Cartagena beaches: Playa Lomas del Castillico

This beach is located directly in front of the La Manga Caravanning Park

Playa Lomas del Castillico is rarely called by its true name, being more frequently referred to as the La Manga Caravanning Club beach (Villas Caravaning), due to its location directly in front of this large camping and caravanning complex.

It’s a lovely little beach, 500 metres long and 25 wide, planted with tall date palms providing welcome shade from the heat of mid-summer and is well-serviced by a substantial year-round cafeteria and beach club which also offers wind-surfing tuition.

During summer months there is a lifeguard, chemical toilets, water and footwash facilities, bins, protected swimming area and beach bar facilities.

Windsurfing corner

This beach is particularly popular with windsurfers, particularly those learning to windsurf, as well as with intermediates.

The Mar Menor is particularly good for windsurfing learners and intermediates for several reasons:

The lagoon covers a surface area of nearly 170 square kilometres, with 70 kilometres of internal coastline, separated from the Mediterranean by a 22km long strip of land, La Manga del Mar Menor, which is connected to the Mediterranean via canals, feeding the Mar Menor with natural saltwater.

It has shallow fringes, which slope gently, and is only 7 metres deep in the centre, so the water temperature is warmer than that of the Mediterranean, particularly around the edges where it is possible to wade out 50 metres from the shore and still only be waist deep.

Murcia is the warmest mainland region in Spain, and has an average temperature of 18 degrees, which makes it perfect for year-round watersports activity and bathers can enjoy the waters of the Mar Menor for most of the year. The water in the Mar Menor is not tidal and has no currents or waves, so is perfect for family bathing or watersport beginners.

However, it does also have wind, the other essential ingredient for sailing, and in the morning this is gentle and steady, perfect for beginners, with thermal winds coming through in the afternoons, perfect for improvers.

This particular corner is excellent for launching, as the winds tend to permit sailors to take a line straight across the middle of the Mar Menor towards the Isla del Ciervo on the far side and back, giving more experienced sailors a long, safe run and a chance to plane when the wind is good.

Windsurfing instruction is also available in this corner, with the shallow, warm waters ideal for beginners,  as those learning to windsurf will inevitably spend a lot of time falling off the board in the early stages, and whilst the winds are fairly light, staying around a steady 2-3, this is enough to raise a sail, but not enough to overpower novices, the shallow waters make it easy to get on and off the board, while the lack of waves helps novices to gain their confidence and balance, and facilitate raising the sail until this process becomes easier with experience, at which point, the stronger afternoon winds help learners to progress to intermediate and learn to plane and jibe.

This corner can also be accessed by vehicle, so those with their own equipment can launch from this side independently.

No smoking!

In the summer of 2019 this beach was nominated by the Town Hall of San Javier as a "no smoking" beach. No official ban is in place, but bathers and other beachgoers are urged to refrain from lighting up on the sand, not only for the sake of their own health but also in order to prevent discarded butts from remaining on the beach and then contributing to marine pollution when they are washed into the sea. 

Of the nine beaches involved in this scheme on the Costa Cálida three are in the municipality of San Javier, the others being those of El Pescador in Santiago de la Ribera and Playa Mistral in La Manga del Mar Menor.

To access Playa Lomas del Castillico, drive down parallel to the beach of Playa Honda through the residential area ( which is one way, forcing drivers down along the beachfront. ) Continue straight on to the far end where there are multi-coloured apartment blocks. Right at the end of this is a track to the right which leads down to the older properties right down on the beach front alongside an agricultural field. Follow this to the left and it is possible to drive to the edge of the beach and park.