Tarifa, maybe you will have heard of it, maybe you haven’t. It’s a very small town in Andalusia on the very southern tip of the peninsula. It’s one of the few places that has 2 different seas( Mediterranean and Atlantic) about a minute walk from one another, how cool is that?! Tarifa is home to kite-surfers, being one of the best places to kite-surf in Europe. So there is a strange mixture of local Spaniards and kite-surfing expats from, well all over the world, but especially Europeans. As you might guess it is fairly easy to tell the different between them, and if you aren’t one of these two kinds of people living in Tarifa, you may just be a tourist who has decided to visit, for some strange reason, the windiest and furthest away from everything, town in Spain, well done!

Vibe

As I said earlier, there is a strange vibe with the locals and the expat kitesurfers who often don’t integrate at all, but don’t get me wrong Tarifa is pretty cool! Everyone is relaxed here, everyone is in the same ‘working to live’ rather than ‘living to work’ lifestyle, and still have a cool job working on the beach all day. I stayed for around 5 days and I already started to see people I know around the place, so you can imagine the kind of ‘small town vibes’ you have there, it’s really cool that they have such a close community. You can walk around the town without shoes and you won’t even be judged, summer here I can imagine is incredible, many tourists and a good night life, I went in March but there was still something happening every evening and swimming in the sea was lovely ( I am English though). The old town is so lovely, all painted white and little cobbled alleyways, the way you would really imagine Spain if you were to think of a traditional village.

To do

Tarifa may be down in the deep, deep south, but there is still plenty to do here. If you like nature, then you will love it here! Lots of stunning walks and hikes straight from the town and you can easily go and ‘loose yourself’ in some beautiful countryside ( I really needed this at the time after the city life).  Sevilla is a 3 hours bus journey away, Malaga a little less and many other towns much closer, if you fancy going to somewhere with more of a city vibe. Kitesurf! There are a few schools down there and you should definitely take up the opportunity to have a go! I would recommend Tantrum surf school as I had a go with them when I was visiting, lovely people and one of the best surf schools in Europe. Of course, there are other sports than kite- surfing, like, surfing,  paddle-boarding, kayaking, windsurfing, mountain biking, swimming, walking… need I go on? There some really good night-life in Tarifa, the expats and the tourists help to make that together. You can find some lovely clubs, we went to Bien Star which was right on the beach! So I can imagine it would be perfect for a cheeky night-time swim afterwards, however it was just too cold in march.

 

My favourite

So my personal favourite part about Tarifa, probably the coastal walk which begins in the town and is easy to get to. If you just follow the path from behind the castle, you can go alone the coast for hours, all the way to Algeciras, which is a beautiful walk and all the wartime bomb shelters are still there to go and explore (even though I was too scared to venture into some of the underground bunkers, left abandoned in the darkness. You will also encounter a lot of cows chilling along the way, which is really nice, unless you have a fear of cows, which is irrational and you should get over it (I’m trying to). I also have to mention Cafe10 in the old town, really good service, welcoming, wifi and you can sit there in the peace for hours (it’s a little off the main streets). They also do nights with cocktails and good music, make sure you check it out!

 

If you have any other questions about Tarifa that you want to ask me, share a comment!

Remember this is my personal experience and I can only share my own knowledge, but if you have any other ideas or info you would like to do, please enlighten me!