The beaches of Almeria

Last weekend, I spent a day exploring the beaches of Almeria here in the Andalucia region of Spain. My English teaching program is an adventure sometimes. Last year was the first year both myself and Amy taught English in Spain. We both got placed in tiny pubelos. However I got lucky as two teachers from my school commuted from Granada and they gave me the option to live in Granada. I of course took it and had a fabulous year living in Granada. Like what? I got to live in one of the most beautiful cities in Spain. It was like a dream all year last year.

Amy, however, got placed to work in a pueblo of Almeria called Albox. She did not have the option to commute from a larger city like I did, so she lived in the town. However from all her stories, it sounded like she had a good year. The teachers from her school were always going out and getting together, so she made some good Spanish friends that way. And when you’re in a pueblo, you’re really forced to speak Spanish as less people speak English.

If we decide to teach a second year with this program, we typically get priority over people in their first or third+ year. In my region, it’s basically known that if you write down the city you want, you get it as a second year. I used my priority advantage to stay in Granada but work at schools that I could walk to. I got what I wanted and I love not having to carpool for an hour. Amy used her second year priority to live and work in Granada, which is how we became friends.

So Amy still had stuff in her pueblo that a friend was keeping for her over the summer (super nice of her friend). It was more than you could just get on a bus trip. It was maybe like 6-8 boxes, so renting a car for the day seemed like the best option. It’s always cheaper in Europe to rent a stick shift. For lots of Americans, this is a problem. The majority of our cars are automatic and most Americans never learn to drive a manual car. I, however, can thanks to my parents who both preferred stick shifts. At age 16 when it came time to learn to drive, I had no other option than to learn as both of their cars were stick shifts. At the time, I HATED it. However I am not grateful. Several years later my mom’s car would become mine. Hence, I drove a stick shift for 10 years. I could do it in my sleep.

This now means that I can rent a car with no problems here in Europe. So I drove us out there and back there for the day. I had heard about the beaches of Almeria, so we made hanging out at the beach part of the journey.

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If you wish to explore Almeria, there are several beach options. The one we went to is Playa de Los Muertos in Carboneras. You actually have to park your car at the top of the hill and hike down. The hike down is super worth it.

There are a few other beaches to explore in the province of Almeria. I have only explored this one, but perhaps in the future I’ll return to explore a few more. This article lists 10 beaches in Almeria that you must see.

The dress was found at Mango here in Spain and it was on sale. I normally wouldn’t go for a dress like this that has no back. However I also hate to stay in ruts, so I decided to be adventurous and buy it! I’m glad that I did.