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About Costa Almeria
The Costa Almeria is one of the least known Mediterranean coastal strips in Spain. It's part of the wider province of Almeria, located in the southeast corner of the Iberian Peninsula with the city of the same name as its capital. Until recently, international tourists have largely shunned this region with its barren, almost lunar landscape where hundreds of Italian "spaghetti westerns" were filmed in the 1960s. But holiday resorts are now beginning to develop along this 200-kilometres coastline which offers uncrowded beaches, pretty sheltered coves and the rugged wilderness of Spain's southeastern cape.
Much of Almeria is dry, rugged and desolate which no doubt explains why tourism has not over-run this area as it has in the vast majority of Spanish coastal resorts. The region boasts Europe's only real desert.
Almeria enjoys a warm and dry Mediterranean climate, with little rain and a large number of hours of sun per year (more than 3,000 hours). The temperatures throughout the year are mild, reaching no lower than an average of 13ºC in winter, and no more than an average of 25ºC in summer. This mild climate allows the visitor to enjoy all the possibilities available within the province at any time of the year.
But the city of Almeria and coastline have much to offer foreign visitors and even the dry interior has its charms. You can still see the movie sets left behind by the makers of Hollywood classics such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Fistful of Dollars and Lawrence of Arabia. The region is also famed for its troglodyte villages where modern-day cave dwellers live in extraordinary homes burrowed out of the soft rock. You can see the doors, windows and chimneys from the outside but for the most part these "casas cuevas" are buried within the hillsides, protecting their occupants from the blistering summer heat.
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Almeria city is a lively, modern and very Spanish commercial centre with a ferry terminal, sports marina and working fishing port. International tourism has made little impact here but there's plenty of interest to occupy the foreign visitor who takes the time to explore the city. There's a wealth of historic sites, museums, art galleries, good restaurants and traditional tapas bars. You can even pop over to North Africa from the ferry port.
On the east coast of the province is the Moorish hill top town of Mojacar which was the first place in this region to be discovered and exploited by the tour operators. This attractive ancient town, with its clusters of whitewashed buildings and narrow, winding streets, is now a thriving centre of international tourism with a lively beach and nightlife scene in the summer months.
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At the eastern corner of the province (at the south east tip of the Spanish mainland) lies the Cabo del Gato-Nijar nature reserve with its desert landscape and rugged coastline peppered with small coves, only accessible on foot. This is a sparsely populated and desolate area but it holds many attractions for hikers, nature lovers, bird watchers and scuba divers.
To the west of Almeria city there's the tourist resort of Aguadulce which has plenty of hotels, international restaurants, a yacht harbour and a variety of watersports. A little further along the coast you'll find the popular resort of Roquetas de Mar, an attractive fishing village with whitewashed houses, a bustling harbour and a good range of sports including an 18-hole golf course.
At the far western end of the Costa Almeria is the town of Adra, a former Roman colony which now boasts a modern sports marina and yacht club. The coastal lagoons here are a haven for many bird species including flamingoes.
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