Tarifa “ tips”

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olive
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Tarifa “ tips”

Postby olive » Thu Sep 08, 2022 9:11 pm

We are going to the Tarifa area for a few days to pull in some migration watching ( hopefully).

Haven’t been to the area before but there are plenty of guides and suggestions. Probably too much to do in a short time so no doubt we will end up going back. Is it for example worth going to the the Tarifa fortress to see the sun go down?

Has anyone got any tips or suggestions or worthwhile detours to pull in somewhere on the way or nearby? . By accident, I saw a segment of the UK travel show a few days ago on Bolonia so the Roman remains are now on our list.

Travelling from Granada region, the A92 and then down to Malaga and along the coast road looks quickest. I Am however not a fan of that road from Ikea onwards. The alternative - Campillos , Ubrique looks more attractive but might end up taking the whole day….

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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby biribiri » Fri Sep 09, 2022 11:51 am

Only visited once. Spent around an hour looking for a parking space then gave up and moved on.

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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby costakid » Fri Sep 09, 2022 12:40 pm

Parking can be a bit of a nightmare in summer season but there is a car park on your way down to the ferry terminal, quite cheap. . I prefer to drive past Tarifa on the N340 and stop at a few of the beach bars along that road near the Hurricane Hotel area. Also drive up the road through the old military barracks, through the barracks to a bar called El Mirlo. Well worth a visit for views and food. You drive up the lane behind Dunas Valdevqueros.
A note, be careful your phone doesn’t jump onto Maroc Telecom as you will be in for a shock if you answer or make a call. We were in El Mirlo having lunch and i made a 5 minute call, it cost a fortune.

olive
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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby olive » Sat Sep 10, 2022 1:19 pm

Excellent tips, thanks.

Any others?

elusive
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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby elusive » Sat Sep 10, 2022 6:10 pm

Bolonia is quite a sight as its so unique right on the beach. Theres a nice restuarant there aswell depends how far you want to venture but vejer de la frontera is very beautiful

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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby dxf » Sat Sep 10, 2022 9:52 pm

olive wrote: Thu Sep 08, 2022 9:11 pm
Travelling from Granada region, the A92 and then down to Malaga and along the coast road looks quickest. I Am however not a fan of that road from Ikea onwards. The alternative - Campillos , Ubrique looks more attractive but might end up taking the whole day….
Hola,

I live nearby - if I were travelling to Granada then I would travel to Seville and take the new SE40 to the A92 Granada road - it is the easiest drive.

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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby Lavanda » Sun Sep 11, 2022 7:41 am

I’ve done the drive a few times, both from Coín and Extremadura and it’s not difficult but can take a while. Prepare yourself for the shock of wall-to-wall windmills.

Vejer de la Frontera and all the white villages are interesting but very touristy. There is an area between Vejer and the coast called La Breña y Marismas del Barbate Natural Park and it is very, very good for birds. I have stayed in the place with the huge dovecote, Paloma de la Breña and it was exceptional.

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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby katy » Sun Sep 11, 2022 12:56 pm

elusive wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 6:10 pm Bolonia is quite a sight as its so unique right on the beach. Theres a nice restuarant there aswell depends how far you want to venture but vejer de la frontera is very beautiful
Yes I enjoyed Bolonia had a good lunch on the beach too. Disliked Tarifa. Wouldn't go again.

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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby Devils Advocate » Sun Sep 11, 2022 1:02 pm

Shame it's only a few days mate, we've been many times to catch the fast cat boat over to Tangier. Loymertravel do/did a cracking 2 night package for very little money (well before lockdown they did) and it was superb. Plus you got taken up the coast to the Asilah market too if you paid 10e for the coach. A real experience if you've never done it.
Property owner in Andalucia since 2002. How time flies.

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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby scotty » Mon Sep 12, 2022 11:56 pm

Like others here we avoid the town of Tarifa and head for the Hurricane hotel. We normally have lunch in their beachside restaurant and then head for the beach. Further on Zahara de los Atunes is worth going to. Great beach and great restaurants.

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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby scotty » Mon Sep 12, 2022 11:56 pm

Like others here we avoid the town of Tarifa and head for the Hurricane hotel. We normally have lunch in their beachside restaurant and then head for the beach. Further on Zahara de los Atunes is worth going to. Great beach and great restaurants.

olive
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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby olive » Mon Sep 19, 2022 2:12 pm

Thanks for the tips. We had negligible internet in both hotels that we stayed in.I guess this is a modern ill. What might have been fine 12 months ago, lacks capacity for the modern traveller. Anyone else experience this?-. The very poor internet contributed to both hotels not going onto our very short list of hotels we would go back to. They were Meson de Sancho and Hotel Dos Mares. Shame as they both had some good features. Next time we will try the Hurricane hotel. Nicely situated for the area.

Bird watching goal was easily achieved. We went most days to the site about three miles out of Tarifa just off the main road from Algeciras. Always packed and no facilities open while we were there. I talked with a number of British and Spanish twitchers and learnt a lot. Apparently the wind turbines do kill birds but the power companies switch off the key ones during migration. Oh and as advised there are a lot of wind turbines everywhere we went-. A word of caution. There is a productive speed camera just before the turn off for the bird observatory.

We found Tarifa easy to park in and pleasant to walk around. I guess at the height of the season that would be different. iPlenty of touristy shops but they are a welcome change for us.

We went to Bolonia and thoroughly recommend it. Very little shade and no cafe facilities. Take a drink- We ate at the beachside restaurant first on the right going back into the village- Free parkling for clients, everyone else wanting to park anywhere has to use the huge car parks and figure out how to pay the 1.50 electronically.

The huge sand dunes are truly amazing and tiring to try and walk on. The road to El Mirlo restaurant cuts through one of the dunes and there were four machines shifting sand and keeping the road open. We really enjoyed El Mirlo. Good food, great location and views. And yes, we did have our phones try and lock into an African mobile operator. There was an Irish couple at the next table busy on their phones. I gave them a heads up about possible data charges. No problem, we will just send our mobile operator a copy of our restaurant bill to prove we weren’t in Africa……

On the way home, we pulled in Vejer de la Frontera and also Medina Sidonia. Enjoyed both of these fine hill top towns.

I use a 15 year old map of Andalucia which shows scenic routes. It has served us very well but doesn’t show newer motorways. We got on the AP4 for a while but left that for Utrera , so we never got to experience your fast route dxf. Maybe next time as we didn·t enjoy the drive from Malaga to Algeciras one bit.

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Re: Tarifa “ tips”

Postby Lavanda » Mon Sep 19, 2022 3:01 pm

That's a thorough and useful report back, Olive, thank you. I go down to Cádiz regularly and 'do' the white villages and Barbate to eat tuna for lunch. Always useful to know the more up-to-date information.


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