Country Guides Country Guide: Costa De La Luz

Date Published:

29/05/2008

Our woman in Marbella, Sarah Vaughan, takes a day trip to the Costa de la Luz and checks out the property market.

The Costa de la Luz is a unaffected stretch of coastline that until now has kept its riches hidden somewhat under a bushel. Stretching from Tarifa, the southernmost tip of Europe all the way to the Portuguese border, encompassing the provinces of Cadiz and Huelva along the way, this coast is underdeveloped and undiscovered, a stark contrast to its neighbouring Algarve to the west and the Costa del Sol to the east.

A wealth of attributes have put the Costa de la Luz on the map, from the swathes of white sand backed by dunes and pine forests to the legions of colourful kites that dot the skies over the beaches of Tarifa and from the Sherry makers of Jerez to the largest wildlife reserve in Europe at Parque Nacional Donana.

Add to this the romantic vibrancy of Seville and 3200 hours of sunshine a year (that's an average of nearly nine hours a day), it's little wonder that the Spanish choose this particular Costa as their holiday destination of choice. Also with four international airports serving this region, namely Jerez, Gibraltar, Seville and Faro which is just half an hour away over the Portuguese border, the northern Europeans are quickly following the Spanish lead.