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Best place to stay for Donana Nature Reserve visit?

Posted by (Shoreline, Washington, USA) on

Hi all...

Our group of eight will spend three weeks in Spain and Portugal this summer (end of June to mid-July.) We have some birders who are interested in seeing Donana Nature Reserve so I'm looking for a good nearby place to stay for a night or two. We'll have cars so are flexible. We also have beach-lovers amongst us. What would you recommend? Cadiz? Sanlucar de Berrameda? El Rocio? (I know that's not on a beach but...)

Re: Donana Nature Reserve, any idea what we'll see in mid-summer? I've read a number of references to spring and fall migrations. Not being a birder myself, does that mean not much to see in the summer, especially if it's really dry? We're guessing hot and dry weather that time of year.

Appreciate your advice! :-)

Posted by
7157 posts

Roads in that area are fairly limited and getting from one side of the park to another might not be straightforward. Pick a location close to where you’ll be watching the birds. If going to Observatorio de Aves, Salinas de Bonanza, then San Lucar makes sense. It isn’t very large, but is close to Jerez. Cádiz has more hotels and restaurants but is about 40 minutes from the observatory. The beach in San Lucar is decent if I remember correctly and the one in Chipiona was good. The town of Rota will be overflowing with tourists that time of year. My guess is lodging will cost less in San Lucar than either Rota or Chipiona.

If you do want to go over to Cádiz for a day, rather than drive over, consider taking the ferry from either Rota or Puerto de Santa María. It may even run from San Lucar, but you’d need to check. If the bay if rough, the ferry does stop running.

Posted by
76 posts

Thanks, Jaime, much appreciated! :-)

I like the looks of Sanlucar. I'm reading there's a ferry across to Donana, where it looks like there are 4x4 tours of the park available. I'm seeing there are two of these tours, one of the southern part of the park and one of the northern (that might reach El Rocio?) The company is Donana Reservas. Anyone have experience with them?

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