A tour of marinas in Spain - where do you suggest I go?

[capnsensible]

Added, just seen the anchoring bit. Some people say not, but I know several great anchorages between Gib and Marbella. Water not that warm though.

 

[Montemar]

+1 for Roses/Rosas and Empuriabrava, wonderful place. Serviced by two airports one hour away, (Barcelona and one in France for the life of me I cannot remember the name) You can buy a house with a mooring at the bottom of the garden for a 32-48m boat (currently) for 2.7 mill or 2.2 mill for a house with a 22m mooring in Empuriabrava so compared to Antibes it's cheap!. It's Dali land too so plenty to see.:encouragement:

The French airport is Perpignan. Nearest airport is Girona about 45 mins drive from Rosas.
There is also a marina at Santa Margarita close to Rosas, it looks a bit scrubby but may be cheap.
Roses is Catalan and Rosas is Castellano - Spanish to you and me.

 

[PEJ]

I might have to look at a longer trip or maybe an internal flight?

Crikey! Flight from Malaga to Barcelona - £13.00. I'll defo have to add Roses to the itinerary

 

[PEJ]

Hiya, I spent a lot of years running a sailing school out of Gib but also spent a year during that time operating a Birchwood 50 something Motorboat from Estepona. Also have friends with a 60 foot motorboat that has been in Benelmadena for over ten years.

Sotogrande is a bit of an exclusive Marina, generally quiet but loved by those who moor there. Some great restaurants and a couple of late bars. Beach next door a bit pebbly.

La Duquesa and Estepona a lot more lively. The first is small and can be noisy in summer. Estepona is a fishing harbour too so lots of fb traffic.....and gulls! Great ashore though. Again beaches both side. I lived aboard in the Marina for a year some time ago and really enjoyed it.

Downside, can get very windy down towards the Straits. Pick the weather right and it's a great cruise over to Ceuta and Morocco. Also through the Straits to Cadiz and Portugal. Straits can often be bumpy but worth it.

Cheap fuel in Gib.

If you want details.... I'm three years out of date..... feel free to PM!

Thank you for chipping in. I have seen some of your posts when I searched regarding Gib and Benelmadena. The latter looks good, particularly because it looks like it is not far from the airport.

 

[Coustea1]

My full english is a slice of toast on the boat so no problem there!

Sotogrande looks nice but so does La Duquesa in the videos. Can you comment on La Duquesa vs Sotogrande ? What about inside Gibraltar itself? Again it looks nice on the videos I've seen.

I'm currently based in Estepona. Positives: it's an hour drive from Malaga airport and about 40 minutes from Gibraltar airport so easy to get to and lots of choice in terms of flights, cheaper than Sotogrande (and a LOT cheaper than Puerto Banus), decent chandlery, boat yard, lots of bars and restaurants with many of them open all year. Negatives: it's half leisure half fishing so expect to see some proof of the latter floating around in the marina, no fuel for leisure boats. Duquesa will be very quiet in winter. Sotogrande is a lot bigger than Duquesa, very nice with lots of bars and restaurants open all year (at least durign the weekends), and will accomodate larger yachts. Puerto Banus is great but very expensive - it is the go to place though if you want to be seen...and attract gold diggers

 

[Hurricane]

When I was in Ocean Village, on the Solent, boating consisted of going to visit another marina overnight and chilling out there and going to the local attractions and restaurants. I looked at the grey cold sea in Osbourne Bay or even Studland and thought "I wish I could enjoy a swim in this water".

So the big attraction for Cala D'Or was the beautiful anchorages so nearby where you could laze about all day in the crystal clear waters. Having been there for a few years I find that days out at anchor are not that frequent and days just chilling on the boat or walking/driving to the beach are just similar in number.

So my secondary question to the mainlanders is this - is your boating more like my Solent experience i.e. more geared to going to other nearby marinas overnight and trying out their attractions than spending the day swimming off the boat at anchor?

