The Costa Almeria is one of the least known Mediterranean coastal strips in Spain, lying in the south-eastern part of Andalucia. It’s part of the wider province of Almeria, located in the southeast corner of the Iberian Peninsula with the city of the same name as its capital. Until recently, international tourists have largely shunned this region with its barren, almost lunar landscape where hundreds of Italian ‘spaghetti westerns’ were filmed in the 1960s. But holiday resorts are now beginning to develop along this 200 Kilometres coastline which offers uncrowded beaches, pretty sheltered coves and the rugged wilderness of Spain’s southeastern cape.

Almeria has much to offer foreign visitors and even the dry interior has its charms. You can still see the movie sets left behind by the makers of Hollywood classics such as The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Fistful Of Dollars and Lawrence Of Arabia. The region is also famed for its troglodyte villages where modern day cave dwellers live in extraordinary homes burrowed out of the soft rock.

Almeria has a wealth of historic sites, museums, art galleries, good restaurants and traditional tapas bars. You can even pop over to North Africa from the ferry port.

On the east coast of the province is the Moorish hill top town of Mojacar which was the first place in this region to be discovered and exploited by the tour operators. This attractive ancient town, with its clusters of whitewashed buildings and narrow, winding streets, is now a thriving centre of international tourism with a lively beach and nightlife scene in the summer months. North of Mojacar is Garrucha and Vera.

At the eastern corner of the province lies the Cabo Del Gato Nijar nature reserve with its desert landscape and rugged virgin coastline peppered with small coves, only accessible on foot. This is a sparsely populated and desolate area but it holds many attractions for hikers, nature lovers, bird watchers and scuba divers.

To the west of Almeria city there’s the tourist resort of Aguadulce which has plenty of hotels, international restaurants, a yacht harbour and a variety of watersports. A little further along the coast you’ll find the popular resort of Roquetas De Mar, an attractive fishing village with whitewashed houses, a bustling harbour and a good range of sports.