Dorada Beach

The water comes first: clear, turquoise, cold on the first step and pleasant once you are in. Children play in it all day. Everything a beach day needs sits within a few steps of the sand — toilets, showers, a small bar at the entrance and a terrace next door for a drink in the shade.

Stay into the evening. Playa Dorada is a sunset beach, and the light goes gold over the water while Fuerteventura darkens on the horizon. On days of calima, the dust haze blown over from the Sahara, the colours come out muted, and the evening is still worth the wait.

• The sand gets very hot in the middle of the day; bring sandals for the walk to the water.
• The beach is short and hired sunbeds take up part of it. Some days it is packed, others there is room, so arrive early.
• There is no public drinking-water tap nearby; the bars and shops behind the beach sell water.
• Food is close: a beach bar at the entrance, a terrace, a Burger King, pubs, sports bars and small shops.
• Toilets and showers stand by the beach, including a wheelchair-accessible toilet.

Playa Dorada sits on the seafront of Playa Blanca, so the last stretch is a walk through town streets.

By car, two car parks lie about 210 m and 270 m away in a straight line, with free street parking around them and some paid street spaces as well. Spaces go early on beach days.

By bus, the stops Avenida Papagayo 2 and Avenida Papagayo 12 are each about 300 m away in a straight line. The beach bar at the entrance marks the way down to the sand.

Best: first thing in the day, for a parking space and a sunbed, and again in the late afternoon if you plan to stay for the sunset.

Avoid: the middle of a hot day, and evenings of calima if the sunset is what you came for.

The beach has no natural shade, so at midday the sand burns underfoot and the only cover is a hired umbrella, while calima haze flattens the evening colours.