Things You Need to Know Before You Visit Almeria, Spain

In Almeria, there is such thing as a free lunch – or a snack, at least. When you order a beer, glass of wine or soft drink, you’ll receive a plate of tapas for free, making it an incredibly cheap and enjoyable city in which to eat out. Some places will offer you a choice before you order, whereas in others a surprise dish will arrive – but either way, it’ll be completely gratis.

Get a proper taste of Almeria’s finest cuisine with these local food tours.

Almeria is famous throughout Spain for its gorgeous beaches, most of which are completely unspoilt, despite their popularity. The most spectacular stretches of sand are to be found in the Cabo de Gata Natural Park (see below), where the virginal playas back on to terrain studded with cacti, dunes and mountains. Playa de los Genoveses and Playa de los Muertos are the best.

Visit the best of Almeria’s surroundings with these day trips away from the city.

Some 30km northwest of Almeria is Europe’s only desert, and a big attraction in the Almeria area, the Desierto Tabernas. This wild expanse of sand dunes, hills and mountains is rarely visited by rain, and home to species of flora that struggle to exist anywhere else on the continent. Prickly local residents include the yellow scorpion and the small but deadly black widow spider. Tread carefully.

The Tabernas is largely responsible for making Almeria the driest city in continental Europe, with annual rainfall of just 200mm. It is also the second-warmest city on the continent (first place goes to another Andalusian gem, Seville), with annual temperatures almost never dipping below 19C. As if that weren’t enough to entice sun junkies, a temperature below freezing has never been recorded in Almeria.

Book one of these tours to discover the best of Almeria’s tourist sights.

During the 1960s and 70s, the dusty, rugged landscape of Almeria’s Tabernas desert became a popular filming destination for Hollywood. Many classics of that era were shot here, most famously the Sergio Leone westerns starring Clint Eastwood. You can visit three of the Wild West sets that were built specifically for these classics: Little Hollywood, Fort Bravo and Western Leone.

The last city in Andalusia to be held by the Republicans during Spain’s 1936-39 Civil War, Almeria was subjected to repeated and devastating bombings. So relentless were the attacks that engineers built a 4.5km network of subterranean tunnels in which civilians could take refuge; today, 1km of these underground havens – called the Refugios de la Guerra Civil – can be visited (tours only in Spanish).

Though not as famous as the Alhambra in nearby Granada, Almeria’s Moorish fort, or Alcazaba, is a magnificent structure. It was built during the latter half of the 10th century by Abd al-Rahman III, the powerful caliph who was also responsible for Córdoba’s Medina Azahara. Almeria’s splendour and importance during this period is captured in the Spanish saying, “when Almeria was Almeria, Granada was but its farm”.

Book one of these cultural tours to explore the best of Almeria’s history and civilization.

Just 40km east along the coast from Almeria is the spectacular Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park – the biggest protected nature reserve on the Mediterranean coast. Here you’ll find beautiful beaches, breathtaking mountains and dunes and over a thousand species of flora. You can explore its uninhabited expanses by foot, bike or horseback, marvelling as you go to the castles from which Moors and Christians once battled Berber pirates.

Cabo de Gata’s salt flats are a mesmerising landscape and home to hundreds of flamingos. The salt flats are an important habitat for migrating birds travelling from Europe to Africa; it’s so important that the European Union designated the whole area a Special Protection Area for birdlife.

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The artistic splendours of Almeria are not solely owed to the city’s period under Islamic rule. You can also visit the Gothic and Renaissance-style cathedral, which was built between 1524 and 1562 – a mere blink of an eye compared to the construction periods of Andalusia’s other great cathedrals. It served as both a place of worship and a defence against marauding Berber pirates.

Find the best of what Almeria has on offer for couples with these romantic tours.

Even by Andalusian standards, Almeria is an elegant and stately city, but it’s often overlooked in favour of the region’s more famous destinations such as Seville and Granada. In choosing to visit Almeria, you’re picking an underdog city – a place that will give you the incomparable pleasure of going where others don’t and discovering something new and beautiful.

Sports fans can also take in plenty of events in Almeria on these sporting tours.

The whitewashed town of Níjar is a popular stop-off point in Cabo de Gata and is particularly famous for its handcrafted pottery, textiles and ceramics. Try some local tapas in one of the town’s little bars, and see the Mudejar-style Santa María church on the main square, the Plaza de la Constitucion.

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The former gold-mining town of Rodalquilar was practically a ghost town until a new wave of refurbishment in the 1990s brought a host of bars, restaurants and B&Bs. You can visit the old gold mines and the interesting Casa de los Volcanes, a museum about the mines and the geology of the wider Cabo de Gata area.

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It might seem strange that what is essentially a desert can also be Spain’s biggest vegetable exporter, but Almería’s warm, dry climate means growing fruit and vegetables is a year-round possibility. Produce is mainly grown in more than 31,000ha (76,603 acres) of greenhouses, making up around 39 percent of Spain’s fruit and vegetable exports.

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San José, within the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, is the reserve’s unofficial capital and a great place to stop and explore; it’s a typical village of the area. The whitewashed houses are home to a population of around 850 people.

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