Sea kayaking in Chiclana

I was desperate to do some kayaking before leaving Spain for the summer and after a long search I finally found what I had been looking for: the area of Sancti-Petri in Chiclana de la Frontera. We had Caroline visiting from London so we dragged her along with us and set off to hit the beach together.

I found a website that offered guided kayak routes (here is their site if you’re interested – only in Spanish!) and we went to see those guys but when we got there we realised that there are loads of kayak shops on that stretch. We just walked into the first one and decided to hire the kayaks and do it ourselves. They didn’t speak much English in the shop but my intermediate Spanish was enough to get by with them.

They showed us a map and we could choose from two routes. We decided to try to go to the castle. The approximate time there and back is about 1,5h. You can get out there and sunbath a bit or walk around and take photos of the view. This was the plan.

It all fell apart however when we realised that the current is quite strong and it took us ages to work against it. We made it to the other side and decided to have a little break and walk around the island. After having a dip in the sea we got back to the kayaks and paddled back.

It took us a lot of effort again to work against the current as (following my advice) we crossed to the mainland too early. By the time we managed to get back to the shop I thought my arms would fall off! We decided that this is definitely not for beginners like us. We also decided not to listen to me any more…

We paid 8 euros per individual kayak per hour (12 for a double) which is very reasonable I think. We returned the kayaks after 1h15min but they only made us pay for one hour.

After all this hard work it was time to hit the beach. Yay for the white sandy beaches of Costa de la Luz!