Back to square one - Costa De La Luz
 

The trip we planned for late April had to be postponed to the second half of June due to my husband's foot surgery. The good aspect of it is that we will be able to spend 4 nights near a beach after five nights in Sevilla. We are looking for a town/village with Spanish charm, good restaurants and nice, upscale accommodations. We are open to both hotels and vacation rentals. Any recommendation either about locations or particular hotels or rentals would be much appreciated.

I hope people respond as I am also interested in this area which supposedly has fabulous beaches although even late April is going to be tricky for beaches. Cadiz should give you access to a number of places that I have read about and fancy going.

When in June? You will have more options in Cádiz, which is also one of the most popular locations along the Costa de la Luz, but not knowing your budget, all I can offer is you should check availability at booking.com.

The only issue with the area can be the prevailing winds, especially the strong easterly wind known as 'Viento de Levante', but they also make for great windsurfing. The winds are usually strongest around Tarifa. If you want to stay in this area, then you might enjoy the Hotel Hurricane. Great location.

Steve

I've been many times, last there in August 2015. It is everything that the Costa Del Sol was 50 years ago.

Although huge wind farms have enormously transformed the landscape, it still does have a feel of being in the c17th with large estated Cortillos dominating the landscape.

We love Conil de la Frontera in season. There's many small restaurants, the beach is perfect and the visitors are mainly Spanish. Our friend from England runs a surf school there in season, the beach topography makes it perfect for learning, with agentle breaking swell.

Down the coast, Bolonia beach has huge sand dunes backing onto it.

Zahara de Los Atunes has become the Padstow of Spain, there are many, many up market small restaurants there.

The coast offers many easy day trips including Seville, Jerez, Cadiz, Tangiers and whale watching from Tarifa. The inland villages of Vejer, Arcos and Medinia Sedonia are well worth a visit.

Look at Vintage Spain if you want to rent a place, we have stayed in a number. Two of the properties are immense, one comes with its own church! We had incredible fun there.

We first visited here over 20 years ago on honeymoon and it's still very close to our hearts.

Flights from Manchester to Gibraltar with Monarch can be cheap.

Thanks as always BritishCaicos, I am sure the original poster will also value your comments. I have read about the area and it sounds fabulous - and had heard many times that Zahara de Los Atunes has a lovely beach (not sure about April). I actually had my sights set on Puerto Santa Maria (have you been?) because I had read that from there you can get a river boat up to the national park. The river there I believe is lined with many lovely restaurants. Ahhh one day - this year is already packed with holidays so it wont be this year.

What are you up to this year?

We've only booked May on Mull so far.

Sounds boring but it's my favourite place on earth!

Thanks so much!!
Robert, We are going around the 22nd or 23rd of June.
BritishCaicos, Can i ask what/where Padstow is? I tried to google Vintage Spain. It is a tour company, could not find rentals on their website. I found a company called Vintage Travel that offers rentals is Spain. Am I on the right track?
How worried should we be about the wind? We do not surf.

Hi Andabanda

Padstow is a fishing village in Britain which became very fashionable and a foodie destination.

Yes, it's Vintage Travel.

All the rental are high quality. We stayed here

https://www.vintagetravel.co.uk/vill...s.cfm?p_id=160

Like being a film star for a week.

The wind: as Robert posts, the wind gets stronger the closer to the Straights of Gibraltar you travel. They usually subside as you travel round the Rock and reach the Costo Del Sol. They are nothing more complicated than the huge mass of colder waters of the Atlantic meeting the warmer currents from the Mediterranean.

The air converges as it get closer to the straights. I have to say over five trips : I've never been to Tarifa on a calm day. On two occasions the wind limited travel although the weather was good.

You just have to learn to walk leaning into the wind, our turn and get blown down the road. Talk about bad hair days!

I know Robert.

It has been that bad on some days.

We visited Bolonia beach, in the morning it was calm. By lunch time, under clear skies such a wind had got up that a sand storm started. We had to hide underneath an upturned dinghy on the beach. We couldn't come out for an hour.

I've never experienced anything like it. Was quite dangerous.

"Talk about bad hair days!"

I believe Donald Trump visits the Costa de la Luz for his hair cuts.

Steve

There was a good review of the upper Costa de la Luz in The Times yesterday. It covers the area above the Donona National Park in Huelva. There's an incredible Gypsy (Romany?) festival in El Rocio which is in this area, it happens in late Spring and is probably one a the few large scale undiscovered cultural festivals which remain in Europe. I seem to remember reading that some years a million people travel to the village.

Apologies in advance for the distraction from original post: why do you think Mull is the greatest place on earth? Like many places, we have considered going there but have relatives living on Arran and they pull us there. Must combine the two and sod the sun.

