The Spanish have long since surrendered the Costa del Sol and the Costa Brava. But you won't find Irish bars, bratwurst or drunken fighting on the Costa de la Luz, around Cádiz. Conor Popeis delighted
IN THE SMALL Spanish fishing port of Conil de la Frontera the sunsets are almost always stunning. So stunning, in fact, that people eating in the town's beachfront restaurants frequently step out on to the sand to stare in awe as the glowing red sun slips gently into the clear Atlantic water.
With Africa just about visible across the Strait of Gibraltar, and golden sands stretching as far as the eye can see, this part of the Costa de la Luz is a secret gem - and one many Spaniards would probably prefer to keep secret, as it is where they holiday themselves, and they'd rather we didn't spoil it for them.
They have long since surrendered the Costa del Sol and the Costa Brava, with their high-rise hotels and stony grey sands, to the hordes of British, German, Dutch and Irish tourists who invade every year in search of sun, sand and all-day fry-ups. There are no bars serving Guinness on the Costa de la Luz, no bratwurst, no drunken fighting and no oversized televisions playing endlessly looping Little Britain DVDs.
Instead what greets the visitor are kilometres of undeveloped sandy beaches, eco-friendly low-rise resorts, beach-front villas, perfect boogie-boarding waves and all the fresh seafood you can eat for prices that would make you sigh.
The gateway to the secret costa is the grand old city of Cádiz. At the turn of the 19th century it served briefly as the Spanish capital and it was here that the country's first - and short-lived - constitution was signed, in 1812. The city's grandeur is distinctly frayed at the edges, but the place retains a frazzled charm and is easy to navigate without maps or guidebooks. The old part of the city, where extraordinary restaurants hide behind ordinary facades, is a maze of tiny cobblestoned streets.
We stayed in the Atlantico, which is supposed to be one of the finest hotels in Cádiz. It sits at the western tip of the old city and is one of the many paradors, or upmarket state-owned hotels, dotted around Spain. A lot of them are housed in impressive old buildings. This one, however, is relatively new, although it occupies an exalted position on a small cliff edge and has stunning views over the Mediterranean.
You can see the highlights of Cádiz in a leisurely day, after which it's time to hit the beaches. Although the city has some pretty decent beaches of its own, heading farther south is an obvious next step. You pass through a number of dull-looking towns before arriving in Conil de la Frontera, which the invading Moors once described as a land of delights. It is a quiet town with some breathtaking beaches and fine restaurants, including some gloriously cheap lunchtime spots.
Known as chiringuitos, the restaurants on the beaches serve excellent salads and huge, freshly cooked seafood platters for little more than € 7 a throw. A carafe of house wine costs €5 and will leave you sufficiently muzzy-headed for an afternoon snooze on the beach.
Conil is first and foremost a family-friendly resort, with water so shallow that it feels as if you could wade across to Tangier. It is pretty quiet for 11 months of the year, when cheap accommodation is easy to find. A quirk in the Spanish psyche, however, means that everyone insists on taking their holidays in August, creating a four-week stretch when the streets are packed, hotels and villas are booked solid, restaurants are full from early evening, the beaches close to town are crowded and there are queues outside Conil's single beachfront nightclub, with its terminally uncool Europop, which draws young people - and some slightly bewildered older folk - from far and wide.
Beyond Conil, nestled in a mountain perch about 10km from the coast, sits the nicely sleepy, and dazzlingly white, mountain town of Vejer de la Frontera - one of the area's pueblos blancos, or white villages - which is worth a brief visit. Its Moorish town houses accommodate quirky art galleries and restaurants, mostly centred around the town's plazeula.
Back on the coast, keen-eyed tourists will see signposts for Trafalgar, the spot that gave its name to one of the most famous sea battles of all time. The place where Nelson met his fate, in 1805, is at sea just a few kilometres south of the headland, although history buffs expecting to see any class of maritime monument will be disappointed, as the windswept beaches are over-run with young kite surfers doing tricks on the water by day and smoking cheap hashish and drinking cheaper rum in the huge dunes by night.
The hippy-surfer vibe continues in Tarifa, a further 40km to the south. The costa town with the loudest buzz, it has dozens of bars and cheap restaurants to cater for the thousands of laid-back surfers who come each year to take advantage of the exhilarating waves whipped up by the easterly winds known as the Levante. For some it will be a fun place to hang out, but it's not ideal if you just fancy lounging on the beach reading potboilers. When the Levante blows it really blows, and it's not uncommon to see sunworshippers being driven from the seafront by sandstorms.
