Which part of Spain has Best Beaches?
The south coast of Spain with the Costa Brava and the Costa del Sol has a fantastic reputation as one of the greatest sun traps in Europe with fantastic warm weather and beautiful beaches. However, unfortunately, the south of Spain also has a reputation for being a drunken tourist-filled concrete jungle that puts off a lot of luxury-driven travelers. With that in mind, I decided to take a look at some of the most luxurious destinations the south of Spain has to offer – where you can bask in luxury and avoid the all-inclusive package deal holidaymakers (not, of course, that I hold anything against this kind of travel)
So the first thing we’ll need to look for in a luxurious beach holiday in Spain is the location. The Costa del Sol and the Costa Brava have vast swathes of concrete and are incredibly busy and bustling throughout the summer months but you can still find somewhere a little more elegant, refined, and tasteful if you know where to look. Luxury villa holidays and luxury resorts give you a much better getaway and offer a lot more in the way of true relaxation. So we’ll turn away from Malaga and the well-known tourist spots and head to the quieter towns and villages with three of the best and most luxurious beach destinations Spain has to offer.
Malaga
Malaga seems at first an uninviting place. It’s the second city of the south (after Sevilla), with a population of half a million, and is also one of the poorest: official unemployment figures for the area estimate the jobless at one in four of the workforce.
The elegant central zone has a number of interesting churches and museums, not to mention the birthplace of Picasso and the new Picasso Museum, housing an important collection of works by Malaga’s most famous son.
Malaga has a very nice promenade along its beaches. The promenade runs alongside one of the main beaches from Malaga serving the city, Playa Caleta – it’s clean, well-maintained, and equipped and within easy walking distance of the town center. From here you can see the seawalls of the nearby port and the seemingly endless coastline of the Costa del Sol.
Nerja Costa del Sol
Nerja is a relatively well-known tourist spot and I’ll admit it’s full of English people throughout the year but compared to most of the surrounding south of Spain it is a luxurious paradise. No concrete jungle is in sight and instead, you will find a beautiful fishing town that retains all of its historical charms set against the dramatic Sierra Almijara mountain range.
The 16km of beaches and the beautiful medieval town center with its winding streets and beautiful whitewashed buildings make Nerja a truly beautiful place. That’s not to mention the stunning balcony of Europe which overlooks the town and provides a beautiful view as well as an invigorating stroll.
Matalascanas
Matalacanas is a fairly popular resort but one of the most luxurious on the southern coast. The area is a concrete jungle but the beach is stunning and the modern nature of the resort means there is a lot in the way of luxury with world-class restaurants and fantastic facilities. Nearby you can find secluded stretches of beach amidst the rolling dunes or explore the national park of Donana with its sheer beauty and rolling sun-swept hills. Torre de la Higuera, to the west of the village, is particularly stunning and reasonably quiet compared to much of the surroundings.
Rincon del la Victoria
Rincon del la Victoria is one of the truly overlooked destinations in southern Spain; though its popularity has been increasing. Rincon is one of the most beautiful towns and the architecture and space give it a beautiful warmth.
The beautiful beach is the biggest draw but the area is stunningly beautiful with the medieval streets and exceptional cuisine on offer. The 18th-century Casa Fuerte de Bezmliana is incredible while the nearby treasure caves and the stunning coastlines are incredible. In terms of luxury, the town has some of the nicest villas in Spain with pools, bars, and all the modern comforts set in stunning locations.
Beach at Playa de Gulpajuri
Who ever heard of a beach in the middle of a meadow? Well, now you have. That’s correct, due to underground tunnels off the Cantabrian Sea in the Northern Coasts of Spain, over thousands of years, the salty waters continued to bore its way through the earth and eventually back airborne again, miles away from the sea.
What is left is a truly unexpected little pod of paradise; a beach of Lilliputian proportion. Fully tidal, its diminutive waves gently lap against the tiny shore, just like its bigger oceanic cousins, and invite those lucky enough to find this little haven into its clear, greenish pools. But be forewarned, due to its incredibly miniature size, it gets flooded with visitors on the weekends.
Tarifa Beach
Tarifa, spreading out beyond its Moorish walls, was until the mid-1980s a quiet village, known in Spain, if at all, for its abnormally high suicide rate – a result of the unremitting winds that blow across the town and its environs. Today it’s a prosperous, popular, and at times very crowded resort, following its discovery as Europe’s prime windsurfing spot.
