Camping La Garrofa

Camping La Garrofa's setting has it well placed for easy access to the excellent city of Almeria as well as the natural areas of this arid province, from deserts to coastline to the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra de Los Filabres. Almeria's only natural park is Cabo de Gata-Nijar, the biggest protected coastal area in the province. It has a desert climate (yet tis at the sea too), Spain's biggest volcanic rock formation, craggy cliffs and tiny islands brimming with marine life: the park has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1997. Birdwatching, diving, boating and geology field trips can all be arranged at the natural park; if you're hiking, try the Caldera de Majada Redonda trail, leading to the centre of an ancient volcano caldera. The Tabernas desert is where the Almeria spaghetti Westerns were filmed, including the Dollars trilogy (that's A Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly for the uninitiated). It's still used these days for film shooting, but quite a few critters are around too if you'd rather spot native species instead of cowboys: look out for Bonelli eagles, peregrine falcons, ladder snakes and natterjack toads. Several traditional Almerian villages are a few miles from the site, and do have a few days in Almeria too, to see famed sights like its Alcazaba, the air raid shelters used in the Spanish Civil War, its cathedral and its Chanca – the group of houses carved into rocks.