ANDALUCIA TOURISM NEWS AUGUST 15 2002

ALMERIA FAIR
At the end of August Almería prepares to organise it's largest celebration – the feria or fair. A week when this Mediterranean city surprises locals and visitors alike with one of the most enjoyable fiestas in the calendar – The date: August 23 to September 1. The fair has its origins in a legend which took place on December 21, 1502, when the Almería coastguard discovered an image of a virgin on one of the beaches – the virgin was declared patron of the city. 500 years later, the local pop idol of the moment, David Bisbal, will sing in the fairground site on the 23rd and 24th. The daytime fair extends across all the districts of the city and will offer open air dancing, sports competitions, bullfights, and the Flamenco Festival which is held in the Plaza de la Constitucion on the 26, 27 and 28th – now in its 36th edition. Fun is guaranteed the whole day long and if you have enough staying power the night fair will light up the night. The Avenida del Mediterráneo will fill with dancing, singing and happiness until the early hours of the morning. Top groups will perform in the fairground for both locals and visitors – Café Quijano on the 27th, Los Morancos on the 28th, Carlos Baute on the 29th and Ketama on the 30th.

ALMERIA TOURIST GUIDE
The city of Almería offers us a wide range of leisure activities for our holidays. From the superb beaches to the most typical tapas restaurants. All this can now be found in the Municipal Tourism Guide which brings together all the many offers and aspects of the city. Nature and sports tourism, culture, accommodation in hotels or campsites, with particular attention to the genuine and typical local cuisine of the more than 50 bars in the city. The guide also tells about the historic heritage of the city from the 11th to the 20th centuries, making a route round the emblematic monuments of the area. From Muslim Almeria to the Christian and the 19th and 20th centuries. Visitors to this coastal city will also find information telephone numbers in the guide. Almería has so many attractions that any visit will become unforgettable for the visitor.

CALIPHS BATHS
The Culture department of the Junta de Andalucía intends to provide Córdoba with a network of visits to the baths of the Caliphs. It's planned that in the first place an archaeological study be carried out, ahead of excavations. It's hoped that this initiative will award the remains from the 10th century to have the restoration that they deserve. Córdoba has one of the most extensive networks of conserved Arab baths and this new project will allow an even more complete offer to tourists. The baths, genuine reference points in the social life of the city at the time, conserve the original structure to the doorway, changing areas, cold and hot zones as well as the fires and boilers. The project to recover the baths will allow us to better contemplate the beauty of this Arab engineering.

VISITORS TO DOÑANA
One of the most beautiful natural spaces and also one of the most visited in the province of Huelva is Doñana, where we can find some incomparable landscapes. The park welcomed some 200,000 visitors in the first six months of this year, most of them coming into this protected area from the reception centre in El Acebuche. According to data from the National Park the Acebuche visitor information centre was the most popular in Huelva province, followed by Acebrón and Rocina. In addition, between January and June this year, around 20,000 people followed the itinerary round the interior of the park in four wheel drive vehicles, and more than 13,000 visited along the river from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Cádiz.

MÁLAGA TREKKING
The provincial government in Málaga has set up a provincial network of tracks for the enjoyment of trekkers and walkers. The plan is in response to requests from numerous tourists and sportspeople who enjoy putting a rucksack on their back and talking to the fields and mountains to get a closer contact with nature. These tracks will be signposted and to the same standards, and cover the entire province. There will be a total of 30 routes and these will connect with the largest routes in the provinces of Granada, Córdoba and Cádiz. The network will be completed in a year and a half. The project, which sees the participation of the Junta de Andalucía, the Andalucian Mountaineering Federation and different municipalities from the province, will have a budget of 180,000 €

BEACHES OF ANDLAUCÍA
Andalucía has kilometres and kilometres of coastline – and for all tastes. From the busy tourist beaches, to the most isolated and quiet coves. There are five Andalucian provinces with a coastline, each one of them offers something different: HUELVA is the entirely Atlantic Andalucian province. With 100 kms of coast with long golden beaches where the visitor can lose him or herself in the beautiful beaches. CÁDIZ is divided between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. 260kms of coast where the tourist can chose between unspoilt, urban beaches with calm waters or strong winds ideal for the enjoyment of sailing sports. MÄLAGA and her Costa del Sol offer us some very complete tourist facilities. The 150kms of beach divide the Costa del Sol to the eastern part, with more coves and cliffs, and on the western part the beaches of golden sands predominate. GRANADA is the province with the smallest amount of coastline. In the more than 40kms we find beaches with dark sand and clear waters. All of them surrounded by fertile plains and tropical fruits. From these the Granada coast has been named the Costa Tropical. ALMERÍA, in the far eastern part of Andalucía, is the province with most hours of sunshine a year, and its temperatures are an average of 19 degrees year round. It's beaches, more than 200kms long, are bathed by the waters of the Mediterranean and generally remain spectacular and undeveloped.