Being a popular tourist destination both off-season and during the summer months, Nerja has a good selection of restaurants to choose from, ranging from beach chiringuitos to more luxurious dining options. Restaurants in Nerja serve fresh seafood caught daily, including squid and octopus dishes, as well as a lot of paella.
Award-winning travel photographer and long-term resident, Michelle Chaplow gives advice on photographing in Spain. Spain is a vast country, and after living and working as a photographer here for over 20 years, I know that it's impossible to generalise about one individual and uniform Spain. It's a country of extreme contrasts and rich, varied traditions.
Everyone loves a day on the beach with the kids, but if you fancy a change of scene there's a surprising variety of activities available in Andalucia, from swimming with sea lions to visiting a Wild West town, or riding a 100-year-old train.
“Botellón” literally translates as “big bottle” and comes from the bottles of alcohol that young people typically bring with them to unofficial celebrations that take place in city streets, plazas, car parks, beaches, waste ground and around the most popular pubs and discotheques.
The park counts over 300 crocs among its inhabitants, including the massive Gran Paco (known as Big Daddy in English), the biggest crocodile in Europe, measuring five metres and weighing over 600kg.
Mario Park is situated in Roquetas del Mar, near Salinas beach, on the southern coast of Almeria province. The aquatic park consists of seven rides (Turbuelnce, Kamikaces, Multipista, Black Hole, Zig-Zag, Río Bravo and Super Tornado). There are also swuimming pools, jacuzzis and a wave pool.
Waterpark located Just outside the port town of Algeciras. convenient for residents of Gibraltar, Tarifa and western end of the Costa del Sol. Get a buzz on the eight rides, including Gran Niagara and Rio Salvaje, plus kamikaze and black hole.
One of the largest, splashiest water-parks in the province, located in Torre del Mar. There are 21 different rides to choose from, including some super-fast slides (an 80m-high kamikaze), soft foam slides, dinghy river ride and a paddling pool for young children (and parents!). Not forgetting the wave pool and lagoon.
Numerous water rides and slides catering to all tastes, from the adrenaline junie to the gentle wallower in need of relaxation. Take your pick from the new rollercoaster-like boomerang, the highest kamikaze in Europe (22m), Super Slalom, rapids, and Black Hole, plus a wave pool and jacuzzi.
Aqua Tropic water park is a good size water park with plenty of shady areas for parents to keep watch. This is the only saltwater water park in Spain, which means fewer chemicals. This park isn't short of activities with a Wavepool, Kamikaze and Black Hole rides as well as a children's pool. Regarding on land activities.
In the 1960s and 1970s more than 100 films were partially shot at these two film sets in the bleak Almeria desert landscape of Tabernas, including Westerns such as A Fistful of Dollars, The Magnificent Seven, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; also Lawrence of Arabia and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
A guide to the beaches near Algeciras. Getares is the most popular, also known as Playa de San García, is a large and sandy beach that stretches for around a kilometre to the west of Algeciras town To the west of Algeciras are four small coves with beaches with access only on foot.
Their willowy, wispy branches and strong trunks grace hillsides and craggy cliffside areas, while the pink and white colours of their blossom, from late January to mid-February, cover the countryside in a soft blanket. Hills of almond blossom offer an unforgettable sight - well worth seeing if you ever have the opportunity.
Driving in Andalucia is very similar to driving in other European countries, but there are numerous differences – often quite subtle – so it pays to take the time to be sure understand the rules in Spain before heading out onto the roads.
Phone and broadband internet connection is now commonplace in the large cities and in the highly populated coasted areas of Andalucia. However, there are still some far-flung rural areas where internet and even land line connection is not guaranteed. Telefónica, Spanish equivalent of BT, is the main national land line provider.
Whether you have been in Spain for just a few days or for years one of the things which confuses many foreigners is telephone numbers. There is a logical system of numbering in.
When you take your mobile to another country, this usually means that you no longer have coverage from your service provider even though this is about to change under new EU rules. If you have a UK mobile that you need to use in Spain, you should contact your service provider at home at least a week before you leave.
If you are going to be a regular visitor to Spain or Andalucia, you may want to buy a SIM card and a Spanish mobile phone rather than rely on the roaming service provided by your home providor.
The majority of land-line telephone connections in Andalucia are provided by the best known telephone company in Spain, Movistar. They used to be called Telefónica and are often refered to as Telefonica. This used to be a state-owned monopoly, and still has around 80% if the market. You may decide to use other providers such as Vodaphone, Orange, Jazztel.
Although there are some regional and national fixed-line providers in Andalucia, the previously state owned monopoly, Telefónica, is still the main provider of the basic telephone line and is still the choice of almost 90% of users. Over recent years new companies have emerged, trying to bite into Telefónica’s hold on the market.
