Cadiz is a province in the Andalusia region of Spain. Tourists are drawn to the region mainly for the kilometres of mostly wide sandy beaches behind protective dunes along the Costa de la Luz. In the nearby hinterland, in the nature parks of the Sierra Grazalema and Sierra Alcornocales, there is a quiet mountain landscape with beautiful hiking trails and spectacular views. The mountain villages there are lined up in a Ruta de Pueblos Blancos (route of the white villages), which crowns the experience of nature. However, the same flair can also be experienced in many of the coastal villages.
Cities
- Cádiz 📍 — provincial capital and oldest city in Western Europe
- Algeciras 📍 — the gateway to Morocco
- Algodonales 📍 — at the northern entrance of the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park
- Barbate 📍 — a fishing port on the south-west coast of Cádiz province
- Chipiona 📍 — a beautiful town on the Costa de la Luz with a striking lighthouse
- El Puerto de Santa María 📍 — just across the Cádiz bay from the city of Cádiz
- Jerez de la Frontera 📍
- La Línea de la Concepción 📍 – the gateway to Gibraltar
- Novo Sancti Petri 📍 — one of the largest seaside resorts on the Costa de la Luz
- Olvera 📍 — a town perched high on a hill with a magnificent church, and a Moorish castle
- Sanlúcar de Barrameda 📍 — part of the "sherry triangle", it is famous for beach horse-racing and flamenco music
- Tarifa 📍 — at the southernmost tip of the Spanish mainland, this town is well known for its picturesque old town and as a hotspot for windsurfers and kiteflyers
- Ubrique 📍 — this pueblo blanco is a mountain town found between two national parks
Other destinations
- Cabo de Trafalgar — Cape on the Atlantic Ocean, steeped in history, near the site of a famed battle between the British navy, and the combined French and Spanish navies in 1805
- The Parque natural de La Breña y Marismas del Barbate to the south, between the coastal towns of Los Canos de Meca and Barbate
- Baelo Claudia is a well-preserved Roman city with an ancient fish sauce factory
- Puerto de la Paloma offers a great panoramic view under vultures
- El Palmar, a surfing paradise between Conil and Vejer
Understand
In contrast to the Costa del Sol on the Mediterranean, the wind-blown coast is much more varied with intermediate cliffs and narrow bays underneath, but above all it is not yet so developed by mass tourism. What is particularly striking is the absence of huge apartment complexes. Most of the time, the focus of accommodation options is on small, often family-run hotels or holiday apartments. The Spanish Atlantic coast offers special attractions, especially for windsurfers, while beach holidaymakers, on the other hand, have to be prepared for an occasionally harsher climate.
The province of Cádiz was shaped by the Moors until the 13th century, and the town centres developed at that time have often been preserved to this day. The area was hotly contested at the time of the Christian reconquest, the many castles and watchtowers still bear witness to this today. The addition "de la frontera" for many place names also comes from this time when the respective places were border towns between the Moorish and Christian sides.
For centuries, the area has lived on tuna fishing and its processing, which can still be seen today in the public buildings. In most of the fortifications, small fish processing facilities are integrated, which were important centers of public life until the last century.
The largest and economically most agile city is Jerez, but most of the inhabitants gather around the bay (Bahia) of Cádiz, which seems to grow together with the area of Chiclana more and more into a single economic area.
Talk
The people of Cádiz speak Spanish, although there are many varied dialects in each town, encompassed in the Andalusian dialect. The local Andalusian dialect is mainly characterized by a mumbling omission of consonants (Cádiz becomes Cái). The province of Cádiz generally belongs to the lisping part of Andalusia.
Get in
By train
The province of Cádiz is connected by train with Seville, Córdoba and Madrid, with 2 daily TALGO and with Barcelona with 1 daily TALGO.
By plane
By plane, Jerez airport (about 30 minutes by car, €46 by taxi) has daily flights from Madrid and Barcelona (Iberia, Spanair and Vueling), and from several English cities (Ryanair). Gibraltar airport has flights from London.
By road
It is connected by Autopista with Seville and Malaga.
By sea
There are very frequent ferries to North Africa (Tarifa - Tangier, Algeciras - Tangier and Algeciras - Ceuta).
By bus
Schedules for Jerez-Cádiz and other routes are available online. Most of the long-distance buses leave from the Comes station in the Plaza de la Hispanidad.
Get around
See
Many of the pueblos blancos (white villages) are to be found in Cadiz. In particular, Alcala de los Gazules, Grazalema, and Zahara de la Sierra are very attractive and excellent walking centres.
- Camara Oscura. The Camara Oscura is a periscope type system mounted on the top of an old tower. It projects its image into a horizontally mounted concave dish about 6 foot in diameter. What you see is a real-time projection of the city, people hanging their laundry on rooftop balconies, birds flying by and ships passing each other out on the ocean. Moving pictures!
Do
- A two-week flamenco festival takes place in Jerez de la Frontera every year at the end of February.
- Feria del Caballo, the horse fair, the festival week is at the beginning of May in the González de Hontoria Parkin Jerez de la Frontera. It dates back to 1284 and was initially a cattle market. There are numerous events, show jumping tournaments, dressage competitions, horse rallies, exhibitions and auctions.
- The Carnival in Cadiz is famous nationwide. In addition to a parade with themed wagons, small groups roam the streets and talk about current events. This "cabaret" as well as the appropriate costumes are practiced all year round, here too the best are awarded at the end. Similar to Rio de Janeiro, the carnival here lasts a week longer. The best groups are allowed to show their skills in the streets the following weekend. Unfortunately you need a very good knowledge of Spanish or Andalusian to understand the sophisticated puns.
Eat
One of the things that visitors will always remember about Cadiz is the food. It is typical to eat "little fish" and the delicious prawns, but there are some inland villages where hare, partridge, and some game specimens are cooked. At night there are many bars that open along the promenades and you can really enjoy the tranquility of the sea and the charm of Cadiz. It is a beautiful place to which adding gastronomy becomes luxurious. In Chipiona there is a bar called "El Salaito", where you can eat very well.
Drink
Sanlucar de la Barameda, Jerez de la Frontera, and Puerto de Santa Maria, form what is known as the Sherry Triangle in the Cadiz province. Each city specializes in particular types of sherry; Sanlucar produces Manzanilla which is soft enough to taste like a white wine and Jerez produces Fino which is a very dry sherry.