OUR LOCAL GUIDE
Welcome to the Costa de la Luz. Our area is not only gifted with great weather, long wild beaches and quality gastronomy , but also rich in history and tradition, as well as a great place for surf, horse riding, cycling and walking.
Here is a brief but personal guide to some of our favourite places on this luminous coast.
We have mainly listed places and activities on the magical 12km stretch of coastline between Conil, Los Caños and Trafalgar lighthouse. However the whole coast is gorgeous and it is well worth exploring further.
We have also omitted many places we love but the list would have been too long..
Feel free to ask us for any more recommendations for anything in the area.
Disfrutan!
El Palmar:
FOOD
Casa Juan – Great quality food and matching service. Well crafted and sometimes creative versions on local cuisine with an emphasis on seafood and specially local tuna. The restaurant is bright and airy and right by the sea. You’ll need to reserve most days. A Little pricy but worth it.
casajuanelpalmar.es
Alférez – Similar quality and style to Casa Juan also with one menú devoted exclusively to local red tuna
restauranteelalferez.com
El Cortijiyo – Simple and tasty typical Cádiz classics. Easy going and informal. But also gets pretty busy in high season.
cortijiyo.es
ZOCO El Palmar – Food stalls, quality shops and a decent bar set around to squares full of long tables for an outdoor festival feel. Great pizzas, mexican, sushi, hamburgers and fried fish.
Las Manuelas: good local food, cheap, 1km from the beach
Casa Isabel: another good local place near the beach
Cerveceria El Palmar: Cañas and tapas at high tables
There are many other restaurants along the beach and a couple a little way back that are decent. Check online because many close for periods of the off-season.
SHOPPING, SURF AND FUN:
El Palmar has numerous surf schools, a couple of markets and many bars big and small along the beachfont. Many of the bars have live music and DJs in the summer and weekends with different atmospheres.
Here are some of our suggestions:
La Mar Salá: Very stylish beach fashion shop and friendly surf school @lamarsala.elpalmar
OnTheSea: Surf school at the quiet north end of the beach escueladesurfonthesea.com
9PIES: friendly surf school close to Camino de Guerrero. They have a variety of boards for rent including some premium boards.
Check their webcam with a view to some of the best peaks:
ZOCO: Lots of cool shops with a bar and food stalls. Live music, jam sessions, DJs and kids area with weekend activities.
Gran Baba: Open holidays and all summer with consistently excellent live music and easy going beach vibes.
@granbabaoficial
Natura Playa: Big open beach club with great views. Open all year round.
@naturaplaya_elpalmar
Conil de la Frontera:
Conil has many restaurants and tapas bars as well as plenty of curious shops. Some places open all year round while many places in the old town are closed during winter.
There also nice walks in the area and renting bicylces to explore the Eurovelo cycle routes which is complete almost all the way from Cádiz to Tarifa.
FOOD
Venta Pericón: Quality and well presented local cuisine where you can get tapas or half rations or full rations of most dishes. Lively and friendly atmosphere full of locals. Reasonable prices.
pericon.es
Feduchy: Variety of quality tapas and rations in a pretty building at the entrance to the old town.
feduchy.com/feduchy-conil
Los Hermanos: This classic for Cádiz tapas always buzzing and often requires a wait. But its worth it for the authentic fried fish experience.
Cantina El Cachito: Peruvian and world cuisine. They do a good job with some of Peru´s delicious fusión cuisine.
Cooking Almadraba: High cuisine dedicated to red tuna. Creative and stylish while also expensive.
Esparte: A bar with its own craft beer and relaxed vibes. You can get food next door and take it your table.
La Casa Inquieta: Evening bar for good atmosphere and live music.
https://g.co/kgs/8nKU2eJ
Bakery Pancultura: Great organic handmade breads with all sorts of grains.
VISIT:
La Chanca: In the ruins of the old fish salting building there is a museum of the Almadraba with an interesting audiovisual exhibition, as well as the town library and exhibition spaces.
conildelafrontera.es/instalaciones/recinto-la-chanca
Walk: to El Palmar along the beach or the other direction past Fontanilla beach along the cliffs.
Cycle: Eurovelo cycle route
Los Caños de Meca y Zahora:
5km from El Palmar and 12 km from Conil are the sleepy settlements of Caños de Meca and Zahora. Los Caños sits between the pine forest of Parque Natural de la Breña and the beautiful bays and beaches looking onto Cape Trafalgar. Zahora is between El Palmar and Los Caños and narrow streets between lots of walled houses and a few decent restaurants lead to a gorgeous wild beach.
Los Caños has great walks to the lighthouse and up into the woods, quality surf when its on and a few cool bars and decent restaurants.
The are more options for food and drinks in summer but also a few open all year.
La Pluma: Right on Zahora beach in a lovely wooden structure with great seaviews. This restaurant has good food including a moroccan menu. Open all year round and next to the bigger and fancier Sajorami Beach and its open all year.
sajoramibeach.com/restaurante-la-pluma
Ohana: Beach bar style bar with food which the last stop on the road the heads to the lighthouse. Great atmosphere with people sitting outside on the sand dunes watching the surf or listening to live music. Fairly decent food as well.
Las Dunas: Next door to Ohana is this big old classic Caños institution. It has lovely gardens, crazy wooden furniture. Great for drinks and ok food.
La Quilla: Beach bar looking over Caños beach with food and amazing views. A bit like being on a ship.
Mercado Caños: The biggest and best clothes and craft market in Caños with over 20 shops. Open in the summer season.
Mitsura: Also a variety of favourites from round the world. Consistently tasty and satisfying.
SO MUCH MORE TO SEE:
We could recommend so many more places but exploring is fun and is sure to bring rewards.
Of the many many other delights along this coast try not to miss:
Vejer de la Frontera. It is one the the prettiest hilltop Andaluz villages. Well looked after and becoming quite stylish in recent years. It has lots of decent restaurants and interesting shops.We especially like 4 Estaciones for food. Near to Vejer there is a very interesting outdoor contemporary art park on the Montemedio estate
fundacionnmac.org/es/
Zahara de los Atunes is on the coast with great beaches and is even quite chic with loads of stylish shops.
Barbate is the opposite of chic but is an authentic Andaluz town on a great beach. It has one of Cadiz´s best seafood restaurants – El Campero
Cadiz city. Our ancient capital is very pretty, surrounded by the sea and has an authentic feel that is sometimes missing in other European old cities.
Bolonia beach is maybe the prettiest along the coast and also has the ruins of a rRoman town just by the beach.
Tarifa is well worth a visit for the postion on the southern tip of Europe as well as its old town, surf scene and quality food options.