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Debate over banning short-distance flights takes off, but the cons outweigh the pros
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Some of Spain's lakes, ponds, lagoons and rivers are totally natural, whilst others have been landscaped to give them a 'beachy' appearance, or just to make life easier for bathers – with steps, terraces, and sectioned-off areas for safety.
There's at least one in every province, but here are some of the nation's favourites.
Castilla y León
Head for the Sierra de Gredos mountain range in the province of Ávila, where you'll find numerous natural 'swimming pools' between the Los Caballeros lagoon and the river Tormes.
Also in the province of Ávila, the Arenas de San Pedro is a parkland-cum-inland beach, peaceful and green and perfect for a dip.
Or in the province of Burgos – after stopping at the city of the same name to see what is probably the world's most stunningly-beautiful cathedral – midway between the villages of Pedrosa de Tobalina and La Orden you'll find the 12-metre (39-foot) waterfalls named after the first of these (first picture, from Flickr), which supply a huge and beautiful pool of clean water perfect for summer bathing.
In the heart of a woodland, the rocky river path running through mossy banks offers plenty of shade as well as shallow water for paddling in the river Cambrones, in the province of Segovia – the Calderas, or pools, most popular with locals and visitors are the Guindo, Enmedio and La Negra.
Castilla-La Mancha
Letur, in the province of Albacete – not far to travel if you're on the Costa Blanca or in Murcia – is a small, man-made pool complete with steps and surrounded by trees, purpose-built for bathing, so you know it's going to be completely safe.
For a more 'countryside' feel, the thick grassland surrounding the Ruidera lagoons in the province of Ciudad Real, fed by small waterfalls, comes highly recommended, whilst the rocky Las Chorreras in the province of Cuenca, with its crystal-blue-grey waters, reminds one of the cave-pools, or cenotes, in eastern México.
In the same province, the Hoces de Cabriel, in and around the villages of Enguídanos, Villora and Minglanilla are a UNESCO bio-reserve and a huge, natural complex of pools of different sizes and depths, ranging from knee-deep to several metres, turquoise with a sandy floor and shrouded in mountain landscape with waterfalls – in fact, they look more like a scene from the tropics than from centre-eastern Spain.
Cantabria and Asturias
Only suitable for daredevils, the Faro del Caballo (literally, 'Horse's Lighthouse') sits on a cliff above a vast, turquoise lake in the town of Santoña, Cantabria, below the Buciero mountain – only accessible via a steep, tiring footpath, you then have to jump off cliffs ranging from three, six, to 12 metres (9'9”, 19'6”, to 39 feet) to get into the water.
If you'd rather stay on terra firma, next-door Asturias offers at least two well-loved inland beaches - Gulpiyuri, a rocky, wedge-shaped cove topped with trees and with a wide, sandy shore, and the green and beautiful A Seimeira waterfalls close to the village of Santa Eulalia de Oscos, which is quaint and pretty in itself and well worth a visit before you 'take the plunge'. To get to the A Seimeira, you need to do some hiking, but the route is well signposted, flat, and very simple.
Extremadura
Despite being land-locked, this western region – just a stone's throw from Portugal and from Spain's southern province of Huelva – Extremadura has its own 'beaches', and what's more, they have blue flags.
La Dehesa, in Cheles (Badajoz province) has earned this quality kitemark for the last two consecutive years, whilst the Orellana Freshwater Beach ('Playa Dulce de Orellana') in Orellana la Vieja (also Badajoz) was the first inland 'coastal' enclave to gain a blue flag.
If you prefer countryside to 'coast', though, the woodland waterfall crashing over boulders and running into a pool deep in the mountains in the province of Cáceres, known as the Garganta de los Infiernos (literally, the 'throat of hells') sounds a lot less peaceful and idyllic than it actually is. (See photograph two, by the Valle del Jerte tourist board).
Madrid
If you check out the link above on Extremadura's beaches, you'll also find out about Madrid's own 'coast' – the San Juan swamp in the outer-city town of San Martín de Valdeiglesias has 14 kilometres of artificial beach created specially for locals, given that the nearest 'real' coast is at least a three- or four-hour drive away in any direction. Cliffs, forests, clear blue waters and golden sands mean you wouldn't know you were not on a 'beach' as you know it; in fact, one of these beaches, the Virgen de la Nieve, has earned its third consecutive blue flag this year.
Also, the Rascafría lake, in an open-air, verdant forest, is millpond-calm and ideal for a swim.
Galicia
The complex known as 'Termas' in the province of Ourense is purpose-built, but tastefully-done: A rockery, stone terrace, and surrounding lawn, plus a boulder wall all the way around it you can grab hold of if you're not confident.
For a more 'natural' environment, try the Pozas de Mougás in the province of Pontevedra – a woodland lake served by waterfalls cascading over the rocks.
Andalucía
No doubt there are numerous natural pools and purpose-built lagoons across this southern region, but the most-voted among locals and visitors is the Charco del Infierno in the province of Málaga.
For a man-made complex that's perfect in winter, too, head to the Sierra Elvira mountains in the province of Granada. These hot-springs have been turned into outdoor swimming pools that are naturally around 32ºC year-round, making them pure bliss on a freezing cold day.
