Twelve Days in Cádiz, Spain: The Old Town, Sherry Country and the Costa de la Luz - Example Timeline | Boromlia
A twelve-day Cadiz travel guide from an August 2025 trip: Europe's oldest city, a Phoenician street under a puppet theatre, sherry bodegas in Jerez, beach horse races at Sanlucar, Roman Baelo Claudia and the Bolonia dune. Real prices, and what the levante wind ruined.
The Train Runs Out of Land at Cádiz
The Cercanías line ends at Cádiz because there is nowhere left for it to go. The city sits at the end of a sandspit, and the last few minutes of track run with water on both sides. We got off at about four in the afternoon into a wall of hot dry wind that took my hat and put it under a taxi. From the station it is a fifteen minute walk into the old town. By the time we reached the flat off Plaza de Mina we both had grit in our teeth. This turned out to be the theme of the next twelve days.
Somebody Explained the Levante to Us on the First Afternoon
The wind here has a name and everyone uses it. Levante comes warm and dry off North Africa, mostly between May and August, and a spell can sit over the city for a week or more. Poniente is the other one, cool and damp off the Atlantic, and in August it is the one people actually want. We were told twice on our first afternoon that the levante would drop within two days. It did not drop within two days. We spent the next week and a half rearranging plans around which way the flags on the seafront were pointing, and the kitesurfers at Playa de la Victoria were the only people in Cádiz visibly enjoying themselves.
Two Phoenician Sarcophagi and the Reason the Museum Exists
The Museo de Cádiz sits on Plaza de Mina and is free if you hold an EU passport, €1.50 if you do not. From June to September it runs 09:00 to 15:00 Tuesday to Saturday, which is a short window and worth planning around. The thing to see is a pair of anthropoid sarcophagi carved with human faces. The male one was dug up in 1887 during work at the shipyards, and it is the reason the museum was founded at all. Both are displayed together now, along with the Dama de Cádiz. We went early, partly for the collection and partly because it was air conditioned and the street was not.
Seventy-Four Metres Up the Cathedral Clock Tower
€8 covered the cathedral, the crypt, the exhibition in the old Counting House and the climb up the Torre del Reloj, which is one of the two towers and 74 metres high. There is a combined 48-hour card at €15 that adds the Oratory of the Holy Cave, San Felipe Neri and the Women’s Hospital. That would have been the better buy if we had looked at the options before paying. From the top you get the grid of the old town, the yellow dome from directly above, and a clear sense of how narrow this peninsula really is. The sea past La Caleta was completely white. We held the rail the whole time.
The Castle We Walked Out To and Could Not Get Into
Castillo de San Sebastián sits on its own rock off La Caleta, joined to the city by a long paved causeway. We walked out along it on the Sunday morning with the levante coming straight across, which meant taking it side-on the entire way. There is no ticket and no gate on the causeway itself; it is open at all times. The inside of the castle is a different matter. It has been shut for restoration, with no reopening date announced as of our visit in August 2025. So we walked out, read the notice, looked at the lighthouse through the railings and walked back.
La Caleta Was Full by Eleven
La Caleta is the small beach inside the old town, held between the castles of San Sebastián and Santa Catalina, and those two headlands are exactly what shelter it. On a levante day it is the only sand in Cádiz worth lying on, which everyone in Cádiz also knows. On an August weekend it fills before eleven and finding a towel-sized gap becomes a competitive exercise. We arrived at about 11:20 and ended up on the concrete ramp at the side. The water was several degrees colder than I had braced for. This is the Atlantic, not the Mediterranean, and it does not let you forget it.
Cádiz Closes on Mondays and We Found Out the Hard Way
We had put the Gadir archaeological site and the Museo de Cádiz on the same day, and that day was a Monday. Both are closed on Mondays. So is a good deal else. We stood outside the puppet theatre reading the opening hours off the door with the wind pushing us sideways, then gave up and walked to the Mercado Central de Abastos instead, which is one of the oldest covered markets in Spain and opens on Mondays. It is a square colonnaded building with fish at the centre and cooked-food stalls round the edge. The wrong plan turned into the better morning.