I'm regularly in Plymouth with university work but still not got to Padstow. I love Plymouth which rarely gets a mention on this Board .... rather like Mull.

Another vote for Conil. Would also be my first choice if I wanted to be right near the sea.
Vejer could be a good choice if you wanted to stay more inland, but not far from the beaches (just 10-15 min by car).

On the coastal road, West of Barbate, you have the Natural Park of La Breña y Marismas de Barbate.
Nice for a stroll through the coastal pine forests to an unspoiled seashore.

The Roman ruins of Bolonia sure are worth a visit when in the area, IMO.

For some reason it is very hard for me to "feel" these villages. I like the atmosphere of Vejer based on pictures and articles I found. We would prefer to be on the beach plus could not find anything great with a pool in the town itself. I am looking into Conil and Zahara Los Atunes. It is much harder to find photos/discriptions of these. I assume they are much smaller. How is the Roche area near Conil or Atlanterra near Zahara? Are they too far from the center? Would it be preferable to stay closer to the centers? I saw nice villas in these areas albeit most of them are overkill for the two of us.

My vote is for Zahara de los Atunes. A wonderful village full of old feel Spain. Loads of restaurants, tapas bars, shops, coffee cafes, a great supermarket and what I believe to be the best beach on the Costa de la Luz (We have stayed 4 times in Zahara and have day tripped to several other beaches (Bolonia, Tarifa, Conil, Barbate, El Palmar, Trafalgar area beaches).

The Atlanterra location of Zahara is about a mile from the town center and has numerous apartment type buildings which although directly on the beach,are away from the great restaurants and the old town feel. (it is an easy 40 minute walk along the beach)
We prefer to stay directly in the town right on the beach.
Never had an issue with the winds....yes, it can get windy, but nothing serious enough to question the location.

We are returning for 2 weeks in late September!

I'm regularly in Plymouth with university work but still not got to Padstow. I love Plymouth which rarely gets a mention on this Board .... rather like Mull.>>

lol, steve, perhaps our paths have crossed. In my household it's known as "bloody Plymouth" because I have to go there so often.

Padstow [aka Padstein, referring to the eponymous restauranteur] doesn't have as many restaurants as Falmouth I think, though it's a while since I was there. it does have a lovely harbour situation but the numbers of emmets [sorry, i meant to say lovely tourists] does rather detract from its charms.

sorry for the diversion, andabanda.

Again sorry for the diversion but

Mull just wonderful. It's like a badly behaved puppy, the odds are it will let you down;
it will rain, sleet, snow in June and you forgive it. But...

When the weather is good ( and we had 27oC ) two years ago. The sea is clearer than anywhere We have experienced, the beaches are as white as The Bahamas and the wildlife is "our" wildlife which just makes it so much more special than a Rhino wandering around a reserve in Botswana.

Andabanda

If you want a really unassuming, small family run hotel in Zahara then Hotel Antonio is on the beach and around a 15 minute walk into the village and its restaurants. The hotel itself had a good fish restaurant.

I hope that I haven't overplayed the wind issue. The upper CdLL isn't that windy, it's mainly the area around Tarifa.

I find the El Roche to be a bit scruffy, with ageing Spanish owned villas.

I'd agree Cowboy, La Brena pine forest is beautiful in the late afternoon sun. The pine canopy catches the light and looks like layers of cloud.

Of all the towns mentioned, I don't think you will go wrong. We just particularly like Conil because in season the town square is crazy busy with mainly Spanish visitors, it's a very vibrant place.

what BritishCaicos said.... Conil de Frontera, Bolonia and Zahara de... are all nice places to be in.

just avoid Chiclana de la Frontera ha ha.

I see the only "problem" : June is a beginning of high season, so these places can't lose their "charm"...well, at least for me they would.

oh, and Tarifa is also nice to be in.

Hi again, I ended up booking Vejer and plan to visit different beaches, towns every day. Thanks for all the help.
Any suggestions for not to miss places, restaurants for lunch or dinner would be really appreciated.

I cant offer much apart from encouragement as I haven't been there, yet. Be great to eventually hear back on how it all went, if you can find time.

Vejer de La Frontera is a beautiful Spanish "white village", with plenty of restaurants and tapas bars. You had mentioned that you wanted to stay on the beach, I assume you will be renting a car for your beach visits. There are numerous beautiful beaches all within very short drives including El Palmar, Zahara de los Atunes and beaches on both sides of the Trafalgar Lighthouse. The very beautiful beach and sand dunes of Bolonia are only about 45 minutes away. We really enjoyed Bar La Riva in Vejer, a great tapas menu.