Whether you travel to Roquetas de Mar via the Autovia/Motorway A7 or if a little more adventurous and with time at hand, the coastal route via Almeria City your first sight of what is now officially the city of Roquetas de Mar is the long sweeping coastline, from Aguadulce where the toe of the Sierra Gadore hills sweep down to the Mediterranean and separates the city of Almeria from that of Roquetas de Mar out to the Playa de Cerillos – Playa Sabinar Nature reserve, a continuous stretch of approximately 12 miles of beaches with the Mediterranean sea gently breaking on golden yellow sand, depending on the time of day and the sun the shades of blue and the sparkle of the sun glinting off the water can be quite spectacular.
Now, some would say that is all very cheesy and typical travel brochure material, well, I have driven both of those routes more times than I can recall and the view never ceases to cause me to turn and look out to sea and smile at the sight, for sure if you scan inland the view changes to what was 40 years ago semi-desert scrubland, to what is now the vegetable & fruit garden of Europe, stretching back 10 miles or so the foot of the Sierra de Gador mountains.
On your approach to Almeria airport a number of the airline pilots will direct your attention to the right side of the aircraft as it sweeps down from the Sierra Alhamilla mountains out into the Gulf of Almeria on its approach to land, what you see is a sea of plastic it is here that using the latest techniques enormous quantities of vegetables, fruits and herbs are grown and shipped to provide Northern Europe with fresh produce when it is out of season. So when you are purchasing fresh tomatoes, peppers or courgettes in Nov, Dec, Jan etc chances are they have been grown here.
While you are here in resort enjoying the beaches, restaurants, bars and comfortable well appointed hotels it is highly unlikely that you will see the plastic again until your return journey to the airport.
Roquetas de Mar is actually made up of three parts, The first part which you encounter is the city centre and old town including the recently built Gran Plaza shopping mall, here there is a sizeable Eroski supermarket, which could rival your local Tesco or Asda for selection, various independent retailers of shoes, clothing, jewellery and sports goods as well as a wide choice of cafes, bars and restaurants, the complex also houses a 10 pin bowling alley and a multi-plex cinema, in the town centre and old town there are a multitude of local shops offering all kinds of goods with again no shortage of cafés, bars and restaurants.
The Second part of Roquetas de Mar is the Puerto or port area, here sits the renovated castle of Santa Anna, the Lighthouse and Harbour, which is split into a fully functioning fishing port and leisure marina, surrounding the harbor are a fine selection of bars and restaurants, with no surprises here a great selection of what ever today’s fresh catch has been landed on sale.
The third part is the Urbanisation and this is the real tourist area of Roquetas de Mar, starting from the beach which is in places over 100 meters wide behind which is the esplanade which you can walk from the Nature reserve at Punta Entinas – Sabinar at the south western side of Roquetas de Mar all the way down through the Port to Las Salinas opposite Gran Plaza, a good walk.
On the other side of the Esplanade are the Hotels seven in total, mainly four star.
Then you have Avenida Playa Serena where there are over 50 Bars, Bistro’s, Tapa bars and restaurants to choose from, a real international mix, Spanish, Dutch, Belgian, English, Chinese, Italian, German, Lebanese.
Parallel to Avenida Playa Serena is Paseo Central where there are another three Hotels and a number of apartment complexes
