Mar Menor

The Mar Menor is located on Spain’s Costa Calida which is just south of the Southern Costa Blanca.

The Mar Menor or little sea is the largest sea water lake in Europe. It is a very popular bathing spot for families with children as it is always a few degrees warmer than the neighbouring Mediterranean Sea. The average water temperature for the Mar Menor is seventeen degrees centigrade.

The little strip of land which separates the Mar Menor from the Mediteranean Sea is known as the La Manga Strip. The La Manga Strip is twenty kilometres long and the Mar Menor has a total area of one hundred and seventy square metres with a depth of no more than seven metres.

The main tourist resorts located on the shores of the Mar Menor are Los Alcazares, Los Urrutias and Playa Paraiso. There are webcams based in these resorts so you can get a pretty good idea of what the resorts look like and can get a full weather report on any given day.

From the webcam in Playa Paraiso you can see the Salina de Marchamalo with its wild bird life including flamingos and twitchers, and the Isla Del Ciervo.

Other popular resorts on the shores of the Mar Menor include San Pedro del Pinatar, La Manga with its popular golf and sports club and Lo Pagan. The Mar Menor is a water sports paradise where you can go sailing, kayaking, windsurfing and powerboating.

The Mar Menor is also known for its excellent spa facilities offering mud baths which are good for the skin.

The place to stay on the Mar Menor is the Mar Menor Golf Resort with its eighteen hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus where the rooms start at €84 a night.

On the shores of the Mar Menor is also the town of San Javer which is home to the airport termed as Murcia which services the Costa Calida and the Sourthern Costa Blanca.