THE average Spanish resident will spend between €500 and €1,500 on their holidays this year, with three in 10 set to increase their budget from last year and 16% reducing it.
Spain still top of the world for best beaches with 615 blue flags, unbeaten in 34 years
15/05/2021
BEACHES in Spain have got the blues this year – more so even than last summer.
A year ago – well, 11 months, in fact – the country was awarded 589 blue flags for its beaches and another 99 for its yacht marinas and leisure ports, giving a total of 688; quite an achievement for the start of a summer which had been preceded by three months of total lockdown and was still facing major restrictions, including what was looking to be (and in the end, was) an almost total absence of foreign holidaymakers.
But even with this being the second year running that involved stringent safety criteria to prevent the spread of Covid-19 as part of the blue flag conditions, Spain has once again surpassed itself with a whopping 713.
Of these, 615 are for beaches, 96 for ports and marinas, and two for tourist sailing vessels.
And once again, Spain is the world leader for blue flags – it has been non-stop for 34 years now – even beating much larger countries with considerably more coast.
Naturally, Spain is always going to beat Portugal, Italy, Cyprus – and Malta, which is small enough that a fit person could walk from one end of the country to the other in a day – because of their size, but other popular European sunshine destinations such as Greece, Turkey and France have as yet failed to catch up with Spain since 1987.
Last year, beaches and ports in Spain mostly managed to hang onto their blue flags, with a small handful of new ones edging in; this year, the majority of coastal provinces have seen an increase.
The regions of Murcia, Cantabria and the Basque Country have kept the same number of blue flags as last year – 26, 11 and five respectively – as have the islands of Gran Canaria and La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, and the northern African coastal cities of Ceuta and Melilla, with 15, three, two and four respectively.
Blue-flagged beaches in land-locked provinces? Are you sure?
Madrid has retained its one blue flag and the province of Badajoz, in the land-locked western region of Extremadura, has kept its two blue-flag beaches.
Depending upon how observant you are, you may have noticed a bit of a dichotomy in the above paragraph: The capital city, north of the centre, and a land-locked western province have all kept their blue flag beaches? Did we really mean that?
Yes, we did, because the Greater Madrid region town of San Martín de Valdeiglesias has 14 kilometres of man-made beaches on the shores of the San Juan swamp, and one of these in particular, the splendid Virgen de la Nieve, has held onto its prestigious kitemark for four years on the trot; and the Badajoz towns of Cheles and Orellana la Vieja also built two lakeside beaches which look and feel so much like the real thing you would easily forget you were not on a sea coast.
Take a peek at our full list of 2020 blue-flagged beaches, and you'll find out more about the ones in Madrid and Badajoz at the bottom, complete with a photograph of the Orellana Freshwater Beach in the latter, where you'll be able to see what we mean about how you wouldn't realise you were on a riverbank rather than the seaside if you were blindfolded and dropped off there without being given any clues. At least, local residents near this and Cheles' La Dehesa beach, or the San Martín de Valdeiglesias one, are quite content with their own versions and never feel any particular need to take their holidays on the edges of the country to spend them on the genuine article.
In fact, nine inland beaches have earned blue flags for 2021, including two in provinces that are right on the coast anyway – Ardales in the province of Málaga and As Pontes in that of A Coruña, Galicia have gained the sought-after kitemark for the first time.
Most regions gain new flags: Andalucía sees largest increase
Regions that have gained extra flags are Galicia, up four to 111, with six extra for the province of Pontevedra (58 in total), that of Lugo keeping its existing 18 and A Coruña losing two, down to 35; Asturias, which has gained one more for a total of 14; the Comunidad Valenciana, with 137, having gained another three, one for each of its provinces which are now on 32 (Castellón), 31 (Valencia) and 74 (Alicante); Catalunya, up two from last year to 97, thanks to the province of Barcelona which gained four for a total of 31, offsetting Girona's loss of one (down to 26) and Tarragona's reduction from 41 to 40; Andalucía, now on 115, from last year's 100, as a result of Granada's gaining five (totalling 11), Huelva's previous seven now up to nine, and Málaga's gaining an incredible 11, giving it a total of 34 – Almería, down from 32 to 31, and Cádiz, dropping from 32 to 30, did not prevent Andalucía from being the region with the largest rise in blue-flagged beaches this year.
The Canary Islands have seen the second-largest increase in blue flags for 2021, gaining eight, giving it 59 – other than Gran Canaria and La Gomera, with the same totals as last year, and Lanzarote's losing one and dropping to seven, the rest of the region all gained additional ones: La Palma rose from five to six, Tenerife from 12 to 16, Fuerteventura from seven to 10, and El Hierro from one to two; as yet, La Graciosa does not have any.