Catalunya
A world away from the hustle and bustle of the Costa Brava is the Aniol d'Aguja in the province of Girona, a secluded forest lake fed by gushing cascades.
Further south, in the province of Barcelona, what looks like the remains of a fortress – but is actually an open-sided rock formation – the Cantonigròs contains a shallow pool with a sandy floor fed by a torrent streaming over the upper edge.
The Toll del Vidre, a small rock-pool with a pebbled shore filled from a weir spilling over a rocky ledge in a pine forest makes an ideal spot for a dip in the province of Tarragona, and the Fontcalda, in the same province, is deep in a channel between two mountains, but has been designed specifically for bathers with steps, a stone path and a terrace.
Aragón
No doubt there are plenty in the province of Teruel, one of Spain's most rural and attractive, although the one that leaps out at the general public is on the edge of the Pyrénées.
An emerald-green mountain frontier dotted with brightly-coloured blue-green lakes known as íbones, this area of Spain is perfect for a summer getaway as it is cooler and more refreshing than the more southern parts, but being at an altitude, you'll still get a good suntan.
Whilst there, head for the Salto del Bierge – the 'Bierge Falls' – where you can sit on a ledge along the top of the huge water chute and let the cool water run over your feet, or go for a swim in the lake behind it. Not far from the Bierge Falls is the Fuente de la Tamara, a natural spring with bright-turquoise waters which you can also swim in.
Murcia
In the town of Bullas, on the north-western face of the Castellar hill, you'll find what's probably the closest thing in Spain to a Mexican cenote – the Salto del Usero ('Usero Falls'), a cave-pool created by the passage of the river Mula, has plenty of rocky outcrops around the sides for you to rest in between swims (see photograph four, from Flickr).
On the coast, the Mar Menor – an inland sea created by the 'tongue' of land known as La Manga – is normally packed and cosmopolitan in summer, but quieter in winter and hugely popular as a bathing spot. Its warm, salty waters bring great relief for stiff, achy joints and, unsurprisingly, the area has become a focal point for spa hotels.
Canary Islands
A trip to the island of El Hierro is always fascinating, at any time of year. Quaint and 'villagey', but somehow geared up to international tourism, this little-known Canarian destination has an active volcano off its coast which has erupted several times in the past decade – nothing to worry about, because it doesn't affect anyone on dry land when it does, but if you're in the right place at the right time, you can watch it bubbling offshore. El Hierro, during out-to-sea eruptions, has been known to experience up to 2,000 earthquakes in a matter of weeks, but again, almost none of these is severe enough to be felt and those that are create a split-second shudder that just gives you something to talk about when you recount your holiday fun back home.
And the Charco Azul – literally, 'blue puddle' – is a refreshing bathing spot, deep enough to swim in, half-in and half-out of a cave, with spectacular rock formations to admire whilst you're floating.
The nearby La Maceta is on the coast rather than inland, a rockpool which is ideal for bathing when the sea is too choppy to enter.
Los Charcones, in Lanzarote, are a series of lagoons which are so clear you can see right to the bottom and admire the undulating rocky base as you swim.
The same is true of El Caletón de Garachico in Tenerife, although this is actually on the coast. It's a large rockpool separated from the sea and with steps and a platform built into it for bathers to enter cautiously.
In Gran Canaria, the wide-open blue lagoon Agaete is surrounded by a pebble beach, so you can flop out and relax in the sun in between dips without getting coated in sand.
Comunidad Valenciana
Most inland towns and villages in this eastern region have a small lake, section of river or man-made lagoon either turned into a beach or cordoned off and with picnic tables, or at the very least, what is known as a chiringuito – an outdoor public swimming pool with a rest area, sunbeds, bar and restaurant (a chiringuito in coastal areas normally refers to a pop-up drinks kiosk with on-the-sand tables and chairs and often disco music after dark).
Montanejos is a short drive north-west from Valencia city off the A-23 motorway, but appears to be devoid of civilisation in parts – red mountains, pine forest, vast undulating rural panoramas that have been compared with the more rugged parts of Scotland, hide small towns some distance from their neighbours (but which have direct train connections to the heart of Valencia). In the depths of this dramatic landscape, an extensive river inside a plunging, mountain ravine, turquoise as the Pyrénéen íbones, with a sand 'beach' and sectioned off by boulders to create a string of pools, you can easily pretend you're on the coast but with the safety of being in a swimming pool.
The Fuentes de Algar (see photograph five, from Pinterest), near the town of Callosa d'En Sarrià to the north of Benidorm, Altea and Alfaz del Pi, are huge. You'll never be able to explore them all, even if you spend the entire day there. After you buy your ticket at the entrance and stash your gear in the lockers, you'll pass restaurants and souvenir shops before you get to the massive natural-spring river running through mountains cut into steps and slopes for you to sit on and dry off. Enormously popular with visitors of all nationalities – especially those based in Benidorm who want to escape the package resort atmosphere – the Fuentes de Algar are, nevertheless, extremely cold. As in, icy. For that reason, they're best visited just before or just after summer, since the intense heat and humidity of high season can make the contrast with the low water temperature even more of a shock to the system – plus, of course, outside of summer, they're much quieter and less crowded.
The Fuentes de Algar are easy to reach from the AP-7 motorway – toll-free since January this year – which runs right down the east coast of mainland Spain.
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