Cofete Beach

The road tops the pass and the whole beach opens out below: pale sand running for kilometres, the Atlantic rolling in white along its length, and a wall of mountains whose ridges fold down to the shore like the pleats of a curtain.

The scale is what stays with you. Figures at the waterline shrink to dots, and the land behind looks raw and untouched, with no town on the shore to break it. A cemetery sits in the sand beside the beach, and on the slope above the village stands Villa Winter, a lone house against the mountainside.

On a calm day the water is clear enough to swim. On a wild one the wind and surf take over, and the place feels like the edge of the island.

• There are no toilets and no drinking water near the beach. Bring water for the day.
• The road is gravel and dirt, well graded, and a standard car manages it. Take the bends over the pass slowly.
• Conditions vary: some days the sea is calm enough to swim, others the wind and surf make it hard to stay on the sand. Pack a swimsuit either way.
• The sand has no shade. Bring sun cover and a layer against the wind.

Cofete is reached from the Morro Jable side of the peninsula by a gravel road that climbs to a pass over the Jandía ridge and winds down the far side towards the village. The surface is dirt and gravel, well graded, and a standard car handles it at a careful pace. The pass is exposed, and the wind up there can be fierce.

The beach car park, with a sand surface and no charge, lies about 800 m away in a straight line; more parking sits by the restaurant in Cofete village, about 1.5 km away. The last stretch is on foot across the sand to the water. A bus stop named Playa Cofete stands about 900 m away.

Best: a still, clear day, in the afternoon, when the sun has moved west over the sea and lights the mountains behind the beach.

Avoid: days of strong wind and heavy surf.

The shore faces the open Atlantic on the windward side of the island, so wind and waves decide the day: calm weather means a swim, rough weather means blowing sand and a struggle to stand on the beach.

Cofete Beach lies inside Jandía Natural Park, which is protected land. Keep vehicles on the road and in the parking areas; driving onto the sand or the dunes is off limits. Take everything you bring back out with you, and leave the cemetery beside the beach undisturbed.