The Balearic Islands fared worst of all, falling from 38 to 31 with all of them losing flags – except Formentera, which does not have any yet – Mallorca dropping four, down to 21, Menorca falling from five to three, and Ibiza from eight to seven.
Alicante province has the most blue flags, and Málaga has gained more than any other
As has been the situation now for many years, the region with the most blue flags is the Comunidad Valenciana on the east coast, at 137, followed by Andalucía with 115, but this is generally expected, as they are the largest two coastal regions and, in the case of the Comunidad Valenciana, is the only mainland region of more than one province where all of them are on the coast and none of them are 100% land-locked.
Again, as was the case last year, the province of Alicante had the most blue-flagged beaches in Spain, at 74 – and as Spain is the global leader, if you live in the Comunidad Valenciana's southernmost province, your coastline is the one with more blue flags than anywhere else on earth.
Despite Málaga's being the province with the highest increase in blue flags in all of Spain, the province with the second-largest number of these kitemarks is Pontevedra, in the far north-western region of Galicia – an area that is rarely on the standard summer beach holiday resort trail for northern Europeans, but is hugely popular with Spaniards who live in the north or in big cities without a coast.
Blue-flag bearers, the crème of beaches
Gaining a blue flag for your local beach, or beaches, is a sign of massive effort and investment on the part of your local council – although the sheer number of them may make it look as though they are literally given away, they are very difficult to achieve, and especially in a year when coastal towns' budgets were drastically reduced for flag-gaining actions, given the serious hit the tourism industry took in summer 2020.
Cleanliness is crucial, both on-shore and offshore – the water has to be pure and in good health – beaches have to be attractive, with environmentally-friendly and sustainable management in place, enough lifeguards to guarantee bathers' safety from morning until late evening, accessible for everyone, including those with disabilities, and with convenient and useful facilities such as wooden walkways, foot-showers, toilets, and perhaps children's play areas or sunbeds and parasols.
In terms of anti-pandemic precautions, over half of this year's blue-flagged beaches have set up some form of technology to control and monitor numbers of people using them – where this is necessary, that is; some beaches are spacious and sparsely-occupied enough that there is no need, as they are never packed – whilst 54% of them have taken on extra personnel to ensure everyone keeps themselves and each other safe, and to help and advise them as required.
Effectively, if the beach you're heading to for your holidays this summer has a blue flag flying in the middle of it, you know you've picked one that's of the best quality on earth.
Related Topics
BEACHES in Spain have got the blues this year – more so even than last summer.
A year ago – well, 11 months, in fact – the country was awarded 589 blue flags for its beaches and another 99 for its yacht marinas and leisure ports, giving a total of 688; quite an achievement for the start of a summer which had been preceded by three months of total lockdown and was still facing major restrictions, including what was looking to be (and in the end, was) an almost total absence of foreign holidaymakers.
But even with this being the second year running that involved stringent safety criteria to prevent the spread of Covid-19 as part of the blue flag conditions, Spain has once again surpassed itself with a whopping 713.
Of these, 615 are for beaches, 96 for ports and marinas, and two for tourist sailing vessels.
And once again, Spain is the world leader for blue flags – it has been non-stop for 34 years now – even beating much larger countries with considerably more coast.
Naturally, Spain is always going to beat Portugal, Italy, Cyprus – and Malta, which is small enough that a fit person could walk from one end of the country to the other in a day – because of their size, but other popular European sunshine destinations such as Greece, Turkey and France have as yet failed to catch up with Spain since 1987.
Last year, beaches and ports in Spain mostly managed to hang onto their blue flags, with a small handful of new ones edging in; this year, the majority of coastal provinces have seen an increase.
The regions of Murcia, Cantabria and the Basque Country have kept the same number of blue flags as last year – 26, 11 and five respectively – as have the islands of Gran Canaria and La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, and the northern African coastal cities of Ceuta and Melilla, with 15, three, two and four respectively.
Blue-flagged beaches in land-locked provinces? Are you sure?
Madrid has retained its one blue flag and the province of Badajoz, in the land-locked western region of Extremadura, has kept its two blue-flag beaches.
Depending upon how observant you are, you may have noticed a bit of a dichotomy in the above paragraph: The capital city, north of the centre, and a land-locked western province have all kept their blue flag beaches? Did we really mean that?
Yes, we did, because the Greater Madrid region town of San Martín de Valdeiglesias has 14 kilometres of man-made beaches on the shores of the San Juan swamp, and one of these in particular, the splendid Virgen de la Nieve, has held onto its prestigious kitemark for four years on the trot; and the Badajoz towns of Cheles and Orellana la Vieja also built two lakeside beaches which look and feel so much like the real thing you would easily forget you were not on a sea coast.
