Andalucía
Andalucía covers more coast, climate and character than anywhere else in Spain. In Almería, the Cabo de Gata-Níjar natural park is a volcanic near-desert where several of the finest coves are reached only on foot and where summer access is genuinely restricted — barriers, capped parking and shuttle buses rather than a car park. On the Atlantic side, the Costa de la Luz gives you enormous dune beaches, Roman ruins at the water’s edge and a steady swell that made El Palmar a surf destination. In between, a protected stretch of the Costa del Sol has stayed wild against the odds. These guides set out how to reach each one and when it is worth the trip.
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Playa Los Alemanes, Tarifa/Zahara: The Complete Guide to This Wild Atlantic Beach
Nobody can say with any confidence why this Atlantic beach is called Playa de los Alemanes, and there are at least four competing explanations, only one of them evidenced. What is certain is the wind, the emptiness and the awkward access. How to get there and when it works.
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Playa de los Genoveses, Níjar: The Complete Guide to the Largest Beach Behind the Barrier
A Genoese fleet anchored in this bay in 1147 and the beach has kept the name ever since. The largest of the five beaches behind the summer vehicle barrier at Cabo de Gata: the access regime, the shuttle that runs a shorter season than the barrier does, and what the walk in from San José…
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Playa de Mónsul, Níjar: The Rock, the Dune and the Film Crews
Cabo de Gata is what is left of a volcano, and Mónsul is where that shows most clearly: the wave-cut rock, the climbing dune behind it, and the film crews it has attracted for decades. Access, timing and the summer barrier.
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Playa de Maro, Nerja: The Complete Guide to This Protected Costa del Sol Beach
A waterfall drops fifteen metres straight into the Mediterranean at Maro, inside a protected marine strip on a coast where almost nothing is left unbuilt. What the protection means for visitors, how to get down, and when to come.
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Playa de los Muertos, Carboneras: The Complete Guide to This Iconic Almería Beach
The currents off this stretch of Almería coast converge, and what they carry gave the beach its name. Why the swim here deserves respect, what the climb back up costs you, and why a twenty-storey hotel a few kilometres up the coast has stood empty for two decades.
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Playa de Bolonia, Tarifa: A Moving Dune and a Roman Town Beneath It
Most Spanish beaches are just beaches. Bolonia has an excavated Roman town sitting on it and a 30-metre dune that is still moving. What to see, where to park, and why the wind here is part of the plan rather than a nuisance.