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The Guardian {Travel}
Keyword:
Cádiz
UK
Saturday 27, September 2014
8,9,10
2436 sq. cm
ABC 177827 Daily
page rate £11,400.00, scc rate £42.00
020 3353 2000
With sunshine pouring down on golden sands, ancient
buildings and the sparkling ocean, Spain’s far south-west
lives up to its name, the coast of light, says Sorrel Downer
Cádiz and the
Costa de la Luz
T
he old walled towns
are densely packed
with medieval
churches, Arabic
forts, watchtowers,
palaces, bodegas,
tobacconists, scooters,
bars full of bullfighting
paraphernalia, kids on pink bicycles,
and people eating fish at rickety tables
that block the traffic.
The spaces in between the coastal
towns of Cádiz province – craggy
mountains, pine forests, fields and
endless beaches – are empty and wild.
Over it are big skies which, given the
guaranteed 300 days of sun a year, are
almost always blue and bright, hence
the name given to this stretch of the
Atlantic coast, Costa de la Luz, or coast
of light.
The province of Cádiz feels more
foreign, exotic and isolated than
neighbouring Málaga. Popular with
visitors 3,000 years ago, it’s currently
going through an “undiscovered”
phase. And, in the south especially,
there’s more evidence of centuries of
Arab rule: there’s fierce heat (down
to a pleasant 20C average in October),
dust, wrenching flamenco coplas
(songs) playing in shops, bars and
taxis, and you can see Africa from
the beaches. It’s also more laid-back,
thanks in part to sherry. The coastal
f
lú
d
d
l
towns of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, El
Puerto de Santa Maria, Cádiz and
nearby Jérez, are important points on
the official sherry triangle, and awash
with it.
There’s a lovely, logical route
along the coast, heading south from
Sanlúcar de Barrameda (erstwhile
home of Christopher Columbus and
Ferdinand Magellan, and a gateway
to the new world in the early 16th
century) through the city of Cádiz,
to the deservedly touristy Vejer
de la Frontera, and the unspoiled
beaches of Zahora, Zahara, Bolonia
and Valdevaqueros, before ending up
in Tarifa. Straight through, it would
take less than three hours, but to do it
justice, allow a week … or a month.
Cádiz city
The best way to appreciate Cádiz –
as well as Tarifa, Sanlúcar and, to a
lesser extent, Jérez – is by wandering
aimlessly. This is for two reasons. First,
the city’s history of being occupied by
Romans and Moors, enriched by trade
with the new world, sacked by the
British, fortified, and matured in the
damp sea air means every one of its
narrow cobbled streets spans centuries
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UK
Saturday 27, September 2014
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of history and has eyefuls of sights.
Second, it’s impossible not to get lost
(although, because it’s a small city, and
bordered on three sides by beautiful
beaches, not for long). Look out for the
cathedral with its golden dome; the
18th-century watchtower, Torre Tavira;
the Mercado Central; and the Freiduría
Las Flores, the best of the city’s many
fried frish joints.
Baelo Claudia Roman ruins, Bolonia
If you ignore the three beach bars close
by the fish salting vats, little appears to
have changed in Baelo Claudia since its
heyday during the reign of Claudius.
The villas, forum, shops, basilica and
baths aren’t what they were in 2AD –
when an earthquake accelerated the
decline in its fortunes – but it’s easy
to imagine the citizens looking out
to sea while waiting for the action to
kick off in the amphitheatre. Various
feet, heads, urns and reclining gods are
displayed in the modern museum, an
architectural gem. Bolonia beach is one
of Spain’s best – long, unspoiled and
backed by pine forest. (Turn right for
the dunes, left for the nudist cove.)
• Closed Mondays, free entry for
EU visitors
Museo de la Manzanilla and Bodegas
Barbadillo, Sanlúcar
This museum would be a good way
to glean information pertinent to
buying sherries of all kinds – olorosos,
manzanillas and palo finos – but
for the tasting session at the end
which will wipe your memory
clear. However, the chance to pad
through the shadowy aisles of damp
barrels, and admire the ecclesiastical
architecture shouldn’t be missed.
There are nine bodegas here, but
Barbadillo, which swallowed up
convents and houses, Pacman-like, in
the 19th century, is the biggest. Invest
€6 in a bottle of Solear as you exit
through the gift shop.
• Calle Sevilla 6, barbadillo.com, tours
11am (English), noon and 1pm (Spanish),
€6pp
Windsurfing, kite surfing, and surfing,
Tarifa
The heady combination of strong
winds, warm winters and extensive
sandy beaches have established Tarifa
as a top destination for year-round
wet fun. There are dozens of schools
offering every possible permutation of
tuition and course, from a three-hour
try-out upwards (from beginner to
winner, as they say), as well as shops
selling and renting equipment. You’ll
see signs to schools as you pass Punta
Paloma on the N340 to Tarifa, and
nothing but as you enter Tarifa itself.
