THINGS WE HAVE DONE THAT WE PARTICULARLY ENJOYED

Visit the Argentine Steak House for a 8oz piece of steak with blue cheese sauce

La Cabana Parrilla Argentina, 163 Paseo Mediterraneo, Mojacar Playa 950 615 179

www.laparrillamojacar.com .

Long established restaurant for a serious Ernest Hemingway type steak. Always busy but no need to book

Buy freshly caught seafood and really inexpensive wines, beers and spirits and freshly baked bread from Mercadona Supermarket situated 100m behind the apartment complex

You can buy really brilliant seafood - crustaceans and unusual fish - inexpensively at the supermarket behind the apartment complex, cook a series of great meals in the apartment, all lubricated with good quality wines purchased for a whole lot less than in the UK. If you forget the name, this is the supermarket branded with the colour green and is frequented by locals. If you get caught out on Sunday, when it is closed, the orange branded Consum Supermarket is open on Sundays, situated in the basement of Centro Parque Comercial, a stone's throw from the apartment

Visit Mojacar Old Town late afternoon for Bar Tapas by church above square Bar Candilejas

Unpretentious traditional bar which serves drinks with a smile and small bar tapas

Do a Sightseeing Drive Road Trip to La Playa de Los Muertos in Cabo de Gata Nijar National Park

See Visiting National Park section for details

Buy an traditional Italian Ice Cream from the Ice Cream Parlour down by the Hotel Indalo

Traditional Italian Ice Cream Parlour at Playa de Las Ventanicas near end of resort by Hotel Indalo (Carboneras-bound end of Paseo Mediterraneo as opposed to Garrucha bound end)

Go Windsurfing on Playa de Las Ventanicas

A French/Dutch couple hire out the hamacas and parasols at this end of the resort

They have Windsurfers and Canoes for hire and are very helpful if your Windsurfing a bit rusty

Have a Mojito or Cuba Libre cocktail at Maui Beach Bar

There is one beach bar which caters for the young nightclubbing crowd. Their website HomePage www.mauimojacar.com features a not-very-good-House Music track written about the Bar. The models cant dance, and its all quite chaste but what it does show are shots of the resort, the sunshine and the beach, as the young DJ producer drives his sports BMW along the Paseo Mediterraneo. There is an aerial shot of the Centro Parque Commercial (large white building with Tower). 43 Parque Residential is the residential complex next door to this building at the heart of the resort. This bar is busy with young people in high season and then only generally on Saturdays/ Sunday so young nightclubbers are not representative of the resort but it does cater for this demographic to a limited extent.

So if you like to hang out on the beach with Spanish locals, la jeunesse doree, with that intoxicating aroma of ambre solaire, chargrilled food, and cocktails to a backdrop of beach and house music, then this is the beach spot for you. The remainder of the 9km of beach is very sedate and quiet.

Go on a trip to Mini Hollywood where the spaghetti westerns were filmed

See the section on Visiting National Parks. Almeria Province has its own desert region, the film location for a number of Hollywood movies down the years. You can visit a permanent film set of the Old Wild West and see a number of choreographed re-enactments of duels, stand-offs and bar room brawls. When we visited it was tremendous fun because the actors seemed to be enjoying it more than the paying spectators, corpsing their lines and then laughing when they should have been expiring. Great fun.

THINGS YOU CAN FIND OUT TO ADD IN AND WIN A DISCOUNT FOR YOUR NEXT BOOKING:
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FISH RESTAURANT
Find the best fish restaurant in Garrucha, for price, service and quality and report back to us

TRADITIONAL TAPAS RESTAURANT
Find an authentic Tapas Restaurant of the kind we found in abundance in Alicante, rather than a bar which serves small digestifs as an accompaniment to your drinks

VISIT SAN JOSE IN THE CABO DE GATA-NIJAR NATIONAL PARK
Exit 479 Motorway A7/E-15 heading towards Almeria, taking the AL 3108. This may just be the jewel in the crown of the attractive villages punctuating this stretch of protected coastline. Visit recommended by all the guides I have consulted

ANY OTHER GREAT EXPERIENCES YOU CAN SHARE
that will add value to a group or family's stay in this charming corner of Spain.