La Manga del Mar Menor

The descriptive name of La Manga (the sleeve) holds an interesting geographical layout which has become one of the symbols that best identifies the coast of Murcia as a tourist resort: a chain that stretches along approximately 24 km from Cabo de Palos to the Punta del Mojón, and is the natural limit of the salt water lake known as the Mar Menor. Originally, what is now known as La Manga del Mar Menor was a bay open to the Mediterranean; at either end, volcanic reefs gradually held back the sand and sediment that was dragged along by the sea currents to form a sandy column of dunes and rock vegetation and long beaches in contact with two seas: the Mediterranean and the Menor. La Manga is a narrow piece of land with a width that varies between 200 m and 1 and a half km. It is cut off by natural channels that keep the two seas in contact with each other; the so-called "golas" allow water from the Mediterranean into the lake. As such, the space was kept virgin until the 60's, when La Manga was "discovered" as a tourist resort and underwent a transformation which included the urbanisation of the area and the construction of tourist infrastructures.

Nowadays, everything in La Manga has been designed to enhance the visitor's stay. Complete hotel installations, with a network of establishments with maximum qualification (including a five-star hotel), located at strategic points, apartment complexes, sailing ports, sailing schools, recreational centres, supermarkets, shops, bars, discos... everything you need for a complete holiday. In winter and autumn, La Manga is kept open, since its population is constant all year round. Winter is an ideal period for those in search of peace and quiet, with the necessary services and infrastructures.

Due to it being located between two seas, La Manga is also an ideal place for water sports. There are sailing and skiing schools that run periodical courses, as well as windsurfing and catamarans. The Mediterranean can be enjoyed by those who prefer high waves for windsurfing and the entire coast also offers a series of areas that are ideally suited and perfectly isolated for diving, such as Cabo de Palos and the rocky depths next to Isla Grosa.

Furthermore, visitors to this area can enjoy all the advantages of the Sailing Station of the Mar Menor, which in keeping with the ski station concept, offers a set of sailing, sports and tourist infrastructures together with hotels, accommodation and establishments for leisure and learning grouped together in one place: the entire Shore area of the Mar Menor and La Manga. The exceptional climatic conditions of the area (315 days of sunshine per year and an average annual temperature of 18ºC) are ideal for the continuous practice of water sports.