Casa Balbino, Sanlúcar
The heavenly combination of local
seafood and local wine is ubiquitous
in Cádiz, but nowhere is it as good as
at family-run Balbino. Now 75 years
old, the restaurant attracts celebrities,
politicians and well-heeled locals,
though it’s far from fancy. You have to
squeeze in, claw your way along the
seafood display, order by weight at the
bar, balance your teetering stack, and
eat standing up under a bull’s head and
framed matador snaps. Thankfully, the
staff are funny and fast, and the food –
mojama (sundried tuna), squid, stuffed
spider crabs, baby sole, langoustines
– is delicious. Meat is available, but
it’s fish and seafood tapas, hot and
cold, that this place is famed for, and
tortillitas de camarones (shrimp fritters)
above all. So good, and so cheap.
• Plaza de Cabildo 14, casabalbino.com
El Lola, Tarifa
You’re spoilt for choice tapas-wise in old
Tarifa but for a relaxed cafe atmosphere
matched with top-class food, familyrun El Lola is hard to beat. Try the
garlicky potatoes with fresh mackerel,
and then the langoustines, avocado and
wasabi, with the degustación de atún
rojo (red tuna tasting plate) for starters.
El Lola is the last in a lane that is full of
bars, so you could start at the originals
– Los Melli and El Paisillo – and work
your way down.
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Saturday 27, September 2014
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• Calle Guzmán el Bueno 5
• Calle Isaac Peral 1
El Jardín del Califa, Vejer
Africa, just across the Strait of Gibraltar,
is resolutely ignored as inspiration by
most local chefs. But El Jardín del Califa
is the exception, with a predominance
of North African dishes, served under
palm trees in a walled courtyard lit
by flaming torches. It offers an allencompassing dining experience, from
the exotic setting, right through the
mezes, pastelas (meat pastries) and
tagines, to the Sultan’s cheesecake.
It’s deservedly popular (Moorish and
Taberna la Manzanilla, Cádiz
At first glance it looks like a farmacia …
except that all the medicine in the dark
old cabinets is manzanilla sherry. The
walls are lined with bottles of all sizes
and ages, many of the ornate faded
labels signed by matadors, flamenco
stars and other local celebs. They are
not for drinking, so don’t ask. What you
want is in the salty, tangy manzanilla in
the barrels. The regulars may fall silent
as you enter and the system and the
moreish), so book well in advance.
• Plaza de España 16, +34 956 447
730, jardin.lacasadelcalifa.com,
closed January
Restaurante Joselito Huerta, Sanlúcar
José opened a bar here on the sandy
shores of the Guadalquivir estuary
55 years ago, serving sherry to
fishermen at the end of a long morning.
Inevitably, it wasn’t long before he
hit on the bright idea of cooking their
catch, too. The menu is basically a
list of things caught in the sea, fried
and served with a slice of lemon.
The clientele is local and loyal. Weather
permitting, tables and umbrellas are set
up at the water’s edge, offering a view
continued on page 10 The
province
of Cádiz
feels more
foreign,
exotic and
isolated
than its
neighbour
Málaga
of boats, and the dunes and bird haven
that is Doñana national park.
• Avenida Bajo de Guía 30, +34 956 362
694, joselitohuerta.com
Bar Barbiana, Sanlúcar
It has the look of a pricey deli – backlit
shelves of wine, artfully arranged
langoustines – but the football is always
on the television, the mood’s relaxed
and the drinks are cheap. Like just
about every bar in Cádiz, it does food,
and it is excellent – try the papas aliñas
(potatoes , olive oil, sherry vinegar,
parsley and chives). Outdoor tables
provide front-row viewing for the
evening paseo in Plaza del Cabildo.
ll
l
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Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Jerez
El Puerto de
Santa María
Cádiz
Spain
Vejer de la Frontera
Zahora
Algeciras
Zahara de los Atunes
Bolonia
Atlantic
Ocean
Valdevaqueros
Tarifa
Sun, sand and seafood … the beach at Zahara de los Atunes and a Cádiz tapas bar
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PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY; MARCOS WELSH/GETTY IMAGES
UK
Saturday 27, September 2014
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Light and shade
… customers
enoy a break at
a cafe in Cádiz’s
Plaza de la
Catedral
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continued from page 9
choice appear baffling, b ut just ask for
a vino and slide over a couple of euros.
Whatever happens next will be good.
