor” means bathing there is advised against.
| Beach | From the centre | Grade 2025 | “Excellent” in a row | Last “poor” |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Playa Riveira | 0.2 km | excellent | 9 seasons | none since 1990 |
| Playa Corveiro | 0.6 km | excellent | 9 seasons | none since 2004 |
| Playa Langosteira | 2.3 km | excellent | 22 seasons | none since 1990 |
| Playa de Sardineiro | 4.7 km | excellent | 6 seasons | none since 2020 |
No longer tested: Playa Sardiñeiro (last season 2015).
Where from: European Environment Agency, bathing water register, seasons 1990–2025, licence CC BY 4.0. Distance is from the centre in a straight line. Every place in one table
On the map
What tenants actually pay
sourcedThis is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 50 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 500 € for a two-bedroom.
The point of the 75th percentile: it is closer to what is being signed now than the median. The gap between them shows how much a new tenant overpays relative to long-standing ones.
Where from: SERPAVI, Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Fisterra
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 380 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 500 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 650 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 300 €/mo | SERPAVI · 78 m² |
Asking prices are what long lets are advertised at today; the registry is what tenants pay on signed leases, including old ones. The gap between them is your negotiating argument.
Schools nearby
estimateInternational schools counted in the base: 0. Names and curricula for this place are not verified yet — the school registry covers the thirty most-requested places so far.
Renting without a Spanish contract
How realistic a long lease is without a nómina — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.
- —5.8% foreign residents — the market is built for locals with a contract
- —Stock goes to tourist lets: long leases are scarce and competed for
This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nómina is an individual landlord's practice and nobody publishes it. The rating is derived from the share of foreign residents, the presence of a community with services, price growth, seasonality of the stock and the size of the town.
Who lives here
INE 2025- Senegal77
- Italy29
- Germany28
- France10
- China9
- United Kingdom7
- Venezuela7
- Brazil6
- No notable foreign-language community with services recorded.
Where from: INE, Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrón registrations by citizenship on 1 January, not everyone living here: seasonal owners and the unregistered are outside it, and naturalised residents count as Spanish.
Winter direct flights from SCQ
January 2026/2790 min to the airport- Switzerland3
- Italy3
- United Kingdom2
- Belgium1
- Germany1
- France1
- Poland1
- Czechia1
Destinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.
Paperwork and practicalities
From OpenStreetMap — an open map filled in by volunteers. Something missing there may still exist: read this as «we found this many», not «there are no more».
Articles that include this place
- Seven mistakes people make moving to coastal SpainEvery mistake counted across 132 coastal places: how many empty out in winter, where it is damp, where a car is unavoidable and where the sea is warm for three months.
- The coast without a carA resort stretched along a highway and an old port with a dense centre are different ways of living. Size is not what separates them.
- What a month on the Spanish coast costs, town by townOne identical scenario costed across all 132 places. The spread between towns is wider than between countries, and nearly as wide within a single coast.
- Which coastal towns are actually alive in winterMost resorts shut down from November to March. Tourists never notice; people moving there notice everything — and no directory measures it.
- Retiring to coastal Spain: who already lives there, how far the hospital is, and whether the town stays open in winterThe share of residents over 65 and over 80 in every place we cover, from the INE census, the drive to the nearest public hospital, and the measured winter score. No ranking: only what the numbers show.
- Where property is cheapest on the Spanish coast, on a single price basisThe housing ministry's appraised value, ranked by coast and by town, with the price of a 70 m² flat and local incomes alongside. Asking prices get a list of their own: the two bases never share a ranking.