Take a peek at our full list of 2020 blue-flagged beaches, and you'll find out more about the ones in Madrid and Badajoz at the bottom, complete with a photograph of the Orellana Freshwater Beach in the latter, where you'll be able to see what we mean about how you wouldn't realise you were on a riverbank rather than the seaside if you were blindfolded and dropped off there without being given any clues. At least, local residents near this and Cheles' La Dehesa beach, or the San Martín de Valdeiglesias one, are quite content with their own versions and never feel any particular need to take their holidays on the edges of the country to spend them on the genuine article.
In fact, nine inland beaches have earned blue flags for 2021, including two in provinces that are right on the coast anyway – Ardales in the province of Málaga and As Pontes in that of A Coruña, Galicia have gained the sought-after kitemark for the first time.
Most regions gain new flags: Andalucía sees largest increase
Regions that have gained extra flags are Galicia, up four to 111, with six extra for the province of Pontevedra (58 in total), that of Lugo keeping its existing 18 and A Coruña losing two, down to 35; Asturias, which has gained one more for a total of 14; the Comunidad Valenciana, with 137, having gained another three, one for each of its provinces which are now on 32 (Castellón), 31 (Valencia) and 74 (Alicante); Catalunya, up two from last year to 97, thanks to the province of Barcelona which gained four for a total of 31, offsetting Girona's loss of one (down to 26) and Tarragona's reduction from 41 to 40; Andalucía, now on 115, from last year's 100, as a result of Granada's gaining five (totalling 11), Huelva's previous seven now up to nine, and Málaga's gaining an incredible 11, giving it a total of 34 – Almería, down from 32 to 31, and Cádiz, dropping from 32 to 30, did not prevent Andalucía from being the region with the largest rise in blue-flagged beaches this year.
The Canary Islands have seen the second-largest increase in blue flags for 2021, gaining eight, giving it 59 – other than Gran Canaria and La Gomera, with the same totals as last year, and Lanzarote's losing one and dropping to seven, the rest of the region all gained additional ones: La Palma rose from five to six, Tenerife from 12 to 16, Fuerteventura from seven to 10, and El Hierro from one to two; as yet, La Graciosa does not have any.
The Balearic Islands fared worst of all, falling from 38 to 31 with all of them losing flags – except Formentera, which does not have any yet – Mallorca dropping four, down to 21, Menorca falling from five to three, and Ibiza from eight to seven.
Alicante province has the most blue flags, and Málaga has gained more than any other
As has been the situation now for many years, the region with the most blue flags is the Comunidad Valenciana on the east coast, at 137, followed by Andalucía with 115, but this is generally expected, as they are the largest two coastal regions and, in the case of the Comunidad Valenciana, is the only mainland region of more than one province where all of them are on the coast and none of them are 100% land-locked.
Again, as was the case last year, the province of Alicante had the most blue-flagged beaches in Spain, at 74 – and as Spain is the global leader, if you live in the Comunidad Valenciana's southernmost province, your coastline is the one with more blue flags than anywhere else on earth.
Despite Málaga's being the province with the highest increase in blue flags in all of Spain, the province with the second-largest number of these kitemarks is Pontevedra, in the far north-western region of Galicia – an area that is rarely on the standard summer beach holiday resort trail for northern Europeans, but is hugely popular with Spaniards who live in the north or in big cities without a coast.
Blue-flag bearers, the crème of beaches
Gaining a blue flag for your local beach, or beaches, is a sign of massive effort and investment on the part of your local council – although the sheer number of them may make it look as though they are literally given away, they are very difficult to achieve, and especially in a year when coastal towns' budgets were drastically reduced for flag-gaining actions, given the serious hit the tourism industry took in summer 2020.
Cleanliness is crucial, both on-shore and offshore – the water has to be pure and in good health – beaches have to be attractive, with environmentally-friendly and sustainable management in place, enough lifeguards to guarantee bathers' safety from morning until late evening, accessible for everyone, including those with disabilities, and with convenient and useful facilities such as wooden walkways, foot-showers, toilets, and perhaps children's play areas or sunbeds and parasols.
In terms of anti-pandemic precautions, over half of this year's blue-flagged beaches have set up some form of technology to control and monitor numbers of people using them – where this is necessary, that is; some beaches are spacious and sparsely-occupied enough that there is no need, as they are never packed – whilst 54% of them have taken on extra personnel to ensure everyone keeps themselves and each other safe, and to help and advise them as required.
Effectively, if the beach you're heading to for your holidays this summer has a blue flag flying in the middle of it, you know you've picked one that's of the best quality on earth.
Related Topics
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