1:06pm Monday 10th September 2007
Explore the largely undiscovered Costa de la Luz.
The golden swathe of sand stretched for miles into the hazy horizon and here and there little groups of sunbathers basked beneath the brilliant blue sky. I had to pinch myself to remember that this really was summer time in the south of Spain!
Around the corner of the coastline, on the Costa del Sol, the beaches would be stuffed with sweltering bodies. But here in Conil de la Frontera, on the largely undiscovered Costa de la Luz, my family had found tranquillity.
Admittedly the waves rolling dauntingly towards us were of the Atlantic ocean, not the tame efforts of the Mediterranean, but the marvellous beaches of this coast have something for everyone.
Fronting Conil is the Playa de Los Bateles, a family beach scattered with little wooden cafes and watched over by lifeguards.
Further north, you find more sheltered coves. Head south and you find the surfers and discover a topless and nudist area - although we resisted baring all!
Conil is one of Andalucia's 'pueblos blancos' or white towns, all of its buildings being painted white. Until recently, it was just a small, traditional fishing community.
These days, with the assets of its beaches and its pleasant architecture, including a 14th-century tower, the town is waking up to tourism. But there are none of the concrete, high-rise developments that have scarred other parts of the Spanish coastline.
For the moment at least, it's busy for just six weeks of the year, from mid July until the end of August. And even then, most of the town's visitors are Spaniards, so the resort loses none of its traditional flavour.
Restaurants and bars lining the seafront and narrow streets in the old part of town serve traditional Andalucian cuisine, specialising in seafood, naturally.
We couldn't resist the 'pescaito frito' - fried fish - that came on diet-busting platters. Lighter 'tapas' were just as tempting, and we devoured large prawns in hot garlic oil, delicate slices of octopus and the famous 'jamon iberico' - mountain cured ham.
We stayed on the outskirts of Conil in the immaculately clean Hotel Garbi, where most of the guests were Spanish families. However, good English was spoken by most of the friendly staff.
The hotel, perched just above the shore, boasted panoramic views out to sea and the town centre was a beautiful 20-minute stroll along the beach, or the hidden clifftop path. But when the sun was high, or after a few glasses of sangria, we opted to hail a taxi.
Having a three-year-old child in tow, we weren't swilling back much of the local tipple. We spent our evenings either wandering through the town's hippy evening market and eating outdoors, or staying in the hotel and sampling the laid-on entertainment.
One evening, that turned out to be a dazzlingly dramatic performance of flamenco - well, Andalucia is the home of that dance after all.
The Spanish guests - who on a previous evening had ignored a rather funky jazz band - clearly knew the real deal and were enthusiastic.
As we explored other parts of the Costa de la Luz, we came to appreciate how strongly the old traditions still flourish.
One day we drove up the coast to Sanlucar de Barrameda. In the morning we wandered up and down the steep streets of the attractive old quarter and through a market where old ladies sold mountains of leaping, translucent shrimps and slimy, yellow snails.
In the afternoon, we witnessed the annual Feria de la Manzanilla - a festival celebrating the local sherry. All the town's women had donned colourful flamenco dresses, while some of the young men were on horseback, sipping sherry as they rode and posed. As dusk fell, the lights of a massive funfair brightened the sky.
Another trip, organised by our tour operators, took us to Jerez - and another celebration of sherry, and horses.
We were shown round the Gonzalez Byass sherry 'bodega', with its musty warehouses stacked to the roof with barrels of dry or sweet liquor, before journeying on to the Royal School of Equestrian Art to watch their famous crowd-pleasing show.
There are many other worthwhile places to visit not far from Conil. For example, we spent some happy hours exploring the alleyways of the seaport city of Cadiz.
The combination of shady narrow streets and sea breezes kept us pleasantly cool, even at the height of the afternoon.
One of the grand open squares was dominated by the baroque cathedral, one of the largest churches in Spain. Cadiz is a laidback place, so it wasn't surprising to discover the cathedral took 110 years to build.
Our last trip was to another white town like Conil, but this time inland, poised high on a hill: Vejer de la Frontera.
Its alleyways - brilliant white - are more maze-like than those of Cadiz. We wandered uphill, happily lost until we finally stumbled on its castle, at the heart of the old quarter. Later we climbed some steps onto a perilous part of the town's old wall, gazing through slit windows to the valley far below.
Our son loved the main square with its colourfully-tiled fountain surrounded by water-spouting stone frogs. He was even more delighted when he discovered the square boasted a shop selling vividly hued ice-creams.
His parents were more delighted to discover, just off the square, a Moroccan restaurant called El Jardin del Califa. We lunched in style, and at leisure, under the shade of two large lemon trees.
Popping into the local estate agents, we were told that quite a few Britons had beaten us to this lovely town and bought holiday homes or settled here - hence disappointingly high prices.
But the next day, back in Conil, we remembered that hilltop towns, however beautiful, do lack beaches. And these really are something special.
By Noreen Barr
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