This is the area that runs from the Santo, below Almuñécar's castle, westwards past the Rio Seco to the end of the beach and includes the most important hotels and tourist apartments of the area, including the large 4-star hotel Meliá Almuñécar. On the town side of the Rio Seco by the Santo you'll find the Loro Sexi bird park. Not far away is the Majuelo Park and almost between them on the Avenida de Europa is the tourist office, an attractive 19th century building known as La Najarra.

To the west of the riverbed stand the larger hotels and apartments, behind which can be found the municipal sports pavilion and new competition-sized covered swimming pool, about 100 metres from the beach. Beyond that, an extense of chirimoya orchards still survives development, but probably not for long.

At the western end of San Cristóbal, the terrain rises abruptly and above can be seen the terraced Los Marinos district, traditional fishermen's quarter of Almuñécar. Dozens of their picturesque boats lie on the beach. Following the paseo along the shoreline and around the headland, it terminates in the small bay of Cotobro, also the name of the attractive residential area that occupies the two valleys that lead off the beach.

MORE CLOSEUPS

Almuñécar  Beaches   Cerro Gordo  La Herradura  Punta de la Mona   El Rescate & Inland    Taramay  Tropical Valley   Velilla