diff --git a/packages/transport-circuit-relay-v2/src/transport/index.ts b/packages/transport-circuit-relay-v2/src/transport/index.ts
index 3008ec71ec..e9ed99a726 100644
--- a/packages/transport-circuit-relay-v2/src/transport/index.ts
+++ b/packages/transport-circuit-relay-v2/src/transport/index.ts
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ export class CircuitRelayTransport implements Transport<CircuitRelayDialEvents>
     const destinationId = destinationAddr.getComponents().find(c => c.code === CODE_P2P)?.value
 
     if (relayId == null || destinationId == null) {
-      const errMsg = `ircuit relay dial to ${ma.toString()} failed as address did not have both relay and destination PeerIDs`
+      const errMsg = `circuit relay dial to ${ma.toString()} failed as address did not have both relay and destination PeerIDs`
       this.log.error(`c${errMsg}`)
       throw new DialError(`C${errMsg}`)
     }
@@ -165,7 +165,16 @@ export class CircuitRelayTransport implements Transport<CircuitRelayDialEvents>
       })
 
       options.onProgress?.(new CustomProgressEvent('circuit-relay:open-connection'))
-      relayConnection = await this.components.connectionManager.openConnection(relayPeer, options)
+
+      try {
+        // Dial the concrete relay address first. Peer-id dialing can fail with
+        // NoValidAddressesError in nested relay/WebRTC flows if candidate
+        // address discovery/filtering returns no dialable addresses.
+        relayConnection = await this.components.connectionManager.openConnection(relayAddr, options)
+      } catch (err: any) {
+        this.log.error('opening direct relay connection to %a failed, falling back to peer dial for %p - %e', relayAddr, relayPeer, err)
+        relayConnection = await this.components.connectionManager.openConnection(relayPeer, options)
+      }
     } else {
       options.onProgress?.(new CustomProgressEvent('circuit-relay:reuse-connection'))
     }