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Costa de la Luz Holidays
Costa de la Luz in Andalucia information and facts for the tourist |
Costa de la Luz in Andalucia information and facts for the tourist
Tourist information about Costa de la Luz in Spain. Travel to Costa de la Luz and let Spain-Holiday.com guide and accommodate you |
Costa de la Luz travel
People go to Andalucia for one of two reasons: either they like the costa - the calamari and sangria, the sea-view apartment blocks, the yachts - or they like the backwaters; the rural south, where hill-top pueblos blancos shimmer above the cork forests.
For those in the know, however, theres another Andalucia: a place where you can spend your days listening to jazz in 15th-century monasteries and take mud baths beneath the cliffs - Costa de la Luz; watch pink flamingos flying to Africa and swim with dolphins in the Med. While the former Andalucia centres around the Mediterranean metropolis of Marbella, this other, more elusive destination, is found near Tarifa, on the Atlantic Costa de la Luz.
Ride by moonlight on Costa de la Luz
The old roman roads behind Tarifa wind up into the hills, through forests and past hilltop fortresses. Alternatively, you can gallop along the beach towards the Zahara sand dunes. To descend the dunes, the horses have learnt how to toboggan, sitting back on their rumps and slithering down the hill. Best of all are the full-moon beach rides.
Drive the Facinas road
This is one of the most romantic roads in Europe. Once a Roman highway, it winds through the Parque Natural de los Alcornocales, a vast protected cork forest. The track starts by the Roman ruins at Bolonia before clambering up into the hills. In the cooler months, the forest floor is dense with ferns and you can camp beside the white boulders that litter the valley floor. The road is in poor condition - at some points the Tarmac is reduced to an island in a sea of rubble - but thats all part of its charm. There is just one habitable building on the road: a dusty bar where you can stop for a beer. Past Los Barrios, a new motorway cuts the Facinas in two. Rejoin the route and you encounter the most stunning spectacle of all: a sky black with raptors, waiting for mice and rats to scuttle about.
Party on Bolonia beach
Bolonia beach makes you wonder why anyone bothers with the Costa del Sol. A lip of golden sand on the Atlantic, the ocean here is clean, clear and aquamarine. Behind the dunes, the hills are sparsely inhabited. A few cows mooch around, chewing on the cacti that serve as a fence. If you walk the full length of the beach, you reach a clutch of rock pools where you can chip soap-sized bars from the cliffs, bash them into paste and coat yourself in the mud. Lie in the sun until the minerals have dried and then wash it all off in the sea: your skin will feel peachy-soft. Bolonia is home to a handful of European hippies, who live in yurts by a spring above the beach. In the summer, their numbers are swelled by opportunistic holiday-makers, eager to take advantage of some free accommodation. The result is riotous beach parties, including all-night dance parties in the sand.
Trendy Tarifa
As Europes windsurfing capital, Tarifa is full of hip people wearing hip clothes and wanting hip venues. So think sushi shacks, bamboo-walled juice bars and nightclubs in ruined fortresses. Many a good night can be spent in this town. You can eat supper in Mandragora, a four-table restaurant beneath the fortress walls with a Chinese/French Moroccan menu. Alternatively, glasses of fresh mint tea on a balcony overlooking the dining room are one attraction of the restaurant Souk. Tarifas nightclubs are far funkier than the beer-and-babes bars down the coast. Café Sol is a cavern-like disco that plays drum n bass and hip-hop. Above is a club called La Ruina which has an open roof and a bar made of wooden wagon wheels. For breakfast, head to Café Azul (Batalla del Salado), a trendy eatery with admirable muffins, where you can read the papers in one of three bamboo-roofed gardens.
Checking out the birds
The Straits of Gibraltar are one of the worlds great migratory routes, and for much of the year the skies above are noisy with birds. September, for example, is when the black kites fly over, while August is the time to watch white storks. Griffon vultures head south in October, hot on the heels of goshawks and marsh harriers. The best twitching spots are on the mountainous ridges between Sierra del Cabrito and Puerto El Bujeo, opposite the shores of Africa. You can stand at the lookout on the road to Tarifa, or clamber up beneath the windmills behind. Alternatively, from the Algeciras lighthouse at Punta del Carnero, drive along the tiny road towards Tarifa to the sandy wilderness beyond. If you lie back on the sand, you could catch a truly spectacular sight: a sky pink with flamingos. True birders should go the whole hog and book in for a week with the regions foremost naturalist and twitcher, Martin Jacoby, who leads expeditions to the Doņana national park.
Jimena International Music Festival
This July, for the third year running, the hills of Andalucia will ring to the sounds of some of the worlds most respected musicians. Jimena, a traditional pueblo blanco straddling a ludicrously steep hill, makes a staggering location for the festival. Visitors can listen to classical music in a 15th-century cloistered convent, or tap along to jazz in the Llano de la Victoria, a cobbled square peppered with orange trees. Flamenco, including performances by Spains foremost dancer, Sara Baras, takes place in the main square. For opera fans, Mozarts Marriage of Figaro will be performed in the open. With lemonade on the lawn and seats beneath the olive trees, the opera will be a sort of Andalucian Glyndebourne.
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