Tortillitas de Camarones, and Then Rather Too Many of Them
The tortillita de camarones is a thin lacy fritter of wheat and chickpea flour, water, onion, parsley and tiny shrimp of a species you essentially cannot get outside this stretch of coast. Stalls in one corner of the Mercado de Abastos make them to order and you eat them standing up. We had four. Then we walked round to Freiduría Las Flores on Plaza Topete and had cazón, chocos and a plate of papas aliñás, which is cold potato dressed with oil, vinegar, onion and tuna. Las Flores puts you on a waiting list and works through it quickly. We did not need dinner.
Under the Puppet Theatre, a Street from the Ninth Century BC
We came back on the Tuesday, booked this time. The Yacimiento Arqueológico Gadir is free, but the group size is capped and you need a slot. It runs Tuesday to Saturday, 11:00 to 13:00 and 16:00 to 19:00, and Sunday mornings only. It sits underneath the Tía Norica puppet theatre. What is down there is a piece of a Phoenician settlement: eight houses and two terraces laid out along two cobbled streets, with household objects still in position. Above that layer are Roman basins for salting fish. The visit takes about an hour and it is the oldest thing we saw anywhere on this trip.
Six Euros for a Camera Obscura on the Roof of the Old Town
Torre Tavira is a watchtower at the highest point of the old city, 45 metres above sea level, and the camera obscura at the top was installed in 1994. An optical system throws a live moving image of the streets onto a white dish in a dark room. Shows run every thirty minutes. It is €6 with the camera obscura and €5 without, and you now have to reserve ahead rather than turn up at the door. From May to September it opens 10:00 to 20:00. We got the last slot of the day, then went out onto the terrace and could see water on three sides of the city at once.
Half an Hour Across the Bay on the Catamaran
The quickest way out of Cádiz is not the road. The catamaran leaves from the Terminal Marítima next to the station and crosses the bay to El Puerto de Santa María in about thirty minutes for roughly three to five euros, running every couple of hours. By car it is a long loop around the whole bay. We took it on the Wednesday morning with the levante still up and it was a lively half hour. Most of the top deck went below after ten minutes. On the other side there is the Castillo de San Marcos, the Iglesia Mayor Prioral and a lot of sherry.
The Bodega Gustave Eiffel Designed, and a Small Train
From El Puerto we took the train up to Jerez de la Frontera for the González Byass bodega, the Tío Pepe one. The tour runs about ninety minutes and takes in a bodega building designed by Gustave Eiffel, the vine-shaded Calle de los Ciegos, the cooperage and a ride round the site on a little train. You choose when booking between a visit with two glasses of sherry, or four glasses plus two tapas. From June to October tours go at midday, one, two and five, Monday to Saturday, and Sundays only until two. Fino straight from the cask tastes almost nothing like the bottle in our fridge at home.
Langostinos on the River Bank at Bajo de Guía
Sanlúcar de Barrameda sits where the Guadalquivir meets the Atlantic. Bajo de Guía is the row of restaurants along the river mouth, with the Doñana side directly opposite across the water. This is where the langostinos and the Manzanilla come from and the entire street is arranged around serving you both while you look at the river. We got there mid-afternoon and waited about forty minutes for a table outside. The river bank takes the wind better than the open coast does. From here Doñana looks like almost nothing: low scrub, a line of pine, pale sand.
The Boat into Doñana Is €15 and Takes Two and a Half Hours
The Real Fernando runs from the Fábrica de Hielo at Bajo de Guía across and down the Guadalquivir into the Doñana side. Boat only is around €15. There is a longer version at about €35 that puts you into a 4x4 on the far bank, and the round trip takes roughly two and a half hours either way. In summer, from 1 May to 14 September, departures are 09:30, 10:00, 16:15 and 17:00. You can book by phone, at the tourist office in the Fábrica de Hielo, or buy on board if there is space. We took the 16:15 and were back in time for the thing we had actually come for.
