Costa de la Luz: Cádiz to Tarifa

Route description

Leave Cádiz across the bay on the La Pepa bridge and head south on the A-48 and N-340. Vejer de la Frontera, a white town of whitewashed lanes and Moorish arches, sits on a hill just off the main road; park at the bottom and walk up.

From Vejer take the minor road down to the coast at Los Caños de Meca and walk out to the lighthouse on Cape Trafalgar, off which Nelson won and died in 1805. Pine woods, cliffs and long beaches line the coast from here to Barbate and Zahara de los Atunes.

Rejoin the N-340 and turn off to Bolonia, where the Roman town of Baelo Claudia stands right on the beach with its theatre, temples and fish-salting tanks. Climb the huge dune at the western end of the bay for the view, then continue along the N-340 to the Mirador del Estrecho, where Morocco lies across the strait.

End in Tarifa, the southernmost town of mainland Europe, with its castle, old gate and kite-surfing beaches. The wind here, the levante from the east and the poniente from the west, blows for much of the year; it keeps summer cool but can make beach days hard work, so check the forecast.