Heading northwest from Tarifa, you find the most spectacular beaches of the whole Costa de la Luz – wide stretches of yellow or silvery-white sand, washed by some magical rollers.
The same winds that have created such perfect conditions for windsurfing can, however, sometimes be a problem for more casual enjoyment, sandblasting those attempting to relax on towels or mats and whipping the water into whitecaps.
The beaches lie immediately west of the town. They get better as you move past the tidal flats and the mosquito-ridden estuary – until the dunes start and the first camper vans lurk among the bushes.
Bay of Cadiz Beach
Cadiz is among the oldest settlements in Spain, founded about 1100 BC by the Phoenicians, and one of the country’s principal ports ever since. Its greatest period, however, and the era from which the central part of town takes most of its present appearance, was the eighteenth century.
Cadiz has two beaches – the excellent Playa de la Victoria, to the left of the promontory approaching the town (reached from the center on bus #1 from Plaza de Espana), and the none-too-clean Playa de la Caleta on the peninsula’s western tip – but for clearer waters, it’s best to cross the bay to El Puerto de Santa Maria.
Further along the coast towards Sanlucar de Barrameda, beaches are more or less continuous, with two of the best flanking resorts of Rota and Chipiona. These are both popular weekend retreats from Cadiz and during July and August pretty much packed.
Almeria Spain Beaches
The province of Almeria is a strange corner of Spain. Inland it has an almost lunar landscape of desert, sandstone cones, and dried-up riverbeds. On the coast it’s still largely unspoiled; lack of water and roads frustrated development in the 1960s and 1970s and it is only now beginning to take off.
A number of good beaches are accessible by bus, and in this hottest province of Spain, they’re worth considering during what would be the “off-season” elsewhere since Almeria’s summers start well before Easter and last into November.
In midsummer, it’s incredibly hot (frequently touching 100°F/38°C in the shade), while all year round there’s an intense, almost luminous, sunlight.
The Almeria’s city’s own beach, southeast of the center beyond the train lines, is long but dismal.
Almeria’s best beaches lie on its eastern coast; those to the west of the city, particularly Aguadulce and Roquetas de Mar, have already been exploited and although they’re not quite as bad as many on the Costa del Sol, they’re not a lot better either. Either place is an easy day trip, however, with hourly buses along the coast.
The eastern stretch of the coastline offers some of the most relaxing beaches left in Spain: half-abandoned fishing communities that have only recently begun to be promoted for tourists. Outside the centers of Mojacar and San Jose, development is low-key and with a short walk along the coast, you should be able to find plenty of relatively secluded spots to lay your towel.
Almunecar
Beyond Nerja the road climbs inland, running high above the coast until it surfaces at La Herradura, a fishing village-resort suburb of Almunecar, which is a good place to stop off and swim, and which also has three seafront summer campsites, the best of which is La Herradura, the westernmost of the three.
The rocky beaches are rather cramped and have grey sand, but the esplanade behind them, with palm-roofed bars (many offering free tapas) and restaurants, is fun, and the old town is attractive.
Torremolinos
The approach to Torremolinos – easily done via a 30-minute ride on the electric train from Malaga – is a rather depressing business.
There are half a dozen beaches and stops, but it’s a drab, soulless landscape of kitchenette apartments and half-finished developments.
In recent years the local council has been trying to give the resort a facelift, the main feature of which has been the construction of a new seafront promenade and the renovation of the old town, the narrow alleyways of which are not without charm.
Torremolinos, to its enduring credit, is certainly different: a vast, grotesque parody of a seaside resort, which in its own kitschy way is fascinating.
This bizarre place, lined with sweeping (but crowded) beaches and infinite shopping arcades, crammed with (genuine) Irish pubs and (probably less genuine) real-estate agents, has a large permanent expatriate population of British, Germans, and Scandinavians.
Tarifa Beach, Spain
Tarifa, spreading out beyond its Moorish walls, was until the mid-1980s a quiet village, known in Spain, if at all, for its abnormally high suicide rate – a result of the unremitting winds that blow across the town and its environs.
