n° 1 spanish holiday rentals site

It’s time for a nice holiday in a small and beautiful beach town. And Barbate, located in the Costa de la Luz (Coast of Light), 40 km North of Tarifa is a perfect hideaway. The town is popular in the summer with Spanish holiday makers although it is generally untouched by foreign tourists. Are you ready to enjoy beach and sun? Then rent your apartment in Barbate and enjoy the 25 kilometres of the spectacular beaches, from wide, flat golden beaches to the Los Caños de Meca beach with high cliffs and fresh water springs.

Created in 1989, the Breña y Marismas de Barbate park is Andalucia’s second largest coastal reserve and has one of the most spectacular stretches of rocky cliffs along the Andalucian Atlantic coastline, with stunning views over the sea and to the rocky headland of Cape Trafalgar and its lighthouse. Ancient watchtowers stand guard along the cliffs overlooking the sea, where local fishermen catch tuna used in the nearby canning factories and to produce the delicacy of mojama, cured tuna. Although it is the smallest out of the 22 natural parks in Andalucia, it contains a rich variety of habitats: pine forest, wetland, mobile dunes, sea cliffs and a marine section, which, with 940ha, occupies around a fifth of the total protected area of 4,863.

The Pinar de la Breña is an extensive densely wooded area that stretches from the cliffs inland, between Barbate and Caños de Meca. The umbrella pines provide shade for a rich variety of Mediterranean wildflowers. Apart from fishing, one of the park’s main natural resources are the pine nuts collected from the Pinar de la Breña. The park includes an major wetland area, the 2,500ha Marismas de Barbate, which was added to the park later, in 1994. It attracts numerous migrating birds, as well as many waders and gulls.

Phoenicians used this coastline as a base for exporting their fish and introduced their system of fishing (almadraba) and salting their catch.

Useful Info
Local Tourist Office
Calle Ramon y Cajal, 43
Phone: + 34 956 431006

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 10:33 am and is filed under Cádiz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.