Lago de Sanabria

Lago de Sanabria fills a basin scooped by a glacier during the last ice age and held behind its terminal moraine, about three kilometres long and over fifty metres deep, the largest lake of glacial origin in the Iberian peninsula. It sits in a natural park of granite hills, oak and pine, with the Sierra Segundera above and several smaller glacial lagoons at altitude. The water is cold but swimmable in summer, and the beaches at Viquiella and El Folgoso fill with Spanish holidaymakers in August. A glass-bottomed catamaran runs trips. The area holds one of the more stable Iberian wolf populations in Spain, though sightings are essentially never. Puebla de Sanabria, a walled village with a castle, is the base.

What you actually see

• The glacial lake - three kilometres of water held behind a moraine.
• The upper lagoons - smaller glacial pools in the Sierra Segundera above.
• The summer beaches - swimming areas at Viquiella and El Folgoso.
• Puebla de Sanabria - a walled village with a castle nearby.

When to go

May to September for swimming and walking; August brings Spanish holiday crowds to the beaches. Autumn colour in the oak woods is good in October, and winter brings snow to the sierra above.

Honest expectations

August is genuinely crowded and parking near the beaches fills early with charges applied. The water stays cold even in summer. Wolves are present but not seen; operators offering wolf-watching work at long range with low success rates.

Nearby

Puebla de Sanabria is the nearest town; the Portuguese border and Montesinho park lie west.