Human groups use similar routes of communication to travel between two points in the long-term, not because of the influence of geography, but because geography involves a knowledge-scape that is passed on through generations of travellers. Thus, geography is not an entity that eliminates human agency, but rather it is the place where the practical and technical knowledge necessary to travel between two points is passed down between generations of voyagers which, subsequently, causes them to use similar itineraries. To explore these ideas, pre-modern travelling around the Bay of Biscay, between northern Iberia and western France, is employed as a case study. The interval analysed is placed between the Bronze Age, when the coasts of the bay started to resemble those of today, to Late Antiquity, when pre-modern orientation methods started to be replaced by modern ones (2300 BC–AD 1000). This study focuses on sea routes, which are analysed using archaeological evidence and written sources, although the same ideas could be applied to land routes.