Facilities & Services

The beach Vera Playa beach looking north

The principal facility at Vera Playa is its superb naturist beach. The beach stretches approximately 7 kilometres, from just south of Villaricos down through Vera Playa itself, and on to Puerto Rey and Garrucha. More than two kilometres is officially naturist. (During 2002 the local Council attempted to reduce the naturist beach to about 1 km - just the area immediately fronting naturist developments - a campaign to challenge/reverse this had a significant victory - support by the Ombudsman for Andalucia in April 2004, but Vera Council still - misleadingly - signs this length as "playa textil")

It is possible to walk along the shoreline all the way from Vera Playa to the attractive small harbour of Villaricos to the north or the larger fishing harbour and town of Garrucha to the south. The beach is predominantly sandy, though on the shoreline it can sometimes be pebbly - it changes with every tide. In fact the stones and pebbles on the shoreline are exceptionally diverse and attractive. The sea is swimmable all year (even in the depths of winter it is warmer than the seas in northern Europe in summer!). Less hardy souls, which probably includes most Spanish people who are acclimatised to Spanish weather conditions, would probably say that the sea is swimmable from about May to late October. At the height of summer (mid June until mid Sepember it is wonderfully warm.

Vera Playa beach looking south

Bars and Restaurants

There are two main locations where there are bars and restaurants within a short walk of the naturist zone (neither area is actually in the naturist zone):
1. On the northern perimeter of the naturist zone: Outside the main entrance to the Vera Playa Club Hotel there is a parade of shops, bars and restaurants (this street is generally known as "Hotel Street"). The hotel itself has a large restaurant and several bars/cafes.
2. On the southern perimeter of the naturist zone: Close to the main entrances of the Bahia de Vera and Torremar Natura urbanizacions there are a number of bars and restaurants (the recession has caused some of these to close or change ownership and names so it is difficult to ensure that the establishments are accurately listed at any one time) There is also a substantial commercial centre which has the Consum supermarket on its ground floor and has space for 30 or 40 shops, restaurants, bars etc on other floors. However, due mainly to the recession no doubt, only a few of these are currently occupied and open - notably the Wok (Chinese/Thai buffet style restaurant and an internet cafe)

Within the naturist zone there are some small cafe/bars and some beach bars/restaurants. On a public pedestrian way through the newest phase of the Natsun development there is the Paso Doble cafe/bar and next to the Vera Natura recption office there is the Bar Trinidad. On the beach in front of Natsun there is the Natsun Chiringuito (popularly known as Tiggers) and a little further south there is the Pirates chiringuito and on the edge of the beach close to Vera Natura there is a bar/cafe/restaurant which used to be known as the Sol y Luna but is now known as the Vera Natura beach bar/restaurant.

Further afield: There is also a large selection of bars and restaurants in nearby places, such as Villaricos, Puerto Rey, Garrucha and Mojacar Playa (beach) and Mojacar Pueblo (village) and in the countryside and villages.

Please note - the following table shows only some of the bars, cafes & restaurants. If you have information about any of the others please send it to us.

