San Lucar de Barrameda Jerez Cadiz, Spain tourist guide

Sanlcar de Barrameda, Jerez

SANLUCAR DE BARRAMEDA
If you want to feel in touch with the country and the tidal marshes of the Lower Guadalquivir and explore the Doana Nature Park on horseback all you have to do is contact Alargavista, who will offer horseback trips through these areas and in horse-drawn coaches on nights of the full moon, with catering service so that the only thing you have to think about is enjoying the splendid surroundings.This company also organises tours to fighting bull herds, classic and ranch horse training sessions, demonstration of bullfighting techniques or a tour with lunch to an Andalusian farm with flamenco party included. One of the most popular activities, however, is the Sanlcar-Guadalquivir-Doana river itinerary on board the ship Real Fernando or the cruise on the Guadalquivir to the Nature Park where you will be picked up by horse-drawn coaches to see the tidal marshes, flamingos, peacocks, herons... These services can be topped off by the visit to the two visitors' centre dedicated to the Park.

HORSES ON THE BEACH
Sanlcar is divided into 2 clearly differentiated parts: The upper one and the lower part of the city. Its importatn historic-artistic collection, located in the ravine that overlooks the mouths of the River Guadalquivir, is composed of palaces, churches, lordly houses and fortresses such as the Castle of Santiago. Sanlcar si world famous, through, for the horse races on the beach, a true visual spectacle. They are considered the most ancient horse races in Spain and have their origin in informal contests organised by the owners of the horses that transported fish and seafood on the beach of Bajo de Gua along about the first decades of the nineteenh century. They ar now held in August in two cycles of three days, depending on the low tide that leaves an unlikely hippodrome that attracts thousands of persons to see how horses from the best stables run on the fine sand. The fiesta has been designated of International Tourist Interest.As a complement, Sanlcar also offers some of the best seafood in the world, its Exalatacin al Rio Guadalquivir Fiestas (August) and the patron saint fiestas of the Virgen de la Caridad, in which the main streeets of the city are covered with carpets of dyed salt.