Almerimar Holidays

The resort 'Fathers' rightly condemned the old seventies-style hotel, formerly known as the Florida Park hotel, or the Blue Hotels to the locals. This 3-tower concrete monstrocity was spectacually blown up back in 2004. It was at this point the opportunity to rejuvenate Almerimar was lost, for the resort needs tourists. However, instead of new hotels, the resort received even more private apartments.

Many of these new buildings, both around the port and on the outskirts of Almerimar, are quite attractive with modern designs.However, the problem is not the architecture but the occupancy. The majority of the apartments have been purchased by Spaniards, many of whom live in nearby El Ejido (4 miles away!) and as the traditional Spanish holiday season is restricted to the month of August, the remaining eleven months of the year in Almerimar are very quiet. You can glance up to a large apartment block after dark, even in mid-July and see just the odd light on here and there. This imbalance causes severe difficulties for the local economy: there are literally dozens of empty shop spaces, discretely hidden behind painted breeze blocks awaiting the tourist boom that has never happened. Apartments which have been purchased by British and other northern European nationalities, with a view to turning them in to holiday lets, are hampered by the Spanish majority. It is quite understandable that they only want the swimming pools open in August, when they are there and have no wish to pay for maintenance and attendants for the rest of the year when they are not.

Almerimar has a small ex-pat population. This micro-community has a typical but exaggerated village mentality, there is a strong community spirit with plenty of volunteers that band together to do lots of good work around the resort. They join in with the locals, compete in regattas and other local events and raise money for local charities. The downside of living in each others pockets is fortunately diluted by regular friends, family, golfers and tourists temporarily swelling their ranks whilst on holiday. The British community also have an excellent online website and forum called Almerimarlife, which has great information for locals and prospective visitors alike.

So you may think from my report that I don't much care for Almerimar. However, the opposite is true, the locals have made me feel very welcome and every time I visit I slip quickly in to their laid back way of life. I do feel sorry for people trying really hard to make a living, in a holiday resort with insufficient tourists. This situation whilst difficult for bar owners and restauranteurs may also be a positive to many prospective visitors: where else can you visit in the summer months and enjoy the hot weather by the sea in a sleepy resort that has that quiet feel of a Spanish holiday resort in winter?

There is fantastic potential for Almerimar to be grown organically, into a stunning
4- star resort and to avoid falling into the mistakes of other places up and down the Costas, but the local planners do not need to miss many more opportunites and I sincerely hope they don't!

Martin K Holling is a director of Travel Empire and has been a travel agent for 38 years.