Today it’s a prosperous, popular, and at times very crowded resort, following its discovery as Europe’s prime windsurfing spot.
Heading northwest from Tarifa, you find the most spectacular beaches of the whole Costa de la Luz – wide stretches of yellow or silvery-white sand, washed by some magical rollers.
The same winds that have created such perfect conditions for windsurfing can, however, sometimes be a problem for more casual enjoyment, sandblasting those attempting to relax on towels or mats and whipping the water into whitecaps.
The beaches lie immediately west of the town. They get better as you move past the tidal flats and the mosquito-ridden estuary – until the dunes start and the first camper vans lurk among the bushes.
Marbella Beaches
Marbella stands in considerable contrast, after another sequence of apartment-villa urbanizaciones, to most of what’s come before. It is undisputedly the “quality resort” of the Costa del Sol, where restaurants and bars are more stylish and everything costs considerably more.
Marbella also retains the greater part of its old town – set back a little from the sea and the new development.
The truly rich don’t stay in Marbella itself. They secrete themselves away in villas in the surrounding hills or lie around on phenomenally large and luxurious yachts at the marina and casino complex of Puerto Banus, 6km out of town towards San Pedro.
If you’re impoverished, this fact is worth noting as it’s sometimes possible to find work scrubbing and repairing said yachts – and the pay can be very reasonable. As you’d expect, Puerto Banus has more than its complement of cocktail bars and seafood restaurants, most of them very pricey.
Huelva Beaches
The province of Huelva stretches between Sevilla and Portugal, but aside from its scenic section of the Sierra Morena to the north and a chain of fine beaches to the west of the provincial capital it’s a pretty dull part of Andalucia, laced with large areas of swamp – the marismas – and notorious for mosquitoes.
Large, sprawling, and industrialized, Huelva city is the least attractive and least interesting of Andalucia’s provincial capitals.
By day – and in the evening as well – the most enticing thing to do is to take the hourly ferry (summer only) across the bay to Punta Umbria, the local resort, also linked by a new road bridge spanning the marshlands of the Rio Odiel estuary. This is hardly an inspiring place either, but it does at least have some life, a fair beach, numerous hostales and a campsite.
From Huelva, it’s best either to press on inland to the Sierra Morena or straight along the coast to Portugal. There are a number of good beaches and some low-key resorts noted for their seafood, such as Isla Cristina, along the stretch of coastline between Huelva and the frontier town of Ayamonte, but not much more to detain you.
Conil de la Frontera
A dozen or so kilometers from Vejer de la Frontera, Conil is an increasingly popular resort.
Outside July and August, though, it’s still a good place to relax, and in mid-season, the only real drawback is trying to find a room.
Conil town, once a poor fishing village, now seems entirely modern as you look back from the beach, though when you’re actually in the streets you find many older buildings too.
The beach, Conil’s raison d’etre, is a wide bay of brilliant yellow stretching for miles to either side of town and lapped by an amazingly, not to say disarmingly gentle Atlantic – you have to walk halfway to Panama before it reaches waist height.
The area immediately in front of town is the family beach; up to the northwest, you can walk to some more sheltered coves, while across the river to the southeast is a topless and nudist area.
If the winds are blowing, this is one of the most sheltered beaches in the area. It can be reached by road, save for the last 400 meters across the sands to the rock.
Estepona Beach
The coast continues to be upmarket (or “money-raddled” as Laurie Lee put it) until you reach Estepona, about 30km west of Marbella, which is a more or less Spanish resort – in as much as that’s possible around here.
The fine sand beach has been enlivened a little by a promenade studded with flowers and palms, and, away from the seafront, the old town is very pretty, with cobbled alleyways and two delightful plazas.
The beaches beyond Estepona have greyish sands (a trademark of the Costa del Sol that always seems surprising – you have to round the corner to the Atlantic coast at Tarifa before you meet yellow sand), and there are more greyish developments before the road turns inland towards San Roque and Gibraltar.
Fuengirola Malaga, Spain Beach
Fuengirola, fifteen minutes along the train line from Torremolinos, is very slightly less developed and infinitely more staid. It’s not so conspicuously ugly, but it is distinctly middle-aged and family-oriented.
The huge, long beach has been divided up into restaurant-beach strips, each renting out lounge chairs and pedal-boats. At the far end is a windsurfing school.