Village
O Grove is a peninsula of around 10,900 inhabitants at the western end of the Salnés district, at the entrance to the ria of Arousa; its residents are popularly known as mecos. The peninsula, covering 21.89 square kilometres, joins the mainland by the do Vao isthmus, which forms the A Lanzada beach on its western side and a broad marsh on the eastern side, and it is of recent geological formation: the first map to show it as a peninsula dates from 1784, while an earlier one, from 1632, still drew it as an island. Facing it, linked by a bridge from the early 20th century, the illa da Toxa is home to a spa and a casino. O Grove holds the Festa do Marisco every October, declared of national tourist interest.
Monument
A chapel on the island of A Toxa built in 1909 by Daniel Vázquez-Gulías and clad entirely, around the middle of the 20th century, in scallop shells to protect it from the damp; it is known as the capela das cunchas.
Monument
A luxury spa hotel located on the island of A Toxa, in the municipality of O Grove, built on mineral-medicinal springs which, according to the legend recorded by Emilia Pardo Bazán in 1911, cured the ulcers of a donkey abandoned on the island. The tourist exploitation of the waters began around 1840 and the hotel was inaugurated in 1907, inspired by European spas such as that of Marienbad, with two pavilions -one of rooms and the other housing the casino- joined by a gallery and decorated with frescoes, the work of the architect Daniel Vázquez-Gulías. It achieved great fame among the upper classes of Galicia and the court of Madrid. In 1945 its towers were demolished and it was almost entirely refurbished, although it retains the original staircase and windows reminiscent of the golden age of spa culture.
Curiosity
Island linked to O Grove by a bridge whose salt-rich waters gave rise to the legend of the sick donkey that its owner abandoned there and who returned cured; in the 19th century its springs and its soap began to be exploited. Today it is a small, highly seasonal population centre: in 2025 it had 73 inhabitants, a figure that has grown strongly compared with the 39 of 2016 and the 49 of 2010.
Nature
Monte da Siradella, at 166 metres above sea level, is the highest point of the O Grove peninsula and its view takes in the A Lanzada beach and a good part of the municipality, together with the area's Complexo Intermareal. At its summit stands a nature interpretation centre that shows the ecological richness of this complex through information panels, photographs, bone remains of cetaceans and birds, shells and the model of a batea (mussel raft). From the Siradella viewpoint a platform on the rock is reached, among numerous weathered crags, the best known of which is called Pedra Cabaleira. Nearby lie the still-unexcavated remains of an old fortified castro.
Nature
The Complexo Intermareal Umia-O Grove, A Lanzada, punta Carreirón e lagoa Bodeira is a wetland of about 2,800 hectares that extends along the Arousa estuary, between the municipalities of O Grove, Cambados, Sanxenxo, Meaño, Ribadumia and A Illa de Arousa. It brings together the mouth of the Umia river, the A Lanzada dune isthmus, the cliffs of the O Grove coast, several islets south of the Illa de Arousa and the lagoa Bodeira, the only freshwater coastal lagoon in the province of Pontevedra. It has been designated a ZEPA (Spain's Special Protection Area for Birds) since 1990, is included in the Rede Natura 2000 network and is recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention; in winter it holds between 13,000 and 16,000 water birds, the main site for this fauna in Galicia.
Activity
A food festival held since 1963 in the municipality of O Grove, around the second Sunday of October, coinciding with the Pilar long weekend, when shellfish are at their best in flavour and still reasonably priced; the marquees on the harbour sell mussels, scallops, razor clams and spider crabs from the estuary. The festival, which has earned O Grove the nickname "paradise of shellfish", combines the sale of shellfish and fish at popular prices with traditional music and dancing, contests and sporting competitions; it was declared a Festa de Interese Turístico Nacional (Spain's national designation for festivals of special tourist interest) in 2013 and aspires to obtain international tourist-interest status.
Monument
A small church on the island of A Toxa entirely faced on the outside with scallop shells, a covering unique in Galicia that was placed to protect the fabric from the sea damp.
Nature
A coastal freshwater lagoon set on the isthmus that joins O Grove to the mainland, beside the sandy beach of A Lanzada; it is a refuge for water birds and one of the few freshwater wetlands on the coast of Arousa.
Curiosity
The Adro Vello necropolis is an archaeological site on the north coast of the O Grove peninsula, next to Carreiro beach, where the remains of a Roman villa, with signs of fish-salting activity, a church of Visigothic origin, and a burial necropolis are superimposed, spanning the 6th to 18th centuries. The complex is bordered on the seaward side by overlapping walls that attempted to protect it from the pounding of the sea; its name refers to that church, moved in the 18th century to the site where the church of San Vicente do Grove now stands. The necropolis was left abandoned and covered by sand until its discovery in the second half of the 20th century, when marine erosion gradually brought its graves to light.
Historical milestone
The epidemic entered Galicia through the port of O Grove and then spread across the country; to the memory of that mortality is attributed the building of the chapel of San Roque, in the seventeenth century.
Food and drink
Days held at the end of November and beginning of December centred on the spider crab, which reaches the fish markets of O Grove at its best moment of the season, coinciding with the first frosts.