Horses Racing on the Beach at Low Tide
The Sanlúcar beach races have run since 1845, when the racing society was formed, and 2025 was the 180th edition. There is no track. The course is wet sand, so the dates are set by the tide calendar rather than by anyone’s diary, which is why they land on a scattered set of August evenings. In 2025 that meant the 5th, 6th and 7th, then the 19th, 20th and 21st. We were there on the 21st. The horses come past at sunset with Doñana behind them across the water and several thousand people standing along the shoreline. It is free to stand and watch, and it is over in about two hours.
A White Town on a Two-Hundred-Metre Hill
We picked up a hire car in Cádiz on the Friday and drove south. Vejer de la Frontera is stacked up a hill roughly 200 metres above the farmland around it, which you notice mainly because the last kilometre of road is switchbacks and the sensible car parks are at the bottom. Inside it is white walls, stepped lanes and a lot of shade. After a week of wind on flat open ground, being enclosed by buildings was a relief. We had lunch on Plaza de España. This was the first day the levante worked in our favour, because up there it arrived as a breeze rather than a sandstorm.
A Roman Town Nobody Built Over, for €1.50
Baelo Claudia sits about 15 km north of Tarifa, on the beach at Bolonia. It is a Roman town with the street plan intact: forum, basilica, theatre, temples, and the tanks where they made garum out of fish. The sea is right there at the end of the main street. Entry is €1.50, or free for EU citizens on production of a passport or ID card, provided you keep to the marked paths. There is a large free car park at the entrance. We gave it two hours and could have used more. Nothing was built on top of it later, which is why you walk the actual streets instead of reading a plan on a board.
The Bolonia Dune Sandblasted Us Off the Beach
The dune at the end of Bolonia beach is more than 30 metres of white sand piled up against the pine on the isthmus of Punta Camarinal. It has been a protected Natural Monument since 2001, and it is anthropic in origin rather than a purely natural formation. Climbing it in a levante was a mistake. At that height the sand moves horizontally and it gets into your eyes, your ears and the camera body. We reached the top, looked at the view for about four seconds and came down the sheltered back side to get out of it. Two of the photographs from that afternoon are simply white.
Three Months Late for the Tuna
Zahara de los Atunes is named for the tuna and we turned up in the wrong month. The almadraba is a maze of nets set off this coast to intercept bluefin as they pass, worked from roughly April to June with the peak in May, after the first full moon. Boats out of Barbate, Zahara, Conil and Tarifa all run it. The butchering has its own name, the ronqueo, after the noise the knife makes running along the backbone. In August all we got was tuna on the menus, which is still very good tuna, and a village that had clearly had a busier spring than the one we were seeing.
The Working Port at Barbate, Closed Because Monday
We drove back up the coast and stopped at Barbate to look at the fishing port, which is a working one rather than a marina. The almadraba boats tie up here between seasons, and the anchors and gear are stacked on the quay in a way that makes the scale of the nets obvious. There is an interpretation centre in the town for the tuna trap. It was shut. It was a Monday, which by that point in the trip we really should have predicted. We bought a packet of mojama, air-dried salt-cured tuna loin, ate half of it in the car park and regretted not buying two.
Poniente, on the Morning We Left
On the Tuesday we woke up and the flags along the seafront had swung round. The poniente had come in overnight, cool and damp off the Atlantic, and the whole city felt like a different temperature. We had four hours before the train. We went straight to La Caleta, got in the water twice, ate one last plate of tortillitas at the market and caught the train out with wet hair. If we did it again we would come in late September or early October, when the levante has mostly finished, and we would book Torre Tavira and the Gadir site before leaving home rather than after arriving.