Gabo de Gata
Links:
SIGPAC: map of spain better than google earth for this region with display of plots
interactive map of Andalucia
official tourism website of Andalusia
Insight for buyers and ownwers of Spanish Property
Private renting of apartments together with information and pictures of Roquetas de Mar
Above: Playa de los Genoveses, one of the beaches near San José and a typical landscape on the way to San José.
Gabo de Gata-Nijar
The region of of Gabo de Gata-Nijar is famous for the dryest climate in Europe, its spectacular landscape and coastline. Nijar is the fourth biggest municipality of Spain, reaching from the mountainside of the Sierra Alhamilla to the coast around San José and Agua Amarga.
The coastal region was the first region in Andalusia to be declared Natural Park in 1987. It is covering an area of 38.000 terrestrial hectares and 12.000 marine hectares.
If you come from Almería on the motorway, the first possibility the access the Gabo de Gata region is via El Toyo, a newly built urbanisation with lots of green zones, a golf course, a small hospital, beach promenade with a very nice, newly built "plaza" for shops and retaurantes. Perfect also for lond walks to Cabo de Gata. At the moment there are about about 4 hotels, the rest being apartments and houses and to our information it is not planed to built anything more within the existing urbanisation. Directly after El Toyo follows Retamar, a growing tourist town with at the moment mostly spanish tourists. The beach belonging to Retamar closes up directly with the one belonging to El Toyo with the promenade just continuing, but it is a rather narrow part, that belongs to Retamar. Directly after Retamar starts the "Paraje Natural" wich reaches to Cabo de Gata. Retamar itself covers a quite big area, so from some spots it is very far to walk to the beach.
From Retamar you can follow the road and than to the left you reach San Miguel de Cabo de Gata or just short El Cabo de Gata, a little fisherman village. On the way you pass the visitor´s centre of the Natural Park. It has a little exposition and some information about walking routes.
The beach which starts east of San Miguel de Gabo de Gata is a very long and sandy one. In summer it is very popular with people from Almeria and the surroundings. 1 km from the beach is a all year round camping place. Following the street alongside the beach you are passing the salinas where in summer it is possible to watch flamingos. After passing an old church you come to some fishermen cottages, called La Almadrabra, today also with some apartments to let and summer holiday houses. Here you also find a little cheringito where you can get some cool drinks after spending the day at the beach.
Following the road at the end of the beach, climbing up the Sierra de Cabo de Gata on a tiny little road, you reach the lighthouse. From there you have a wonderful view over the famous cliffs called Las Sirenas. Here you also find a little beach, good for snorkeling and a small restaurant.
It is possible to follow the street a bit further up in direction to San José, but it is not allowed to drive all the way. But from up here you have a great sight over the coast and the beaches until San José.
And if you like walking, it is a beautiful walk along the dirt road to San José or even better along the beach, but this takes much longer and you have to prepare for wet feet.
On this way you pass the beaches Playa de Monsul and Playa de los Genoveses which are in the summer holidays very popular with people from Almería. These are fine sanded beaches with dunes in a very picturesque landscape. You can reach them by car if you are coming from San José.
If you are going to San José by car you have to go back through San Miquel de Cabo de Gata and a bit later turn to the right in direction San José. On the way you are passing El Pozo de los Frailes. The first settlement here was possible for the easily available water in this region. The old well (noria) from the 14th century has just shortly been restored.
San José
A former fishing village, San José is now the touristic centre of Cabo de Gata, but it still contained its charme of a white coastal village. It has the only marina and leisure port in the park. The beach in San José is fine sanded and very shallow.
In San José you will find all sorts of amenities, an information centre, bars and restaurantes, accomodation of all sorts, guided walking and horse tracks, sailing and a diving school.
A very beautiful walk beginns just behind San José if you go into the direction of the Cala Higuera and leads along the coast to Los Escullos. Cala just signifies bay and the Cala Higuera is another beach a little bit north of San José. But if you want to take the walk to Los Escullos don´t follow all the way to the beach, instead you have to take the way which goes up a steep hill, but you will be rewarded by a fantastic view and a very easy and beautiful walk along the coast from there on.
If you are going by car, you have to drive back to El Pozo de los Frailes and shortly after that you turn right into the direction of Rodalquilar. After a few kilometres you can turn right to Los Escullos, a little fishing village with now two hotels. The beach is characterized by fossilized dunes which form a
picturesque landscape and it is a good place for snorkeling. On one of these dune stands an eighteenth-century fort, the Castillo de San Felipe, the most important defensive bastion of the Cabo de Gata Coast, restored in 1990/91.
From Los Escullos a walk passes the Camping site and leads along the rambla, the dry riverbed, along the northern and western side of the El Fraile, the highest volcano in the natural park (493m), back to El Pozo de los Frailes. On the way you pass Los Cortijos Grandes with a very nice restored windmill and another traditional well.
If you continue by car in the direction of Rodaquilar, you pass another turn to the left which leads to La Isleta del Moro, a tiny fishing village. The name derives from the small island La Isleta del Moro Arráez close to the coast which was, as it seems, a nest of North African pirates, the name signifies Little island of the Moorish Chieftain.
