From Wikitravel

El Puerto de Santa Maria (El Puerto in short) [1] is a small sized city (82306 inhabitants in 2005) located in the Cadiz Province in the Andalucia region of Spain. It lies on the North-East shore of the Cadiz Bay and is easily reachable from the city of Cadiz in a short boat trip aboard "El vaporcito" (or "El vapor del Puerto")

[edit] Understand

[edit] Get in

[edit] By air

• The nearest airport is Jerez (XRY) (30 minute drive) and is accesible by car, taxi, bus or train. It has direct flights to/from Madrid, Mallorca and Barcelona in Spain as well as destinations in Austria, Belgium, England, Germany, and Portugal. However, many of the international flights are seasonal or not daily.

• Another option is to fly into Seville (SVQ) (about 1 hour drive or train ride away).

• Malaga (AGP) is also an option but not as easy to reach (about 1.5 hour drive).

[edit] By train

• From Madrid (Atocha train station) there are 3 daily Alvia trains direct to/from Cadiz wich stop at El Puerto as well as Cordoba, Ciudad Real,Jerez de la Frontera, Puertollano,and Seville.

• If you need a wider range of schedules you can consider taking an AVE to Seville and then a Media Distancia (regional train) to El Puerto.

All the trains are operated by RENFE.

[edit] By bus

• Buses leave from Madrid's Estacion Sur de Autobuses in Mendez Alvaro and are operated by Socibus/Sercobus. There are several a day (including an overnight service) and stop at other towns and cities along the way.

• Buses from other places in Andalucia (including Malaga and Seville) are operated by COMES.

[edit] Get around

There is a decent network of local buses, specially necessary if you need to get to the beach areas west and east of the city centre. Getting around by car is generally easy and parking space is also relatively easy to find. Only avoid the peak season in August when most Spanish people take holidays and go by the thousands to El Puerto, which has become a trendy national destination.

[edit][add listing] See

• The multiple sherry wine "Bodegas" that abound in the centre of town.

[edit][add listing] Do

• Enjoy some of the wonderful beaches that El Puerto has to offer. Among them: La Puntilla, Las Redes, Valdelagrana, Fuentebravia. Pristine white sand beaches, well serviced and not as crowded as their mediterranean counterparts in "La costa del Sol"

• Learn Spanish

[edit][add listing] Buy

[edit][add listing] Eat

• Uncountable gastronomical delicacies both in the form of restaurants and the more informal tapas bars (not less delicious or delicate).

[edit] Tapas bars

• El Laul.
• El Betis.
• El rincon del Jamon.

[edit] Top of the range restaurants

• El Faro
• Casa Flores
• Los Portales

[edit][add listing] Drink

• This is one of the 3 cities of the Sherry wine (together with Jerez and Sanlucar de Barrameda), so make sure you try it in all its possible incarnations: Fino (dry), Oloroso, Dulce, Pale cream. Also try the excellent brandys.

[edit][add listing] Sleep

• Lots of hotels in town and around, one of the best hotel offers from all the cities in the Cadiz Province. Good base place to explore the surroundings and other places in the Cadiz Province

[edit] Get out

• Cadiz: just a short trip across the Cadiz Bay

• Sanlucar de Barrameda: together with El Puerto and Jerez one of the towns of the "Sherry triangle". On the mouth of the Guadalquivir river

• Jerez

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