Sanxenxo, Spain

Sanxenxo is a Galician village on the Atlantic coast in the north-west of Spain. It's a short drive north of Pontevedra, and perhaps an hour south of Santiago de Compostela or Finisterre. It has a beautiful crescent beach and a walled marina, some great places to drink wine or eat along the waterfront... and a huge, distinctive bronze statue on a prominent rock in the tidal zone at one end of the beach, called 'La Dama de Silgar'.

In winter, Sanxenxo is so quiet. It's saving itself for summer, when it will be over-run with holiday-makers from Madrid who inundate the town, filling the beach and restaurants and stretching the locals to their limits. Whichever time of year you may be there, the place feels like holidays to me.