If you come into the village you pass to the right a lookout point from where you have good views over the village and to the right to the El Fraile and Los Escullos. The village itself has a hostal and a bar-restaurante. From the beach, the Playa del Peñon Blanco (Beach of the big white rock) leads a path along the bacl of the Cerro lo Guarda to another beach, the Cala de los Toros, a little oasis with palm trees, agaves and pines fringing the sea.
Further along the main street , before you come into the Valley of Rodalquilar you pass a fantastic view point, the Mirador de la Amatista, worth a stop.
Rodalquilar
The village of Rodalquilar is situated in the back of a wide valley, surrounded by volcanic hills. Due to the volcanic origin there is an abundance of mineralogical forms to be found around Rodalquilar, traces of mining activitiy can be found since Roman times. The boost came after 1914 when discoveries of gold unleashed a real gold rush. Between 1940 and 
1960 the number of inhabitants rised from 382 to 1243. However mining activity ended in 1966 due to unrentability which had a huge impact in the village of Rodalquilar whose number of inhabitants deceased to 106 by 1970. Just recently the number of houses increased again, with many holiday homes.
The old mining facilities can still be visited and in the village of Rodalqilar opened recently the Centro Geoturístico para Rodalquilar, a geoturistic Centre with exhibitions to the
geology and mining activities around Rodalquilar.
Furtheron you find in Rodalquilar hostals, bars and restaurantes, a diving centre with courses in different languages, a very nice botanical garden with all the plants of the region and La Villa de Rodalquilar with changing exhibitions.
One way to leave Rodalquilar is the dirt track road which goes up behind the mining installation and then all the way to Los Alberiquoques. It is a very interesting road to take which gives further insight into the mining activities and into the unique landscape. From 
this road you can take different walking routes, one of them to Cortijo del Fraile which Frederico García Lorca made so famous with his book Bodas de Sangre.
The other way to leave Rodalquilar is further along the coast into the direction of Las Negras. After about 1 km and passing the Hotel de la Naturaleza, a little road turns to the left to the Torre de los Lobos. This watchtower was built in the 18th century and is now converted into an auxiliery lighthouse. From here you have fantastic views over this part of the coast or inland to Rodalquilar. From here you can take the very nice walk down to El Playazo.
If you rather go by car you have to take the road back to the main road and then take the next turn to the left into the direction of playa de Playazo. If you follow the rambla de Playazo to the beach you see on the right the Torre de los Alumbres or Torre Fuerte de Rodalquilar, built around 1510 and the oldest of all fortifications still standing in the Natural Park. The tower was built as part of a wall surrounding a little mining village which was built up when at the beginning of the 16th century deposits of alum where discovered at Rodalquilar. The beach which comes shortly after was at that time known as Puerto de los Alumbres.
El Playazo is a fine sanded beach in a picturesque landscape with a fortress, the Castillo de San Ramón, which is now a private home, at the northern end of the beach.
Just before the Castillo there is a walking track into the direction to Las Negras which will take you about 1 hour to reach, passing on the way some beautiful viewing points, a cave and a camping place which is located near a little beach. From here the way further to Las Negras is asphalted.
Of course you can also reach Las Negras by car if you follow the road from Rodalquilar to Fernan Peréz, but you turn right before reaching Hortichuelas.
Las Negras
Las Negras is a little village with traditional white houses which formerly was a fishing village today it turned more towards tourism, a clear sign are the newly built houses and apartments. It is still a quiet village, but today you find there two small hotels, a few bars and a restaurante. The beach is rather stony.
From the northen end of Las Negras leads a walking way through the rambla de las Agüillas, passing the hill Cerro Negro on the left and leading to the Cala de San Pedro and further on to Agua Amarga.
The Cala de San Pedro has the only constant spring on the Cabo de Gata Coast and is documented as far back as the Middle Ages. Tha Cala de San Pedro is a smalll bay with a sandy beach and the castillo de San Pedro, built in 1583 (and enlarged in the 18th century) to defend the water place against cosairs who used it as a sheltering place.
The walking path goes on to the north over the hills and more inland until you reach the Cala Puente and shortly after the Cala del Plomo, another very beautiful bay with a sandy beach and some cortijos.
Agua Amarga
Another walk of 1 hour and you reach Agua Amarga another former fishing village which now is more busy in summer due to tourism. Here you find some little shops, 2 bars/restaurantes directly at the seafront, some smaller hotels, apartments for rent and a primary school. The beach in Agua Amarga is sandy,beautiful, quite long, but a little stony in the water.
If you follow the road from Agua Amarga to Carboneras you pass the Mesa Roldán, a flat hill of 221 meters with a lighthouse and a watchtower of the 18th century on the top. The views from the Mesa Roldán are spectacular.
A bit further along the road you reach the viewpoint of the Playa de los Muertos, a wonderful lond sany beach with turquoise water. To come to the beach itself you have to follow a path which starts at the parking place and leads down the hill. To climb this hill back up in the summer heat is exhausting, but the beach is worth it!