• Calle Feduchy 19,
lamanzanilladecadiz.com, closed Sat and
Sun eves
Sajorami Beach, Zahora
Andalucía’s iconic beach bars, the
chiringuitos, batten down the hatches
mid-September, but this one – part of
a laid-back hotel – stays open through
October. Tables and benches are set in
the sand on a bluff above either glassy
lagoons or frothy Atlantic rollers,
depending on the tide. The Battle of
Trafalgar took place just off here in
October 1805, which is something
to think about as you snack on tuna
carpaccio and sip your tinto de verano.
• Pago de Zahora, sajoramibeach.com
Posada de Palacio, Sanlúcar
This hotel has a faded beauty but a
prized location among the palaces
and bodegas of the barrio alto (upper
town). Comprising three once grand
houses, and furnished with antique
mirrors, desks, cabinets, clocks,
statues, lamps and paintings, it’s
like an underfunded museum with
comfortable beds. The finest features
are the original ones – the internal
courtyards, traditional floor tiles, huge
bedroom doors and shuttered windows
opening on to balconies – all of which
retain the authentic spirit of place. The
owners plan to renovate and knock
through to a fourth house, a neglected
old property around the corner
which in 1498 allegedly belonged to
Columbus.
• Calle Caballeros 9-11, +34 956 365060,
posadadepalacio.com, doubles from €90
Hotel Argantonio, Cádiz
Central Cádiz looks as if it should be
expensive but it’s not. You can find a
place to stay within walking distance of
every monument, plaza and playa on
the map without forking out too much.
Argantonio is the hotel you hope to
find in all cities: central, friendly and
affordable, round the corner from a good
bar. Quintessentially Andalucían, with
tiled floors, fountain and courtyard, it
has pretty, if compact, bedrooms. There
is parking nearby, but set the teeth
and stretch the nostril wide if you’re
planning to drop off your luggage first:
roads here are narrow and generally
have something parked in them.
• Calle Argantonio 3, +34 956 211640,
hotelargantonio.es, doubles from €85
Hotel La Casa del Califa, Vejer
Hope for rain and curl up in an
armchair with a book, linger over lunch
in the atmospheric restaurant, watch
clouds scudding over the pile of white
blocks, domes and church towers that
make up this spectacular town. Like
Vejer itself, the hotel has a long history
(it’s made up of eight houses, dating
from the 10th to the 17th centuries,
with a 1,000-year-old water cistern,
stables, courtyards and a grain store),
and is aesthetically pleasing and
seductively relaxing. But the Califa is
the ideal base from which to explore
the coast: Sanlúcar is one hour away;
Cádiz one and a half hours – both to the
north, and Tarifa just 45 minutes away
to the south. The boutiques, bars and
churches of Vejer itself are about five
paces from the door.
• Plaza de España 16, +34 956 447730,
lacasadelcalifa.com, closed January,
doubles from €80
Wallpaper House and Boston House,
La Peña, Tarifa
You’ll appreciate how elemental this
coast is after a week in one of these
two super-private, prefabricated
open-plan beach houses above the
strait of Gibraltar. Sitting in a natural
amphitheatre under a rocky ridge, the
larger, Wallpaper House, sleeps six and
was designed for Wallpaper* magazine.
A polite distance away, Boston House,
sleeping four, is basic but romantic and
engulfed in flowers. It was shipped
from the US in bits, with instructions.
This is indoor-outdoor living at its best.
• +34 687 962 394, elcanchotarifa.com,
from €120 a night, minimum seven nights
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Saturday 27, September 2014
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Riad Lolita, Tarifa
A classy renovation of a 19th-century
house, Riad Lolita is available by the
room or in its entirety. Languorous
and stylish with a touch of the film set,
it’s all greys, whites and creams, with
tiled floors, marble staircases, beams,
shutters and billowing curtains, crisp
linens and chandeliers. Rooms are
wrapped around an inner courtyard,
and shared spaces include a pleasing
kitchen – although given its location
inside the old city, surrounded by
cafés, bars and bakeries, you probably
won’t be doing much cooking. The
family suite (double, bathroom, and
triple) is a rare thing and top value.
• Calle Jerez 18, +34 660 863 437,
riadlolitatarifa.com, doubles from €50,
family suite from €95
Getting there
Ryanair flies to Jerez from Stansted and
Gatwick from £54 return. By car Cádiz
is 35 minutes and Tarifa 90 minutes
away. Trains run from Jerez airport
to Cádiz (one hour). Several budget
airlines fly to Málaga, which is just over
two hours’ drive from Cadiz province.
Sorrel Downer blogs at
somewheresville.org
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CADIZ PHOTOGRAPH: ALAMY
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Royal and ancient … Hotel La Casa
del Califa in Vejer and (right) walking
along the sea wall in Cádiz
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