Location		Services	How to find	Clothing	Season	Open	Positive comments	Negative comments
Hotel Street	Benito's	Bar, restaurant (snacks and meals). The best known & loved cafe/bar at Vera Playa - enormous and excellent value meals	Bar closest to hotel on left when facing hotel	Textile	Approx - late February until mid November	All day to late (Nov eves only)	Speedy service Good ambience Good value Large meals TV, but no loud music Benito can be generous with appetisers and drinks	Can be crowded Tuna salad served with most meals (but it's good!)
	Blue Parrot	Bar restaurant (British owned/run	Adjacent to roundabout with statue	Textile	365 days per year	All day until very late (upstairs night bar)	Huge meals Mainly British cuisine (speciality is huge battered cod & chips at €8, but home made pies also excellent). Good value	Sound system can be loud. Meals are almost too large! You might have to go on a diet afterwards or limit the number of visits to this establishment
	Buena Mesa	Bar, restaurant	Next to Benito's	Textile	March to October	Mid-day to late evening
	Broadway	Bar	Hotel Street	Textile	March to October	7 pm - very late
	Frankie's Bar	Cafe/bar	50m beyond the roundabout with the statue (from the hotel)	Textile	All year	All day/evening	After Benito's, seems the busiest	Can be busy, sound system can be quite loud
	El Balconcito	Cafe/bar (snacks and meals) Sunday lunches have good reputation.	Hotel Street (next to Sun-Med estate agency)	Textile	All year	Mornings till late evening
Nr Bahia de Vera and Torremar Natura gates	Atoda Vela	Bar - also serves tapas	20m from Torremar Natura gates	Textile	Most of year (closes for longish holiday period in winter)	All day and most of the night	Smart decor	Outdoor sound system can be noisy (including in the early hours and even when there's no-one there!)
	Mayo de 2004	Bar/restaurant (Recently refurbished - 2007)	Nearly opposit Atoda Vela and Key Mare Offices	Textile	All year	All day + evening
Centro Hispania (Consum commercial centre)	Wok Buffet	Asian/chinese wok buffet - popular (one price, eat as much as you like). Good selection	Above the Consum supermarket	Textile	All year	Lunchtimes and evenings	Was very popular when first opened in 2006 but a number of other wok/buffet restaurants around now so somewhat quieter generally now	Can be very noisy when busy (sound bounces off tiled walls)
Naturist zone & beach	El Chiri' (NatSun) (known as "Tiggers")	Beach bar, restaurant	On beach in front of NatSun	Naturist only	March to October	All day (not evenings) (food 12 to 4 ish)	Good meals	Not so cheap as once it was
	Vera Natura restaurant/bar	Beach bar, bar, restaurant (indoor and outdoor)	On beach edge in front of Vera Natura	Optional (restaurant is textile)	All year	All day to late evening
	Paso Doble	Cafe/bar (with internet access)	In Natsun phase 4 on pedestrian path to beach	Optional	All year	Daytime

Please note: 1. Spanish drink/drive limits are substantally stricter than the UK's so it is a good idea to walk to bars and restaurants or if you wish to go further afield either take a taxi/bus or in summer the little "land-train" or nominate one person to stay alcohol free and drive home at the end of the evening.
2. Small local bars/cafes can choose whether to allow smoking or not - most seem to have opted to continue to allow smoking.
3. There are somewhat more bars/cafes/restaurants than shown above - we will extend the list in due course - but the principal ones are listed. There are 3 chiringuitos (beach bars) as you go south from the main area of naturist beach (all textile) and an upmarket restaurant called B2 adjoining the beach at the Playa de Baria 2 urbanizacion (walking distance from naturist zone - about 1 - 1.5kms). If you have a car available Monika's Bar about 2.5 kms from the naturist zone on the road towards Palomares, offers excellent value meals with a menu del dia (around €11) in the evening which is unusual - but it is a smoking bar (there are tables otside which are fine in warm weather).

Food shops/supermarkets

There is a reasonable size supermarket (Coviran) at the Esquina del Rey commercial centre at Puerto Rey and a medium size supermarket (Los Minutos) at Las Bougainvillas.

Vera has several large supermakets including Dia (near the roundabout with arch and fountains on the edge of Vera town), Mercadona (in the town) and Lidl (adjacent to the bus-station, easily accessible from the bypass). There was a large Intermarche supermarket near to the triumphal arch rounabout in Vera but this has recently closed down - we have heard a rumour that it will reopen as Consum but this is not yet confirmed (also a rumour that it has been bought by Carrefour?).

Excellent street markets are held in Garrucha on Friday mornings, Vera on Saturday mornings and smaller ones in Palomares and Villaricos on Sunday mornings.

Last update: 26 May 2010

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