Tarifa is an ideal base for a quick jaunt to Africa. You can make the 12km crossing to tired old Tangier in less than an hour, for €29 one way, but be warned that the change of pace can be quite unsettling - and that you'll be sorely disappointed if you expect to find the glamorous port made famous by a host of 1950s Hollywood starlets and jet- setters. It should, however, prove to be the only disappointment of the trip.
Where to stay, where to eat, where to go
Where to stay
CÁDIZ
Parador Hotel Atlantico. Perched on a small cliff overlooking the ocean, the Atlantico has a large pool and a small stretch of beach beneath it. The rooms are average in size and fairly ordinary, but the service is excellent and the food is good. Double rooms cost €128 a night in peak season. See www.paradores- spain.com.
Hospederia Las Cortes de Cádiz. Located in the old town, this airy hotel is built around a bustling courtyard and a tower that had a former life helping to guide maritime traffic in and out of the port. It has a small gym and jacuzzi and an all-you-can-eat breakfast (supplement € 7.50). Double rooms cost €138 a night in peak season. See www.hotel lascortes.com.
CANIL DE LA FRONTERA
Hotel Fuerte Conil. A large, eco-friendly hotel on the outskirts of Conil de la Frontera, this has good restaurants, decent pools and friendly staff. It is also very close to the lovely Playa de la Fontanilla and a stone's throw from some of the area's nicest restaurants. Be warned that the hotel is a long, long walk uphill from the town's taxi rank and bus depot, so don't make the mistake of thinking you can walk it. It's also worth checking out the offers on the website, as the rack rates of close to €200 a night in high season are pretty prohibitive. See www.hotelfuerteconil.com.
Hostal Los Hermanos, Calle Virgen. The quaintest place to stay in the town is this 200-year-old pension in the heart of Conil. It is old-fashioned, cheap and clean, although, with just eight rooms, it tends to book up fast for the summer.
Where to eat
CÁDIZ
El Faro, Calle San Felix. Ask in any hotel for a restaurant recommendation, or read any of the guidebooks, and they will send you here. The menu is longand seafood-heavy, and the restaurant is quite pricey and, at least on the occasion we were there, devoid of atmosphere.
Bar Terraza, Plaza de la Catedral. A Cádiz institution, this restaurant serves lovely regional cuisine in a fabulous atmosphere. It is expensive but probably worth it.
CONIL DE LA FRONTERA
La Fontanilla and Francisco sit side by side close to the Hotel Fuerte Conil. This is where you can see the best sunsets and find the best fish dishes. The steak, incidentally, is pretty good, too, and the extensive wine lists offer some great-value bottles. In the town proper, choose from any number of restaurants and bars in the tapas triangle between the plazas España, Andalucia and Catalina.
Where to go
CÁDIZ
There are some spots in Spain where Carnaval - the weekend before Lent, culminating on Shrove Tuesday - is pretty special. Up north, Asturias can be rocking. In Andalusia, the place to be is Cádiz, which parties like crazy for days. For the rest of the year, nightlife in the city is low-key, despite a large student population. It centres around Punta de San Felipe, at the heart of the town's harbour.
El Malecón is where to go to dance salsa and merengue; Peña Juan Villar and La Cava are where the flamenco dancers hang out. In the new town in the summer, there are scores of small clubs and bars where bacalao (the Spanish word for cod, which in this context means bad techno) blares from every doorway.
CONIL DE LA FRONTERA
There is only one place to go in Conil at night: Las Carpas (the Tents), a huge nightclub on the beach in front of the town. There's techno, salsa, flamenco and rock on alternating nights - and sometimes on the same night. It's cheesy but great fun - and, remarkably, completely free.
Go there
Aer Lingus and Ryanair fly from Dublin and Cork to Faro. Although it's in Portugal, and a three-hour drive from Cádiz, Faro is convenient for parts of the Costa de la Luz. Both airlines also serve Seville, 90 minutes north of Cádiz. The city's nearest airport is Jerez de la Frontera. Taxis from Jerez cost about €50 for the 30-minute journey. A train from Jerez to Cádiz costs closer to €3 and takes just under an hour.