About The Costa Tropical of Andalucia

An overview of the area

The Costa Tropical is a relatively unknown stretch of Spain’s southern coastline, and is part of Granada province in Andalucia. It lies between the more populous Costa del Sol to the west and the coast of Almeria to the east. Almuñecar, overlooking the crystal-clear and calm Mediterranean, is considered one of the prettiest and most picturesque spots of the "Tropical Coast of Granada", - a mountain landscape rolling down to the sea where avocados, custard apples, sugar cane, mangos, papayas and bananas grow.

The ‘Tropical Coast’ takes it name from the sub-tropical micro-climate which exists here. The area enjoys more than 320 days of sunshine a year with short mild winters and long hot summers.

AVERAGE TEMPERATURES - 18ºC in winter and 25ºC in summer.
WATER TEMPERATURES - 15ºC in winter and 23ºC in summer.
DISTANCES - 76 Km from Granada and 85 Km from Málaga.

Everything seems easy and easy going in this white town plenty of character and overflowing with humanity. Almunecar has escaped the concrete developments which predominate further west on the Costa del Sol. It’s a favoured holiday haunt of the Spanish from Granada, and therefore retains its Spanish authenticity, and has not been tainted by the trappings of mass tourism.

The town’s location – 1hr east of Malaga International airport and just 40 mins’ drive from the historic city of Granada make it both easily accessible and ideally placed for exploring one of the most fascinating regions of Spain. The town’s old quarter is a charming maze of narrow, cobbled streets crowned by the remains of the Moorish castle of San Miguel.

The coastline stretches for 19 kilometres with no less than 26 different beaches which include wide expanses of sand, sheltered coves and small rocky bays only accessible by steep tracks.

There’s a bustling marina to the west of the town at Punta del Este with a wealth of watersports and moorings for 227 boats, as well as restaurants, cafes and beaches.

With strong Islamic roots and a history of unrelenting poverty, Andalucia is perhaps the least European part of Western Europe, but the region’s heritage is Spanish as well as Muslim. It gave us Velasquez, Picasso and Lorca, and is also a hotbed of flamenco, fiesta and bullfighting.

Almunecar was founded by the Phoenicians almost 3000 years ago and has since been occupied by a succession of Mediterranean cultures including, most importantly , the Romans and the Moors. Numerous monuments still exist, in particular the fascinating Roman fish factory, in the centre of Almunecar, and the aqueduct.

Almunecar and its handsome Moorish castle sit on a small hill between the mouths of two rivers – the Rio Seco and the larger Rio Verde. The latter runs through Almunecar’s Tropical Valley, a fertile area of sub-tropical fruit orchards, olive and almond groves that line the valley floor and climb the terraced hillsides.

Above everything towers the majestic Sierra Nevada. These mountains, which include the highest peak in mainland Spain, form a natural weather-break which protects the Costa Tropical coastline from the cold of the European winters. As a result, the area has an extraordinarily benign subtropical climate which you can see in the variety of exotic fruits in the daily Almunecar market.