Vamos a La Playa

One of the greatest advantages of living in southern Spain is the weather- its been 80 and sunny here for a few weeks already. The advantage of living in Sevilla is that there are multiple beaches that are within a 90 minute, fairly cheap bus ride away. The three I have visited so far are: Matalascañas, Sanlúcar and Chipiona. Each of these beaches is on the Atlantic side, or the Costa de la Luz (Coast of Light)- they have more then 300 days of sunshine each year. Matalascañas is in the Huelva province and is the farthest north (its not shown on the map but is just south of Palos de la Frontera):

Sanlúcar and Chipiona are both on the northern edge of Cadiz province:

So in case you're ever in Southern Spain, here is my review of these playas:


Matalascañas is the closest beach to Sevilla and is just north of a National Park. It is a gorgeous, white-sand beach with a very cute boardwalk that runs along most of the beach. It wasn't too busy when I went in early April, but I'm sure its quite busy during the summer months. I would recommend coming here for a quieter, more relaxed beach experience.

Sanlúcar was my least favorite beach of the three- it was obvious that the beach is the party hot-spot at night because it was entirely trashed. There were broken bottles and garbage everywhere. Also, because the beach is on an inlet of the ocean, the water was extremely dirty. It was fine for a day of laying in the sun, but I wouldn't recommend it. However, they are known for the horses races along the beach in August, I believe, so that would be fun to see.

The third beach, Chipiona, was probably my favorite. Its a very cute, fun town that I would enjoy spending the day in. The beach was also gorgeous and extremely long. It had an active, fun family atmosphere- there was music playing and people dancing and running on the beach. The beach was also a gorgeous white-sand beach- I was extremely impressed. This is definitely my first choice to return to in the future!

 

Unfortunately, I was too relaxed at all three of these beaches to have taken any pictures myself, so all of the above pictures are stolen from Google. I will try to take pictures when I return to these beaches, but I can't make any promises.