I still think you should stay within striking range of the islands.
And that would put the Gibraltar end of the Med out - IMO of course.

Maybe you are being a bit harsh on Mallorca - it has been a bad year for weather.
Not usual.
OK - the grass issue makes it worse but, if you want quality anchorages where is is safe to stay overnight on the anchor, the Balearics better than the mainland.
If, like me, you don't like the marina charges in the islands, berth on the mainland and pop over as you like.
You can usually see a weather window of a week or so and plan accordingly.
As I say, Denia or Altea would fit that bill but not Gib, Duquessa or Estoponia.
I suggest that even Cartagena is too far for the islands but for example with a boat like yours Denia to Ibiza is a lot nearer than Cala d'Or to Ibiza.
Denia to Cala Tarida in Ibiza less than 50 miles - so a couple of hours at planing speed.

I know this is another plug for Sant Carles but you also said you would like an anchorage where you can swim in warm water.
Well, the water isn't particularly clear but the lagoon outside Sant Carles is very close and well protected.
If the weather isn't good enough for the islands, you can almost certainly drop the hook in the lagoon - ask Whitelighter.
Here's a little video clip that I took about 3 years ago of the lagoon anchorage just at the entrance to the lagoon.



And all this at a fraction of the Mallorca cost

 

[Coustea1]

Added, just seen the anchoring bit. Some people say not, but I know several great anchorages between Gib and Marbella. Water not that warm though.

Just out of curiosity, which ones are you referring to?

 

[kashurst]

"So my secondary question to the mainlanders is this - is your boating more like my Solent experience i.e. more geared to going to other nearby marinas overnight and trying out their attractions than spending the day swimming off the boat at anchor?"

you can do both. however anchoring out and playing in the water all day is not possible everywhere or everyday. If you just want to play with jet skis, ribs. paddle boards etc Mar Menor is great for that. If you want to spend the day snorkelling about there are small islands with small reefs. Isla Grosa - is nice spot, very clear water now with mooring buoys too. If you just want to chill out and sunbath at anchor you can do that in some of the really big harbours, or on the south side of the harbour walls close to. No waves to worry about, just the odd prat on a jetski. Pretty much everywhere is adjacent to miles of beaches.

 

[petem]

"So my secondary question to the mainlanders is this - is your boating more like my Solent experience i.e. more geared to going to other nearby marinas overnight and trying out their attractions than spending the day swimming off the boat at anchor?"

you can do both. however anchoring out and playing in the water all day is not possible everywhere or everyday. If you just want to play with jet skis, ribs. paddle boards etc Mar Menor is great for that. If you want to spend the day snorkelling about there are small islands with small reefs. Isla Grosa - is nice spot, very clear water now with mooring buoys too. If you just want to chill out and sunbath at anchor you can do that in some of the really big harbours, or on the south side of the harbour walls close to. No waves to worry about, just the odd prat on a jetski. Pretty much everywhere is adjacent to miles of beaches.

There are some nice anchorages within a short 5-30 minute cruise from where we are (Albir, Calpe, Moraira and even right next to our marina Mascarat). Within the same cruising distance we have four decent marinas that we can visit (Altea, Moraira, Calpe and Villajoyosa). If it's too windy to go out then there are beaches each side of the marina, one with a beach bar and seven restaurants in the marina itself.

 

[Hurricane]

"So my secondary question to the mainlanders is this - is your boating more like my Solent experience i.e. more geared to going to other nearby marinas overnight and trying out their attractions than spending the day swimming off the boat at anchor?"

you can do both. however anchoring out and playing in the water all day is not possible everywhere or everyday. If you just want to play with jet skis, ribs. paddle boards etc Mar Menor is great for that. If you want to spend the day snorkelling about there are small islands with small reefs. Isla Grosa - is nice spot, very clear water now with mooring buoys too. If you just want to chill out and sunbath at anchor you can do that in some of the really big harbours, or on the south side of the harbour walls close to. No waves to worry about, just the odd prat on a jetski. Pretty much everywhere is adjacent to miles of beaches.

