One day Trip
Two categories of guests come over to Jerez / Sanlucar de Barrameda
- The 2/3 days concept. They don’t not know the area and imagined why not
- the 2/3 weeks concept. They know the area and use Jerez as the home base to explore
Jerez is very central and very well linked with all the main point of interests of the province. Either you have a car or you are travelling by bus and train many options will suit you.
A rough idea of the time from Jerez de la Frontera
- From Jerez to Cádiz: 35 minutes
- From Jerez to El Puerto de Santa María: 25 minutes.
- From El Puerto de Santa Maria, you can access to the historical center of Cadiz taking the boat (which is pretty convenient because you don’t have to turn around all the bay with the car which is longer and without a lot of interest), schedule for the boat are the following http://www.catamaranbahiacadiz.es/horarios.php
- From Jerez to Sanlúcar de Barrameda: 20 minutes
- From Jerez to some of the white villages like Arcos de la Frontera, Vejer de la Frontera: 1h00
- From Jerez to the sierra de Cádiz and some other villages of interest Grazalema or Zahara de la Sierra: 1h30
- From Jerez to Ronda (which is a nice road to begin visiting the province of Malaga): 1h45
- From Jerez to Gibraltar: 1h15
- From Jerez to Sevilla: 50 minutes
- From Jerez to Córdoba, Málaga: 2h30
- From Jerez to Granada: 3h30
to access the beaches of the area:
- From Jerez to las playas de Sanlúcar de Barrameda: 25 minutes
- From Jerez to la playa de Regla, en Chipiona: 30 minutes
- From Jerez to la playas de Tres Piedras ou de Costa Ballena ( entre Chipiona et Rota): 35 minutes
- From Jerez to la playa de Valdelagrana, en El Puerto de Santa María: 30 minutes
- From Jerez to las playas de Cádiz (la Caleta, at the city centre): 40 minutes
For the nature lovers
Doñana : national park of Doñana
- It is possible to visit the park with the park rangers : 15 euros (1h30), 28 euros (2h30)
- You can just cross the Guadalquivir with a boat and wal freely on the beach (During you lunch time, you might have company of wild pigs, without any anger, the will invite you to share your meal)
- You can go on the other side of the Guadalquivir (side of Sanlucar de Barrameda) and access to a park freely, they even organised some area where you can see birds on an artificial lake (binoculars compulsory)
Find here the information of the different organisers to contact (most of them speak English):
The following site will help you througout of the birds of the area :
http://www.cadizturismo.com/publicaciones/birding-cadiz?set_language=en
We have many ornithologists coming over in October / November and they get help from local associations
Walking in the nature
South of Andalusia has many options to cross country, here is a web site that will give you most of them :
https://www.wikiloc.com/trails/hiking/spain/andalusia
It is as well a very useful app on the mobile.
On the beach Side
Bolonia
Aside of the beach which is pretty nice (on the right hand side of the beach you have a dune you can climb and on the left hand of the beach side walking ten minutes you ll have a nudist beach), you can visit as well Baelo Claudia almost on the beach (the first tuna fish factory 50 years before JC)
http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/cultura/agendaandaluciatucultura/evento/visitas-baelo-claudia
Conil de la Frontera
The beach is pretty nice outside of mid july to end of august
On the other hand you will find the best equestrian club of the coast:
Monika Ostermann, carril ladrillera Reyes 2&, 11149 comible de la Frontera
https://www.reiterferien-mit-moni.com
Zahara de los atunes
On the left hand side, one of our favorite beach is : La cala de los alemanes at the end left hand side of Zahara. Bear in mind that you have to check out the wind when you go down to Tarifa area. Wind is awesome for wind surfing, but quite hell to spend a day at the beach
You can check the wind out on : www.windguru.cz
Barbate
Fishermen village, here is the place to stop for tuna lovers. And the best place to enjoy the exquisite local red tuna (called ‘de almadraba’ because of the way to catch it). The best time ever to get some tuna fish is during spring (especially in May) because the tuna goes down from the northern cold sea to reproduce in the south. For that reason it arrives full of tasty fat and he ‘ll get back home by September dry like desert. Barbate does not have much interest to our point of view, except for this restaurant and its beaches
Restaurante El Campero
Avd. Constitucion, Local 5 C, 11160 Barbate,Tel.: 956 43 23 00
For many years they specialized in all kind of way to prepare the tuna fish and yes it is a reference. Prices remain in the range of good restaurant / good product of the area (count 30/50 euros per person) but it is worthy. Service is not a reference unfortunately in a sense that they feel like working for the world best tuna fish restaurant of the year and lack of simplicity and warmness… anyway it is a detail!
*Do not forget to make a reservation
Much wilder, but very interesting for fried fish, we do like to go:
Bar Paquete
It is very close of the entrance of the trek path to go to Caños de Meca and located in front of the the professional pier area
138, Av. de la Mar, 11160 Barbate
(day off on Tuesday)
White villages
You ll have to walk to enjoy the small white village, so basically in august take a couple of bottle of water with you
Arcos de la Frontera, Vejer de la Frontera
In Vejer, try to park on the other side of the village : Calle de la Merced, there are a couple of parking over there and it is going to make your life eaier to wander around. Vejer is a lovely looking white village, but it is becoming more touristic, so quality of dining has decreased for the price charged. So, in our opinion, if you wish to enjoy a good meal, better to have it in other place close by.
Anyway, around plaza de España you have many bar /restaurants options (where you have the hotel casa del Califa and the restaurant jardin del califa, when we are talking of disappointment this restaurant for instance has two services in the evening and they will as you to leave without any problem, quality of the food has decreased drastically as well What a pity)
another option, totally french without the bill at the end of the lunch
La brasa de Rancho Calle Sancho IV, 1 Tel 615 591 919
Mille feuille de froid gras ….. and very good meat done on charcoal BBQ
Restaurante El Patría
Patría 48, La Muela, 11150 Vejer de la Frontera, Tel: 956 44 84 63
A little bit oustside of Vejer;
It is a lovely countryside white house where you can enjoy eclectic meals from veggie to meaty. Over there everything runs smoothly , time stopped and pleasure is around every plate.
You ll definitely need GPS to find the place.
Restaurante La Castilleria
Pago de Santa lucia, 11150 Vejer de la frontera, Tel: 956 45 14 97
www.restaurantecastilleria.com
For the meat lovers, this is a valid recommendation. Bearing in mind that south of Spain is not specialized at all in BEEF ! Charcoal cooking is the normal way over there.
Inland
Sierra de Grazalema
If you like to walk in the countryside, with some smalls mountains in a green surrounding, Grazalema is a good option to begin with. Ambiance is very nice and out of classical tourism scheme. Many locals restaurant, among them we like
La Maroma
It is a good innovative traditional we could say. Try the Payoyo cheese !
Is it Worthy to go to Gibraltar ?
Well, it is a sensitive political question for everyone LOL
You’ll find tax free shops (mainly for alcohol and cigarettes), fish and ships and typical English breakfast. You’ll have to pay everything in British pounds and you’ll have to wait a little to go through the border. The main attraction is the Peñon : small mountain where you can see morocco with a clear sky and where you will find aggressive monkeys that will rob your sandwich
Going to Maroc
It is very easy to go to Tanger from Tarifa (if you go by foot) or Algeciras (if you go by car). From Tarifa you will arrive directly in the historical part of Tanger and from Algeciras you will arrive 30 km outside of Tanger. You can have a look on the following web site
A round trip within the day is totally possible and parking your car in Tarifa is not a problem either. Count 1h15 of boat to cross over. Do not forget your passport !