Andalucia

Bar the Bull

Bar the Bull

At the Start
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May 2, 2003
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Llandubno, West Wales (very west)
Mrs BtB and I are considering a break in Andalucia for a fortnight in late September.

Does anybody know this part of the world well? We are particularly interested in seeing wildlife (including birds), visiting beaches, turning our hand to some water sports, hiking and visiting a few charming Espanish cities and towns.

Any advice/tips would be immensely appreciated. Or if you think that there is a better part of the Med at this time of year for the above activities, let me know.

Muchos Grassy Ass.
 
My parents live about thirty miles east of Malaga so i know the area reasonably well.

Dont know much about the wildlife, but Picasso`s museum in Malaga is well worth a visit.

The best beach (imo) is at Benalmadena.

Oh, and Nerja is a great little town, nice atmosphere and a suburb beach front.
 
If you're after wildlife, unspoilt Spain, decent beaches and good water sports I'd strongly recommend you visit the Costa de la Luz, Bar. Tarifa (in the Cádiz province) is a lovely place to go - it's a pretty unspoilt Spanish town with good nightlife and it has very good watersports - windsurfing & kite surfing are very popular. Tarifa and the surrounding area have superb beaches as well and are on the outskirts of a few national parks - the Los Alcornocales is just inland of Tarifa towards Jimena and is stunning, with many birds of prey and other wildlife. There is also a mountain range right behind Tarifa with a national park there - I forget the name - which again is rich with birds of prey (it is well known for having populations of vultures and eagles) in particular.

There are also some great cities within an hour or so's drive - Cádiz, Sevilla, Jerez are all close. I haven't visited Jerez but Cádiz and Sevilla are lovely cities - Sevilla is stunning.

There is a lot of history in the area too - Tarifa itself is lovely with a lot of old Moorish architecture and there are Roman ruins to be visited 15 mins down the road at Bolonia, right next to the stunning (and unspoilt)beach there.

There are quite a few airports in the vicinity as well - your best bets are probably Jerez (Ryanair flies from Stanstead & you can get some very cheap flights) which is around an hour away or Gibraltar (daily flights from Luton or Manchester with Monarch, from Heathrow or Gatwick with BA) which is around 30-45 minutes away. There are also airports in Sevilla (around an hour and a half-2 hrs away) and Cádiz (around 30-45 mins away). Car hire is cheap and very reliable & I would strongly recommend Carjet having used them many times.

As Euro says, Benalmadena has a pretty decent beach (and a lovely little port, it's very distinctive) but it is slap-bang in the middle of the Costa del Sol tourist trap, it's right next door to Fuengirola. I agree about Nerja, it's a lovely little town, still Spanish and unspoilt and within fairly easy reach of Granada and the Sierra Nevada mountains which are great for wildlife/

A good website for information on pretty much anything about Andalucía is Andalucía. If you want any more info from me then just ask or PM me. The Rough Guide to Andalucia is also a good book and a very good guide to the region.

Oh, and if you want proof of how lovely the beaches are - here you go, two shots of Bolonia beach taken from the Roman ruins behind the beach.

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No worries Bar - glad I could be of some help. Tarifa certainly is a hidden gem; it's a lovely place with loads to do. I recommend going to the Hurricane Hotel (it's about 5 mins on from Tarifa on the Cádiz road - you can't miss it) for lunch or a drink - they have a pretty good value buffet style spread and the terrace overlooks the beach and across the Straits to Morocco. There are steps from the terrace down to the beach - it is usually pretty quiet too (most of the people using it are windsurfers or kite-surfers) and is a lovely beach with white sand. They have a very good stable yard there too and all standards of riders can hire their horses and go out hacking in the hills/mountains or on the beach (time of year allowing).

I try to get down to Tarifa when I can and was already planning on getting down there or Bolonia tomorrow.
 
I get out there fairly often and I'm there at the moment. I love it out here and I'm not even going to make a silly comment about seeing birds.
 
Ah, you might want to reconsider now, Bar - the current topic of discussion in the office is the revelation that Tarifa has (or had) the highest suicide rate in Spain due to the wind!!! :lol:
 
Ah well - the general consensus of opinion is that it's probably less to do with the wind and more to do with the amount of drugs taken....

Sounds like a good trip - you're covering some great places there. A word of warning though - Sevilla is a beautiful city and one of my favourite places but it will be horrendously hot, it's in the mid-forties there at the moment. I'd recommend the tourist trips to be taken by pony & trap, they are a good way to see a lot of the architecture and parks. The Alcázar palace in Barrios Santa Cruz is pretty impressive too, as is the whole Santa Cruz area - there are some superb restaurants there as well as La Giralda.

If you are spending time in Granada and are looking for somewhere else to go, the Sierra Nevada mountains are well worth a trip - they are about half an hour out of the city and the scenery up there is stunning.
 
Yes, it should have cooled down by September but it will still be hot - high twenties, low thirties I'd guess.

I know the skiiing resort in Sierra Nevada, Borreguiles, and it is lovely around that area.
 
We had an absolutely splendid two weeks. Granada was the business. Two things I liked about the city were:

- Alhambra
- The way that you get a free tapas with every beer in every bar.

We then went down to the Alpurajjas for a few weeks, where we did lots of hiking.

We then went to Nerja for a few days, which was a bit touristy for our liking. It was great to swim in the sea, however. And I got to watch the Ryder Cup in the British-owned bars by the seafront.

We then went to Ronda, which is one of the most spectacularly beautiful places in Europe.

images


The bird watching was great in the countryside near here; we saw a short-toed eagle pounce on a snake and eat it as he flew through the air. Lots of vultures, wheatears, tits (stop sniggering at the back) and wagtails.

We then went to Seville for a few days. It is a lovely city, but a little less friendly than Granada and the countryside. In addition, most of the city is being excavated for a new metro system, which ruins the aesthetics of the place somewhat.

All in all, a brilliant holiday. Spanish people are the friendliest, most helpful and soundest people I have ever met.

Olé!

Thanks for your advice, Euro and Shadow Leader. Nerja was definitely the place for us, as the Costa is teaming with tourists, and you were right about the Sierra Nevada, Shads.
 
Glad you had a good trip Bar - I'd recommend Andalucía to anyone. Shame that they're digging up Sevilla - I love the city.

Funny you should mention the short toed eagle - I had one fly only around 15-20ft over my head with a snake in its talons a couple of summers ago - a fantastic sight. Mind you watching vultures feeding is some experience - they're all round pretty impressive creatures really!
 
During the Spanish civil war some of the bourgeoisie of Ronda were rounded up by left wing militias and given all the help they needed to leap off the bridge in Bar's photo.
 
It's the same eagle, Shadz: it flies all over Spain with a rubber snake held in its short toes, having actually had a delicious meal of seafood paella earlier. The Spanish Tourist Agency is very proud of it, and it is on their employment list as 'Mobile Avian Tourist Attraction No.2', No.1 being a Bateleur eagle which flies around carrying a small baby (actually, not a real one, but very lifelike).
 
we saw a short-toed eagle pounce on a snake and eat it as he flew through the air.
Click to expand...

Loada bollocks if you ask me Bar. It would be hard enough to hold a snake and eat it even if you had long toes.
 
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