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La Manga
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.
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