Caletón Beach

The road down to El Caletón swings through hairpin bends with the sea below and no guardrails on the turns. At the bottom sits a fishing village that never became a resort. Narrow streets, houses where local families live, and a stretch of shore where people swim.

There is no hotel and no row of sunbeds. The one beach bar opens only part of the year, and otherwise the village has no facilities at all. What you get is the sea and the quiet of a place people actually live in. It rewards a slow day; if your time on the island is tight, the bigger sights come first.

• Parking is limited and finding a space is a matter of luck; a second, unpaved parking area lies further out, about 830 m away.
• The village is mostly private homes of local families. Keep the noise down and park only where it is clearly allowed.
• There is little room on the shore to lay out a towel.
• No toilets or drinking water nearby, and the seasonal beach bar is the only facility. Bring water with you.
• The road down winds through hairpin bends above the sea with no guardrails on the bends. Take it slowly.

You arrive by car, on a winding road that drops towards the coast in hairpin bends. The bends overlook the sea and have no guardrails, though the road is wide enough for two cars to pass. In the village itself the streets narrow.

The nearer parking area is about 150 m from the beach; a second one, unpaved, lies about 830 m away. By bus, the nearest stops are both called La Montaña, about 1.1 km away in a straight line, and the rest of the way is on foot.

Best: a calm, sunny weekday in the warmer months.

Avoid: weekends, and any day when heavy swell is running.

Parking is scarce and the shore has little room for towels, so a quieter day makes the difference, and the north coast takes its biggest Atlantic swell in winter.