My husband and I will be staying in Cadiz for a week starting this Wednesday and we would love any recommendations for restaurants, tours, and activities. We are finishing a trip that has included Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada and are hoping to find fewer crowds!
Posted by
Greeley, co, usa
2539 posts
We were there for a day on our cruise in 2018 and just walked around. very nice. I’d love to go back. Have fun. p.s. I’ve vacationed in Carlsbad almost every year since 1961 ( the year before in Oceanside ! )
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7024 posts
Just my opinion, but a week in Cádiz is a long time.
You could take the ferry over to either Rota or Puerto de Santa María and walk around. Both towns have a castle. The one in Puerto is a nicer and is supposedly where Columbus received the money from Ferdinand & Isabel for his 3rd trip. The cathedral in Puerto is worth a short visit. Rota is just nice to walk around for a short while. It doesn’t have any must see sights and does get busy with tourists later in May. You could also take a day trip to Jerez de la Frontera for a sherry bodega tour.
If you haven’t visited the white towns you could take a tour to them, or, just visit Arcos de la Frontera or Ronda. The ease of this might depend on whether you have a rental car or not. Likewise, there are the ruins of the Roman city Baelo Claudia just over an hour away.
Posted by
Vermont, USA
719 posts
We were in Cadiz for 5 days in January, 2022 and would have been happy with more time there. Yes, it's fairly slow-paced, but we loved it, and it was a very relaxing few days. Here is an excerpt from my trip report on what we did:
Cadiz: January 2-6. Weather 60s day, 50s night; sunny with a couple of brief rain spells
Lots of walking – especially on the promenade around the coastline. Beautiful.
La Caleta beach, walked in the ocean
Lots of gelato on Calle Ancha, just down from our apartment. Very convenient.
Tavira Tower
Shopped for dinner at the Central Market. Bought clams, fish filets (don’t know specific species; some kind of whitefish), fish gills, roe sacks, and chicken (for the cowards who wouldn’t eat the seafood).
Roman Theatre ruins
Christmas Market in the Plaza de San Antonio (including toboggan rides!)
Three Kings Parades (super fun)
More walking
Just a note that although it looks like there’s nothing to do in Cadiz, we absolutely loved it. It is very low key but beautiful for strolling around, lots of wonderful places to stop for food, lovely gardens, many pedestrian-only streets with great window shopping, and of course, the beach. It was a wonderful, relaxing place to be, and we would have loved to stay longer. Next time.
If you do find you need more to do, I would second the recommendation to go to Jerez de la Frontera; it's a very easy train ride from Cadiz and a nice way to spend a day.
There are also excursions to Donana National Park, which is something we considered but wound up not doing just because we were enjoying relaxing in Cadiz so much.
For restaurants, just wander and drop in anyplace that looks good. We ate a ton of really good seafood in Cadiz. If you are staying in an apartment with a kitchen, the Central Market is a fun place to shop for food or pick up grub for a picnic lunch on the beach (sunsets can be gorgeous). The market is also a great place to go just to explore and people watch; it's not huge, but we liked walking around and looking.
Enjoy Cadiz!
Posted by
Washington DC
27618 posts
Vejer de la Frontera makes a nice side trip from Cadiz if you need additional options. The Comes bus takes 62 to 100 minutes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vejerdela_Frontera
Posted by
Royaume-Uni nul points, pas plus
2585 posts
Posted by
OP
Carlsbad, CA
37 posts
Thank you for all the suggestions. We are in Cadiz now and love it. After seeing and doing a lot in Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada our stay here (at a wonderful apartment near the Mercado) is a vacation from our vacation!
We agree with DebVT's list and highly recommend visiting Cadiz.
Posted by
Los Angeles
968 posts
Looking for a day trip idea that would get us to the ocean from Sevilla. I think we would love Cadiz! For some reason, I have the vibe of Aix-en-Provence in my mind.
It appears to be a 1.40 train ride on a MD train. We could leave Seville at 8:30am, go for a walking tour and lunch, and head back at 5:40pm (although I hear the town shuts down at 3pm). This is almost too far for a day trip although I imagine the train ride is pretty.
Jerez de La Frontera is only an hour train ride from Seville. Maybe this is a more reasonable day trip. Just not an ocean town.
We will be in Seville for almost three weeks after 3 nights in Granada and before 3 nights in Madrid.