El Palmar is located 5km north of Vejer and is the Surf capital of Andalucia. Unknown by non-Spanish visitors until recently, El Palmar is becoming more popular for its laid-back atmosphere and unspoiled landscape. The dunes and foliage are being carefully preserved with elegant solid wooden walkways leading to the beach. The sand is golden.
San Roque sits at 109 meters above sea level on a hill looking down across the Bay of Algeciras towards North Africa. With a population of approximately 23,000, San Roque lies between the Cadiz municipalities of La Linea de la Concepción and Los Barrios.
The old village of Castellar de la Frontera is perched high on a hilltop in the province of Cadiz, with commanding views over the Guadarranque reservoir. The village is easiest reached from the A-405 road that leaves the coast at San Roque, branching off to Castellar on the (CA-P-5131) after just 10 kilometers.
Los Barrios is an interesting small town in the Campo de Gibraltar just inland from the N340 coast road between Algeciras and Sotogrande. The so-called 'Ruta del Toro' (Bull Route) begins here. The A381 leads from Los Barrios, which is now served by a new by-pass across the top to Jerez de la Frontera. Along this road there are many bull farms.
The modern beachfront development of Urbanisacion Roche is located on the Costa de la Luz, between the coastal conurbations of Novo Sancti Petri and Conil de la Frontera. It is about 15km northwest of Conil.
This lovely Andalusian village is located in Cádiz province in the area known as the “Campo de Gibraltar”. It is in the northwestern part of the Jimena de Libar municipality and claims to have more hours of sunshine than any other town in the province of Cádiz: 2,600 hours per year. Combine this with the ideal mix of subtropical and Mediterranean seaboard climate and you have a perfect place to visit or live.
Barbate is a town of some 20.000 people on the Costa de la Luz, 40km north of Tarifa. This modern town, (often called Barbate de Franco because the ex-dictator spent many summers here), has grown up around a fishing industry which goes back to Roman times when the fish-salting industry was at its peak.
The inland pueblos blancos (white towns) are well known for their unique beauty and spectacular settings - invariably hilltop locations, with the whitewashed houses huddled around a ruined castle.
Like so many towns in Andalucía the approach to El Puerto de Santa María along the main road is lined with garages, industrial plants and run down buildings. Keep going and cross the River Guadalete on the NIV (if coming from south) and turn into Calle Ribiera de los Mariscos and park in one of the car parks signposted.
This white village is famous for its orange groves and its emblematic half-moon-shaped, steel truss-girder bridge which spans the river Guadario as it flows down to the Mediterranean. San Martín del Tesorillo is 22km south-east of Jimena de la Frontera, in the Campo de Gibraltar, right on the border between Cadiz and Malaga provinces. It became a 'entidad local' (sub-district) of Jimena in 1999.
Caños de Meca is a small, unspoiled community on the windswept but stunning Costa de la Luz. Deep in the Parque Natural del Acantilado, Caños de Meca has beautiful beaches, backed by cliffs and pine trees. Perched on the cliff-tops straddling the coast road, this little village is fast waking up to a reputation as a trendy place for beatnik travellers and wave-jumpers to spend the summer.
The white village of Zahara de la Sierra has one of the most stunning settings in the province of Cadiz.
Located in a high valley over 800m in the Sierra del Endrinal and dominated by the magnificent rocky outcrop known as Peñon Grande, the pretty mountain village of Grazalema is most popular base for visitors to the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park. The park is a vast protected area of rugged limestone mountains, which are famous for being the rainiest place in Spain.
Rota, an ancient town, stands at the extreme north of the Bay of Cádiz in a privileged position. The town opens out to the Atlantic and behind are two national parks, the Natural Park of the Bay of Cádiz and the Doñana. It is also a town of two extreme contrasts.
Campo de Gibraltar is the name given to the area in the south east of Cadiz province that straddles the transition of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean sea. It is also the inland and mainly rural area that surrounds the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar.
Baelo Claudia, near Tarifa, is one of Andalucia´s most significant and well-preserved Roman archeological sites. The extensive ruins are situated on the Costa de la Luz, some 15km north of Tarifa, by the small town of Bolonia and its beautiful beach. The site´s important history rests on the former city having been a strategic point for trade routes between Europe and North Africa.
This pretty white town in the Sierra de Cadiz dates from Muslim times; it closely resembles Berber towns in the hills of north Africa. Torre Alhamique's name comes from the Arabic Al Hakin family, meaning "the wise" or "the learned". This family owned the tower-fortress, located 4km from Olvera, which became the basis for the town.
Zahara de los Atunes is one of the most charming, and fashionable, towns on the Cadiz Costa de la Luz. With a stunning beach, boasting crystal-clear waters and golden sand, Zahara's main advantage over some other beach resorts in the area, which consist largely of hotels (albeit low-rise) and restaurants lining a beachfront road, is its villagey feel.
Bolonia is a small isolated ex fishing and farming village on the Atlantic Costa de la Luz 20km north from the surfer paradise of Tarifa and 20km south of Zahara de los Atunes. It is also the site of one of the three most important Roman archaeological excavations in Andalucía, along with Italica outside Sevilla and Acinipo outside Ronda.
Algeciras is primarily and unashamedly a port and industrial centre, sprawling round the bay to Gibraltar. When Franco closed the border with "the Rock" at the nearby La Linea, it was Algeciras that he decided to develop to absorb the Spanish workers who used to be employed in the British naval dockyards and in order to break the area's dependence on Gibraltar.
