Leisure Activities
The East coast of Almeria offers a wide variety of sports activities. Sea enthusiasts can enjoy diving in the rich sea beds of the bays around the Cabo de Gata, water skiing, windsurfing or boat trips on the Mediterranean. For those who prefer mountains the area offers many routes for walking, cycling, horse riding and caves for underground exploration. Other local activities are too many and varied to list here but we have provided a few ideas below.
Sports & Leisure Centre
In the Puerto Rey
area within a 3 minute drive there is a recently opened Sports & Leisure centre,
which offers excellent facilities for adults and children. It has a state of the
art gymnasium, which can be used on a casual daily rate basis, a double height
golf driving range, paddle tennis & crazy golf. All equipment can be hired at
reasonable rates. Downstairs there is a Café/Bar with a terrace open during the
day & evening. It offers a snack menu, plus a very reasonably priced 3-course
menu of the day. The bar also has a pool table and dart board. Upstairs is a new restaurant, which offers
both lunchtime and evening dining.
Water Park - Parque Acquatico
Vera
Enjoy
a fantastic day out by the beach in Vera with your family and friends.
Have fun on great water attractions; Kamikaze, multi-slides, black holes,
adventure river, tube slides, wave pool, lake pool and, for the little ones, the
infant pool and attractions. There is also, mini-golf,
super jumper, mini-park, green zones and an amusement arcade.
Situated by the beach in Vera between Garrucha and Villaricos,
only a short drive from the property.
Tel: 0034 902 36 12 94 / 950 46 73 37 / 950 46 73 09
Web site: www.aquavera.com
Email: parque@aquavera.com
Tabernas / Mini Hollywood
Located
approximately 24 kilometres from Almeria on the N-340, Tabernas is a village of
contrasts. It sits between the Sierra de Alhamilla and Sierra de Filabres
mountains and is situated in the only desert in Europe. Summer temperatures can
reach 45C.
Tabernas is best known for the production of spaghetti westerns and various film sets built into the desert have been transformed into three theme parks, the best known of which is Oasys, often referred to as Mini Hollywood. In its heyday, more than 100 films were partially shot here, including A Fistful of Dollars, The Magnificent Seven and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
These days visitors can enjoy a daily mock bank hold-up and shootout staged at noon and 5pm daily. In addition to a swimming pool, cafe/restaurant and children's playground, there is also a small zoo with lions, elephants, brown bears, giraffes, kangaroos, monkeys and other animals. Just three kilometres away is Texas Hollywood, also used as a set and boasting a Western town, fort, Mexican pueblo and Indian tepees. If nothing else, stop off for a cold beer at the Western-style saloon, which is decorated with photos of some of the above screen classics starring Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and Raquel Welch.
Tel: 0034 950 365 236
Website: www.hvsl.es/lei/hojas/leio0002
Beaches
The
beaches are one of the major attractions of the area and there are almost 17
kilometres of them to explore. You'll find long, un-crowded sandy beaches along
the stretch of coast between Mojacar and Vera.
The beaches in the immediate vicinity consistently earn the European Blue Flag for cleanliness and offer an excellent range of activities in the peak season - jet skiing, paragliding, canoeing, water skiing, sailing, windsurfing and scuba diving.
Garrucha has a harbour beach with calm waters due to a breakwater. There is table tennis and a children's play area with many restaurants and bars on the promenade. Villaricos has an unspoilt golden sandy beach and an excellent beach bar. Vera Playa has 6.8km of open clean beach and several beach bars. About 1.5km of the beach is not for the prudish as the area is one of Europe's top naturist resorts and includes a naturist hotel! On the coastal road south from Mojacar towards Carboneras, after about four kilometres there is a rough track which turns off towards the sea. Follow this to discover some charming, isolated coves which pepper this stretch of the coastline. A little further a field Cabo de Gata boasts many attractive, quiet sandy coves and beaches.
Snorkelling & Diving
There
is
a whole world under the Mediterranean waves just waiting to be explored.
Snorkelling is something that any swimmer can do and the relatively calm
seas and gentle tides off the Almeria coast provide a perfect environment for
face-down fun.
For divers, the area doesn't attract the greatest variety of species but there is still much to see and explore, particularly close to the meeting point of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Dive sites provide a mix of rocky underwater landscapes, reefs and wrecks.
Marine life includes congers, groupers, seahorses, spider crabs, squid, lobster, trigger fish, sunfish and dolphins. There are several scuba diving clubs up and down the coast.
Skiing
Yes,
it really is possible to ski in the Sierra Nevada in morning and sunbath on the
beaches of Mojacar Playa in the afternoon!! Spain
may not conjure up an image of impressive snow covered mountain peaks but
happens to have numerous ski resorts dotted throughout the country. The Sierra
Nevada defies many concepts associated with skiing. Located about 250km
from Mojacar, the popular ski resort of Pradollano is 250 kilometres from
Mojacar and can be reached within a 2.5 hour drive. It has practically
guaranteed sunshine, the best spring snow conditions in Europe and is still
reasonably priced compared to many of its European counterparts. As one of
Europe's highest resorts it has a surprisingly long season and traditionally
opens at the end of November running through to the end of April or the first
week of May.
Local Markets
Each of the local villages host a colourful and typically Spanish local market on a different day of the week. Some are obviously bigger and better than others but all are worth a visit.
Market days are as follows:
| Monday | Huércal Overa, Antas |
| Tuesday | Cuevas del Almanzora, Albox, Almeria, Los Gallardos |
| Wednesday | Mojacar, Bedar, Lubrin, Olula del Rio |
| Thursday | Cuevas del Almanzora, Lorca, Carboneras, Sorbas (very few tourists) |
| Friday | Garrucha, Turre, Puerto Lumbreras, Almeria (near plaza de Toros) |
| Saturday | Aguilas, Vera |
| Sunday | Villaricos (very small), Vicar, Guazamara, (near Almeria Airport) |