Cultural Spain
The new Murcia airport is situated at Corvera, south east of the city of Murcia and only 35 mins from the coast where you will find several Spanish resorts and fishing towns along the coast and golf resorts inland. The area enjoys 320 days of sunshine a year so is perfect for a golfing break, spa, relaxation, cycling, traditional Spanish food and drink and some cultural sightseeing too. I would recommend a hire car to get around, it is much easier to drive on the Spanish roads as less busy than the UK. Several hire car companies are located at the airport terminal building and nearby.
One of our visits was to Cartagena, this is a fabulous coastal city with a rich historical past having been occupied by the Carthaginians, Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines and Moors and is also an important Spanish naval base. All have left their mark on the city where today you can wander around the harbour and marina, (an increasingly prominent port of call on cruise itineraries), visit one of the 12 museums, admire the mixed styles of architecture (a little Art Deco and early 20th century Bourgeoisie thrown in!) and enjoy a break at a trendy tapas bar or coffee shop.
The Romano Teatro (Roman Theatre) is well worth a visit, first uncovered in the mid 1980’s, this structure dates back to the 1st Century BC but over time had been built upon and was one of the later areas of the city to be redeveloped, what a find! After 20 years of restoration, it is open to visitors along with a museum showcasing some of the excavated finds.
North of Murcia, we took a day to follow a loop trail from Bullas (natural bathing pool) to Cehegin a sun-drenched, hillside village, Caravaca de la Cruz, one of the 5 holy cities in the world, Calasparra and it’s cave church and round to Archena with it’s thermal baths before heading back to Murcia. The coastline offers quite a contrast, with a stretch along the Med with sandy beaches, cafes and ice-cream parlours (different scale of development to other Spanish costas) the Mar Menor is the largest saltwater lagoon offering shallow and safe bathing and water sports and also some nature reserves and mud baths. You can also find rugged and unspoilt natural beaches on the south Med coast and La Manga strip offers a variety of accommodation, restaurants and leisure facilities, it is a long spit of land dividing the Mar Menor from the Mediterranean sea and in parts, only a few hundred metres wide.
We enjoyed eating out and found some tasty tapas bars, prices in this area of Spain of really reasonable and eating out as a family of 4 was around 50 euros for selection of tapas or a main dish each and drinks including wine.
For resort style accommodation, there are luxury hotels located on golf resorts which also offer great spa facilities. For city lovers, both Murcia and Cartagena have a selection of centrally located hotels perfect for a short break.