Last year myself, my husband and children visited the Roquetas de Mar holiday town on the Costa Almeria for our annual vacation. It was not that long ago that I first heard of it, so when we arrived there we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was as a holiday destination. The hotels were quite high rise, but the Roquetas de Mar beaches stretched for miles and it is really quite a cosmopolitan visitor destination. I had heard that it was the only true package holiday town on the Costa Almeria. There were plenty of very good hotels, fine restaurants, a local market, plus plenty of water activities. Roquetas de Mar is a wonderful place to spend a holiday relaxing by the swimming pool or on a beach, in fact most of our days were taken up by just doing this. Then in the evening we would stroll into town and select a different place to dine each night. The local cuisine in Roquetas de mar is very good and as it was originally a fishing town, the fish in the restaurants was cooked to perfection. Plus feasting on seafood on your vacation is a good way of not putting on to much extra weight! The local ice creams parlours were excellent, with home made specialities like pistachio and even kinder egg.

On a couple of afternoons we did venture outside of Roquetas de Mar for a break. We were informed that no vacation to the Costa Almeria is complete without a visit to the Texas Hollywood park. A real film set where famous films like “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good the Bad and the Ugly” were made. Now I fully expected it to have the feel of Disney but you were really aware of actually being on a real film but in reallity Texas Hollywood was so real that you could nearly forget that you were on a lot! There is a saloon with swing doors where you can order yourself a tiple and the baddies come running in for a surprisingly shoot out scaring the life out of anyone that was not expecting it. There is also a studio where you can dress up as a cowgirl or cowboy and have a memento of your visit. I wore a white outfit which I would not recommend as part of the authenticity of your visit is the huge volumne of dust!

Another day we toured the Cabo de Gata Natural Park, had a look around the lighthouse, had a picnic and thoroughly enjoyed looking for the wildlife of snakes, sea eagles and flamingos.

All in all it was a nice and relaxing break in Roquetas de Mar and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who needs to chill out for a break in the sunshine, with a few good options for day tours.

For plenty more information about Roquetas de Mar and advice please visit Roquetas de Mar