anna_h

Could anyone please advise. I have 2 nights to spend in either Jerez or Puerto Santa Maria, which is preferable?.
We like to spend time ambling through streets in towns and like a good choice of bodegas and restaurants for the evening, but are not particularly interested in late night nightlife.
Puerto Santa Maria sounds nice and the hotel Monasterio recommended on other posts looks great, but I am wondering if it might be too small to spend 2 days discovering. Conversely I can't seem to find any nice, central hotels in Jerez with a swimming pool.
Any help would be most appreciated - thanks.

ter2000

Maybe it was the dull day that we visited El Puerto de Santa Maria last month, but I thought that it was just grim. I just didn't like the feel of the place at all - it's not very picturesque and - being a port - there seemed to be a lot of very dodgy characters around. I can't put my finger on one single thing that put me off the place, but I didn't like it. On the plus side, it has a nice beach which is a bit on the outskirts of the town, and the fish restaurants seemed to be plentiful and frequented by locals - which is always a good sign. In the end though, we were quite glad to get back on the "Vapor" to Cadiz.

NEDSIRELAND

In el Puerto de Santa Maria I stay at Hotel Santa Maria, a 3-star hotel on the riverfront, rather than el Monasterio de San Miguel. Rooms have air conditioning and it has a rooftop swimming pool. If you're not satisfied with Bodegas Osborne (in el Puerto) you can catch a train or bus to Jerez de la frontera or a ferry from just in front of the Hotel Santa Maria across the bay to Cadiz (worth a visit, anyway).

So, el Puerto gives you a base to visit Jerez de la frontera and Cadiz. What more could you ask??

To reply to what ter2000 wrote, I walked from the Hotel Santa Maria down to the beach in el Puerto. It's pretty good 'hike,' down Bajamar, the street that parallels the river, maybe 15 minutes (for an old man with a walking stick).

dncee11

Depends on what you are interested in. I can't comment on P. Sta. Maria but Jerez is good if you are interested in horses or sherry. We were there at the end of June and it was HOT! Good luck and have fun!

Giovanna

It's been a few years since we visited Spain, but I thought Puerto Santa Maria was a nice, sleepy little town with not really much to see of interest. We had lunch there and then took the ferry to Cadiz.

We went to Jerez de la Frontera particularly to tour a Sherry Bodega and to see a performance of the Andalusian Horses (it was fabulous). But we did not see much else of the town.

Cadiz would be my choice to spend the two nights and if you wished you could take the ferry over to Puerto Santa Maria for lunch or to look around a bit.