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Watersports are easily available at all the main Spanish Costa resorts including Torremolinos, Benalmadena and Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol. See also Benidorm, Calpe, Alicante, and Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca for excellent watersports. Watersports choice include boat trips, water fun rides like bananna boats and fly fish, paragliding and more.
The La Manga area on the Murcia region's coast is renowned for its superb watersports, particularly windsurfing on La Manga's natural lagoon. For scuba diving head north to the Costa Brava's rocky coast, particularly around the Estartit area where the Medes Islets off-shore are one of Spain's best diving areas. Andalucia's most beautiful beaches are to be found on the Costa de la Luz. They get the winds down here, and you'll find kitesurfing and windsurfing beach hotspots such as Tarifa.
Barcelona boat trips are easily booked down from Monument Colon on the Port Vell waterfront with Golondrina Excursion Boats. Golondrina offer a choice of Barcelona boat trips scooting along the Barceloneta beaches.
The best way to see the Costa Brava coast, and hop on and off at will, is by boat. Two companies in particular - Dofi Jet Boats and Viajes Maritimos offer boat trips from Lloret and other main resorts along the coast including Tossa, Blanes and Playa D'Aro. (see weblink right for Dofi). The boats pull right up onto the beaches of each Costa Brava resort, and it's your choice whether you say hop off at Tossa de Mar and have a look round, or stay on and take the whole coastal tour of the striking beach bay/rocky cliff Costa Brava coast mix. You'll find booking kiosks on both Lloret's main beach and at Fenals beach for booking boat trips with Dofi and Viajes Maritimos. For Dofi see weblink right, for Viajes Maritimos tel. 616 90 91 00/972 36 90 95.
Just before the old town promontory coming from Poniente, Excursiones Maritimas Benidorm have a little office where you can book on boat trips to Isla Benidorm (the little offshore island), Calpe further north along the Costa Blanca Coast and Tabarca island south near Alicante. Prices are very reasonable (see Boat Trips Benidorm weblink right for up-to-date prices), and the Isla de Benidorm boat trip is in a glass bottom boat so you've views of the underwater world. Benidorm's little offshore island can be seen clearly (best from Poniente beach). Boat trips to here depart hourly from the Benidorm waterfront from 10am.
The Costa de la Luz coast is a wild extravaganza of best Andalucian beaches. Starting at the top end near Ayamonte and the Portuguese border, you've 7km of fine white sands around Isla Canela and Punta del Moral. Plenty of watersports and golf around this area too. Moving down towards La Antilla is another long beach stretching for 22km with little inland town Lepe. Golf courses, watersports and more are all in abundance around the beaches of Antilla, as are luxury 4 star hotels.
Just to the north of Cadiz the stunning beach bay including El Puerto de Santa Maria is particularly busy in the summer season. Visitors pour in for the sublime beaches here, plus you're just 22km by road from Cadiz, and even quicker by boat! The ferry service running between El Puerto de Santa Maria and Cadiz harbour takes around 45 minutes and it's less than 10 euros return! Checkout the El Puerto de Santa Maria tourist webguide right for details. Sanlucar, just to the north west of El Puerto is famous for its sherry-like wine called manzanilla. A number of sherry bodegas in the Sanlucar area open their doors for sherry tours. Checkout the full list via the Sanlucar webguide right.
Pushing closer to Gibraltar, Tarifa is a tourist hub on the Costa de la Luz. A pilgrimage for windsurfing and kitesurfing fans, Tarifa gets the winds down here and offers some of Europe's best conditions for both kitesurfing and windsurfing. Tarifa's beaches are hard to beat, with clean white sands. Laid back and with a bohemian edge, Tarifa offers a host of attractions from its pretty old town, spectacular 10km beach - Playa de los Lances and numerous kitesurfing and windsurfing schools and hire venues. Horse riding, whale watching and bird watching (watch birds migrate across the Strait of Gibraltar) are all popular here too. Tarifa's kitesurfing and windsurfing action is concentrated along the stretch of coast between Tarifa and Punta Paloma.
The 15 mile long strip of land is now a tourist mecca, and crowded especially in peak season.
A choice of watersports, particularly on the Mar Menor lagoon which is nowhere more than 7m deep, includes waterskiing, sailing, diving and windsurfing. See the Mar Menor tourist guide right for watersports providers.
Boat trips scoot out to the five off-shore islands.
The La Manga Golf Club (see weblink right) offers a choice of not just golf courses, but numerous other sports. Golf at La Manga Club, 30385 Los Belones, Cartagena, Murcia Spain. Tel. 00 34 968 175 000.
The lesser known Estartit coast of the Costa Brava is picking up on the popularity front. Estartit boasts around 15km of coastline, mixing long sandy beach areas with rocky coves and offshore islets. The rocky coves around the Montgri coast are easily reached from Estartit on-foot, via some spectacular coastal paths. Main beach Platja Gran de L'Estartit serves as the main tourist hub for swimming, with numerous watersports available alongside shallow waters and fine sand. Quieter Platja de Griells still offers a good choice of watersports. For full listings on Estartit's many smaller rocky coves and beaches checkout the excellent Visit Estartit Tourist Webguide right.
It's the natural wonders around Estartit that really attract visitors to the area. These are inland and offshore. The rocky Medes Islands are a hub for scuba diving. This tiny archipelago covers around 23 hectares a mile off-shore from the main beach at Estartit. The 7 islets which together form the Medes were made a marine reserve in 1983 - good job too as since then there's been considerable recovery of the rich seabed and many species near extinction have been saved. Diving amongst the underwater tunnels and cave cavities of the Medes is a diving experience indeed. Coloured seaweeds, starfish, corals, octopus, lobster and event deeper below 20 metres miniature brightly coloured forests of over 600 species of fauna. Experienced divers will be well aware of the Medes territory. For more information, and listings on Diving Schools in Estartit see the Visit Estartit Tourist webguide right. You can also hook into scuba diving trips and glass bottom boat rides via kiosks situated on Estartit harbour.
That's not all on the natural wonders front in the Estartit area. The Baix Emporda wetlands sit near the coast on the Ter and Daro river deltas between L'Estartit and the Montgri Massif. The recovery programme underway on the wetlands is coming along brilliantly (see news via their website right). The wetlands are a hub for numerous reptiles, amphibians, fish and birds.
On land, Estartit is equally good for outdoor leisure activities including horse riding, Costa Brava mini golf, go-karting and walking and cycling. For full listings of outdoor leisure providers see Visit L'Estartit webguide right. Find L'Estartit's Tourist Information Centre on the Passeig Maritim.
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