No, this is my ideal.



Miles of sandy beaches where you can do all of what you say above.

 

[capnsensible]

Just out of curiosity, which ones are you referring to?

Wind dependant but if you are in the area try:

South of Sotogrande, local name Horseshoe bay. Go past the pavilion style building another mile or two.

Immediately north of Soto Marina off beach. Also further along past village to bay with chirangito. Sheltered from a lot of wind directions.

Either side of La Duquesa in settled weather.

Inshore from the entrance to Estepona but keep clear of swimming area.

Have used all of those.

A friend of mine wrote the Straits Sailing Handbook, sadly no longer updated. I used to do that annually and my wife did the book production but it died away after we left. If you can get a copy from around four years ago it may be useful.

 

[capnsensible]

Of course for the OP, the delightful thing about owning a boat is you can move on wherever after a season or two to experience all the places mentioned above!

 

[kashurst]

The Balearics are held up as some of the best boaty places in the Med, but there are a lot of other fun boaty things / places to go in the med or further afield. We decided to down size boat a few years ago and do other things instead. Still have a very nice boat but don't feel obliged to use it all the time because of the costs. As a result we have probably done more boaty stuff since then but in different ways. However when we get back to mainland Spain there are still many beautiful days and lovely spots without paying Mallorca prices.
Mar Menor last summer (bit too dark for the iphone camera)

Mar Menor

North side of Tarbaca quite a few years ago

Moraira, early in the morning

Near Altea (apologies saily boat stuff) - the scenery around there can be quite dramatic

or with the massive savings created by mooring on the mainland, go abroad and rent a boat somewhere really pretty

or for the sort of boat budget PEJ is spending, get on a plane and let someone else do the driving and cooking
Sorry Hurricane, Ibiza is beautiful but the Maldives are better

do you get these in the med?

you definitely don't get to see these near Spain

when you come back again makes you appreciate the local stuff more.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I believe there are 3 different marinas in Denia, Deleted User spent some time there so is better qualified to comment on pros and cons. There is a good selection of restaurants both around the port and in the town.

We had a season in Marina de Denia a few years ago. It is a modern full service marina with plenty of shoreside facilities by way of bars and restaurants. Thats the good bit. The bad bit is that it sits on a bit of coastline which lacks any anchorages whatsoever to the north and whilst there are some nice anchorages to the south, none of them are fully sheltered from the prevailing easterly wind which often kicks up in the afternoon and causes some unpleasant sea conditions. In fact that bit of coastline seems to have its own micro climate which is windier and wetter than adjacent areas. On the plus side it is a convenient jumping off point for Ibiza and Formentera which are attractive cruising destinations. Denia itself is lively in high season but, like a lot of holiday towns, dead out of season.

 

[alandalus11]

Almeria - small summer town - not much there. Deep bay with whales and dolphins in the area

I doubt that very much, Almeria is the main city of Almeria province and is the capital of the province. Not exactly a small summer town.
I know the region very well and to say that the city has nothing there is wrong. Not a city of my choice as there are other marinas up the coast that are better in my view but nevertheless there is a lot to see and do in the city.

 

[kashurst]

Sorry, my mistake, I was thinking of Mazarron.

 

[Hurricane]

Sorry Hurricane, Ibiza is beautiful but the Maldives are better

Agreed - thats exactly where we have spent our savings - in fact the Maldives amongst others.

 

[Portofino]

@ J rudge and any others with itchy feet .
We’ve moved to Italy’s Ligurian coast , Marina d Loano to be precise but there are plenty of others .
Ours was based on logistics of nearest base from Switzerland - shorter drive .

Boat wise we have up and down that coast plenty of times and sure it’s less interesting than SoF .However Monaco is 2 hrs and Lerins ( Cannes islands 3 hrs ) so it’s not like we have been exiled etc .Plus a huge fresh cruising ground to our E and S = Elba etc .

