Tarifa Area

Tarifa a millennial town walled in the past, of which the Puerta de Jerez is all that remains, containing a heavily Muslim-influence urban layout of charming narrow winding streets.

In the year 710 the Berber leader Tarik Ben Malek (who gives his name to the Rock and the Straits) disembarked in the area, beginning eight centuries of Muslim domination. Of outstanding interest is the Arab-built Caliph’s Castle where the Christian warrior Guzman “El Bueno” (the good) sacrificed his own son to reconquer the besieged town.

It is worthwhile in this village to go to see the churches San Francisco and San Mateo both from the 16th century and where we can find paintings and multi-coloured wood-carvings, above all the carving of Cristo del Consuelo. In a pine grove at a distance of about two kilometres we can visit the Sanctuary Nuestra Señora de la Luz, who was proclaimed patroness of the town in 1570. Tarifa has beautiful and seemingly endless beach which stretches to an idyllic spot known as Ensenada de Valdevaqueros, known as the “Paradise of Wind & Kite Surfing”. From the enormous dunes found here it is easy to see more than a hundred surfers in the water at the same time.

From here a track leads to Punta Paloma, an attractive spot set among pines, dunes and crystal-clear waters. To finish, it is worth continuing until la Playa de Bolonia, site of the ancient Baelo Claudia, whose ruins show it to have been an important Roman fishing village.