In October 2005, I was fortunate enough to take a short break to Roquetas-De-Mar, which is part of the Costa Almeria region of Spain.

History:

The province has a colourful history that dates back to the Bronze age, and is associated with the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths and Arabs in latter times.

Almeria is a very wealthy region, with three main industries - Agriculture, Marble and Tourism.
Almeria is a huge exporter of fruit which is grown in plastic greenhouses. Much of this ends up in the English supermarkets such as Tesco.
Stone extraction has dramatically increased over the past few years, and the beautiful marble can be seen in many cities all over the world.
Finally, Tourism - traditionally Almeria has been the retreat of choice for Spanish residents who are looking to take a break. Over the past few years, the area has actively been attracting tourism - primarily from Germany, but now looking towards the British holidaymakers.

There are many scheduled and charter airlines that fly to Almeria, including Iberia, Air France, Spanair, Lufthansa and First Choice Airlines.
We booked a package holiday, and flew with First Choice Airlines from London Gatwick.
Flying time is around two and a half hours, and will take you over the south coast of England, across the English Channel, flying over France and finally into Spain.

Almeria airport is actually a military airfield that is shared by civillian traffic. It boasts the longest runway in Spain, and is a designated landing strip for the Space Shuttle !
As you land, you will see the clear blue sea that runs right alongside the runway - this could be a bit disconcerting for the uneasy flyer !

Where To Stay:

The Arena Centre is located about 200 meters from the beach. It is a comforable complex with large rooms, two swimming pools, sauna, jacuzzi, gym and large reception area.
The rooms are big, have loads of facillities (such as kettle, fridge freezer, cutlery, bath, shower and even a bidet !). The room also has a television with about 30 channels... but be warned - there are only two english channels available - Eurosport and BBC World. All the other channels are in German or Spanish !
This is also reflected in the food at the complex, should you choose to travel on a half board basis. Virtually every meal was aimed at the Spanish or German guests, which will not suit everyone !
The staff were friendly, and most spoke fairly good English. However, I would not actually recommend this complex to potential guests. At the time of our visit, most of the well equipped gymnasium equipment was out of order - with only about 2 machines that were working. The sauna and jacuzzi would have been nice... except that there was a charge of 12 Euros (£9.00) per person for half an hour !
There was a pool table and games room for younger guests, however the charge for using these was around £1.50 per game.
Entertainment at the hotel was very limited, and what little there was came to an abrupt end at midnight. Also, much of the entertainment was spoken in the Spanish language.

The resort, indeed the whole region, would not be suitable for famillies with younger children. Neither would it be suitable for people looking for exciting nightlife - there are very few clubs around. However, for someone like myself who was looking for a quiet, relaxing holiday, this was a major advantage. There are plenty of bars and resturants offering a large range of foods.
There are far too many bars to mention, or indeed to try in a one week stay, however I would like to recomend a couple that we frequented...

For a friendly bar, with a distinctly Spanish feel, you just can't beat "Coco Hut", again in Roquetas-De-Mar.
With both inside and outdoor seating in a relaxing environment, and fantastic table service, you will feel very welcome here.
This small, family run bar offers a wide range of both branded, international drinks, along with local varieties. You will get the typical Spanish measures here - typically around three or four times an English measure ! As they get to know you, they may even leave the bottle at your table. Approximately every half and hour, one of the bar staff will bring round a tray of fresh fruit - coconut, strawberries, grapes and pineapple - from which you can take your pick. You will also be supplied with crisps with each round of drinks ordered.
The bar has three televisions, and will show most sporting fixtures - including English Premiership matches.
At the end of the evening, you ask for your bill, which will come along with a round of complimentary drinks - usually shots.
We spent virtually every evening of our stay in this bar, and got to know the bar staff really well. On one occasion, we were in the Coco Hut from 7pm until 2am. When

Pictures of Almería (Spain)

The Beautiful Almerian Beaches

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Where to visit:

The shops in Almeria are smaller independent stores. If you prefer something a bit more modern, there is a new shopping mall called "Gran Plaza". This is located on the main road between Roquetas and Almeria, and again is easily reached by bus.
Gran Plaza has a large range of Spanish chain stores, and international resturant chains such as Burger King and Pizza Hut.
We opted for the Hollywood resturant, to satisfy our craving for burger and chips. They offer menus in both Spanish and English, so this is a plus point, and their prices are not too bad either. An important point to note, however, is that when you order your burger, they will ask how you like it. I ordered mine as "well done", but despite this when I cut into it, it was red raw in the middle. Even after sending it back (and to their credit I got a totally new burger), it was still reddish in places. I guess that the spanish like their burgers rare !

There were others on offer, that we did not go on due to lack of time, but the following sounded very appealing...

You could also visit the Sierra Nevada - a national reserve set high in the mountains. On this full day trip, you'd get to see the unique cave houses in Guadix and the beautiful Cathederal. The region is often blanketed in snow, as it it so high up. This trip will only set you back around £20.

Almeria was the home of legendary film director Sergio Leone, who directed classic westerns such as "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For A Few Dollars More". As such, there is a park dedicated to this, and you can spend a day at a western town. You can drink in the bar, have a proper western BBQ, watch shootouts performed by stuntmen or watch girls performing the can-can.

Almeria, and the resort of Roquetas-De-Mar will not appeal to everyone. It is generally an older travellers location, or those who like quieter holidays.
Overall, we did have a nice time - although if we went again we would definately go self catering, as the hotel food was not of the highest quality, and only had a limited selection.
One of the nice things about this resort compared to many other Spanish locaions is that there were no beggers, no timeshare salespeople and very few "looky-looky" sellers. Of course, this may again be affected by the time of year that we went.

The beaches are long, with clear blue sea splashing up on the shores. There is a very fine shingle on the beach - it looks as though it want's to be sand when it grows up !! It's not to sharp, and the children can build sandcastles and play in it with no problems.
The beaches are cleaned on a daily basis, and tractors rake up any seaweed that may have washed ashore every morning. There are loads and loads of sunbed vendors along the beach during high season, and every few hundred yards there are open showers to wash of any sand.

One important thing to mention is the flies !! Because of the intensive fruit crops, Almeria does suffer from a lot of fruit flies. I had read reports of this before, and I was a bit worried about it, however they are not vicious ones... just an annoyance. There were quite a few, but I was anticipating much worse. During the course of our stay, I wasn't bitten once !