But the point is this ........a pleasant upside ....
It’s cheap , refreshingly cheap .Large Beer €4.50 not €7/8 as Cote d Azur .
Yard labour €40 / hr as opposed to 70/80 .
My berth ( 14m ) is €6600 + tax so under €8 k all in no service charge just leccy on meter est €4/6 00 ? currently renting out by SoF for €17 K pa took a week to find a tenant .

It’s a posh one by Liguria standards there are even cheaper .
We choose it on location not price .
Meals out can be peanuts like starters €5\7 and mains teens .
Pizza Marguerite €6 etc etc .
There’s some “ posh “ places like Alassiso nearby ,

Genoa airport is 55 mins away with regulators flights into London and Nice 2 hrs away .

Sea bottom is sand and the people are really warm + nice .

It’s just if you are wanting to escape without the hassle of expensive SoF and availability commitments you could try the Liguria for a year and boat into the SoF for a sniff around.

We bought 2 years they do discount if you buy more years . Our tenant s contract ends Sept 21
So far I have not regretted it .Its different in a positive kinda way .

Take stabs for example .....

Obviously I follow the threads which mostly seem to be rolling @ anchor stuff on the tables going flying etc etc .,,,buts that’s just shear boat density / crowded areas / wakes etc .
Fully understand and sympathise feel the pain etc etc in the Cote d Azur .

How ever in the Liguria all that’s a none event , none starter because of the low density , there just isn’t the crowdedness to make unpleasant wakes to stimulate any sales in stabs .

 

[kashurst]

"Italy’s Ligurian coast , Marina d Loano" - that looks a very nice spot. Where do the prevailing winds come from?

 

[Hurricane]

With all the comments about savings by berthing on the mainland, I thought it would be interesting to put some actual figures together.

So, lets assume a 20m boat - because I have one.
And, lets consider keeping her in Sant Carles - because thats what I do.

Firstly, I will show the costs of keeping a boat in Sant Carles and then make a guess at keeping one in Mallorca.
I won't add anything for general maintenance (antifoul etc)

Sant Carles
Berthing cost - £3800

For this comparison, I use 20m rental berth (we "own" ours so the calculation is different)
Electricity costs included
Water included
this is an actual price that someone is paying​

Boatyard Fees

Lift and Block off for 4 days £1000
Open yard so you can do your own maintenance
but local labour would be cheaper than on the islands
Lift and scrub (say twice a year) £150​

Black tank pump outs (say 15) £300
Car Parking (I park for free but rental berths pay) £200

That totals to £5450 which might be a bit on the low side - the berth I was considering is a Med style berth so if you want a 20m floating (UK style) berth it would be a little more.
Incidentally, I know of a 20m floating berth like mine for sale PM me if anyone is interested.
So, lets round it up to £8000 p.a.
Look, you guys on the islands - these prices are REAL

I am guessing the prices in Mallorca would be somewhere between £30,000 and £60,000 for a 20m berth - if you could find one.
And I'm sure that the boatyard fees would be much higher.

So, with the savings, I can fill the boat with fuel several times a year and still have significant savings. And, remember, if you want to actually use your boat in Mallorca, you still have to put SOME fuel in it.
I use about 2500 litres per trip to the islands (both crossings) - more if I'm going between islands or other anchorages.
I do that 2 or 3 times a year so my fuel budget is £8000 to £10000 p.a.

So, taking the point above, yes a winter holiday to the Maldives is very much paid for by the savings.

One last little thought.
That nice little anchorage on Formenterra in video clip above is called Es Calo.
Lets look at distances
Cala d'Or to Es Calo - 93 miles
Sant Carles to Es Calo - 124 miles - 31 miles more
But
Denia to Es Calo - is only 70 miles

I know that is a bit of a special example but just consider the financial savings.
I'm sure I will get flamed for lots of this but I have always made the case that I keep a 20m boat in the Med for half the price that I used to keep a 15m boat on the river Hamble.