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Almería is situated between latitudes 37º52' and 36º40' and longitudes 1º37' and 3º07'. With a total of 512.843 inhabitants, 46 per cent of its population is located in mountains, 34 in hills and 19 in plains. As a matter of fact, it is one of the most mountainous provinces of Spain and famous for its skier's paradise of the Sierra Nevada; despite of which it has made its name mainly out of its beaches. |
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The Almerian province includes a total of 102 municipalities. The census of the capital reaches 169,027 inhabitants.
The most populated municipalities are El Ejido, Roquetas de Mar, Adra, Níjar, Vícar, Huércal Overa, Berja, Albox and Cuevas del Almanzora.
Almeria city is well worth a visit with the Alcazaba castle overlooking the metropolis.
The regions airport is located just to the east of the city of Almeria. |
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The Costa de Almeria is as varied as any of the Spanish Coasts. The coast is still quite unspoilt. To the east of Almeria we find the rugged and desolate coast of the Cabo del Gato-Nijar natural park. This is an arid desert landscape and the annual rainfall here is less than 200mm. It is sparsely populated, few villages and a very low population density. Visitors feel a sense of exploration here as many of the coves can only be reached on foot. This area is particularly popular with nature lovers and back-packers. The most popular coastal village is San José.
West of Almeria city is the highly developed tourist resorts of Roquetas de Mar and Aqua Dulce. These have all the facilities of any modern resort to support the package holiday market. The developing complex of Almerimar has Marinas, golf courses, hotels and many other facilities.
The old fishing port town of Adra lies further west. In spite of the interesting castle and assorted archaeological remains, it is often missed by tourists travelling along the coastal motorway to or from the Costa Tropical.
At the north of the Costa de Almeria are kilometres of beaches between Mojácar, Garrucha, Vera and Villaricos; here you find the naturist beaches of Vera, but also a big number of new complexes which are being constructed day after day. Mojácar combines successfully the popular beach holiday with the hillside white village that tourist love to explore, meanwhile Villaricos has still kept its character as a fisher place, however with a growing touristy aspect.
Garrucha, which fascinates with its vivid harbour life, is actually approximately the same latitude as the most northerly parts of Africa, and normally enjoys exceptionally mild winter weather. The south-east corner of Spain within which it lies normally has around 322 sunny days each year and an exceptionally dry climate. This gives relief to people who suffer from rheumatism, arthritis and other maladies which are made worse in damp environments.
Most Spanish visitors take their main holidays in July or August and this is the time when this area is the busiest. It is also the time when temperatures can be high and air-conditioning, especially at night, can be a great benefit. However there is often a breeze from the sea and the weather is rarely stifling.
Visitors and property owners from northern European countries tend to holiday sometime between April - June or September - October when the weather is usually warm to hot and generally settled. Stiff sea breezes can whip up during settled days, but, as in the height of summer, this helps to avoid the climate becoming too stifling.
The weather can be fine and warm and good enough for sun-bathing throughout the winter, even in the depths of winter daytime highs of the low 70s in the shade are common in sheltered, south-oriented situations, though night temperatures can go down to frost. |
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