Mazarrón beaches: Playa del Castellar

Playa Grande-Castellar, a kilometre of sandy beach between Puerto de Mazarrón and Bolnuevo

The Playa del Castellar is a vast semi-urban Mediterranean beach, one of the 33 which are to be found along the 35-kilometre coastline of Mazarrón between the municipalities of Cartagena and Lorca. 

This is a huge stretch of open sand beach which adjoins the Cabezo de Castellar and the neighbouring Playa de Nares at one end, before petering out by the Rambla de las Moreras, which feeds out floodwaters from inland areas into the Mediterranean during periods of heavy rain.

It is 2.6 kilometres from the centre of the Puerto de Mazarrón at one end, but 3.5 at the other ,and is easily accessed from Avenida del Castellar, which forms part of the long coastal road linking the Puerto de Mazarrón to Bolnuevo.

his area is lined with residential houses and apartments, with a number of small dead-end streets running off the main road down to the edge of the beach. These provide plenty of parking, although during the summer, when the population of the municipality swells from 30,000 to 150,000, space does become limited. There are also bicycle racks and some spaces allocated for disabled parking, although during the summer there’s very little chance of finding one unoccupied.

This is the basic infrastructure for the Club de Mar development, for which preparation was carried out but which was never built, and this provides a convenient hard-parking area.

As the beach heads towards the port, completed residential developments replace the unkempt building site, the beach becoming progressively busier nearer to the urban centre of Puerto de Mazarrón.

The beach is also serviced by the urban bus on the urban Mazarrón-Murcia route. For the latest timetable and further information about the Mazarrón municipality go to the dedicated Mazarrón municipality section (see Tourist info for bus timetables).

The western end of Playa Castellar is known as Playa de las Moreras (next to the Rambla, or floodwater channel, of the same name), and been designated a dog friendly beach. 

This appears as an area of wild canes and vegetation, but is not recommended for swimming and was the scene of a tragic drowning in the summer of 2011. Whilst the water formed in the pond appears calm, the bottom is soft and muddy, tangled with roots, and small children should not be left unsupervised in this area. The strongest recommendation is not to swim here at all.

But away from the mouht of the rambla a glorious beach stretches nearly 1.2 km, with an average width of 26 metres.

The sand is fine and golden, with small batches of pebble, which even at the peak of summer is less densely populated than the main urban beaches in the centre of Puerto de Mazarrón.

In the summer of 2019 the Town Hall of Mazarrón declared the Playa de El Castellar a “no smoking beach”. There is no absolute ban on smoking – such a prohibition would be against Spanish law as it stands – but beachgoers are actively discouraged from lighting up, and those who insist of doing so are offered leaflets explaining why there are requested not to and disposable ashtrays.

The reasons for this initiative are threefold: to avoid annoying other beach users, to encourage a healthier lifestyle and to help protect the marine environment: one cigarette can contaminate up to 50 litres of water, and the filter takes between 1 and 10 years to decompose in the sea.

At the Puerto de Mazarrón end of the beach is Cabezo del Castellar, an unprepossessing outcrop which is actually an important archaeological site. On the Cabezo is an impressive viewing point showing how the beach is linked to Playa de Nares.

Facilities

The Playa de Castellar flies both the Blue Flag abnd the Q for Quality flag, indicating that it has been recognised by both the Spanish Tourist Board and an international body set up to encourage environmentally friendly beaches, the FEE. The flags are in recognition of the quality of the services on this beach as well as its cleanliness and the quality of the water.

Basic services: Drinking water, footwashes, toilets, toilets adapted for disabilities, disabled parking spaces (5), bins and recycling collection points, lifeguard and medical services, children’s play areas, bicycle parking racks, paseo, shaded garden area, hire points for aquatic sports equipment and water slides. There are also wooden walkways down onto the beach during summer.

Behind the front line are plenty of restaurants and bars offering a full range of catering options and facilities, with the large Hotel Playa Grande alongside the beach. From here it is an easy drive into either Bolnuevo or the Puerto de Mazarrón, where there are supermarkets and more shops/hostelries.

Click for an overview of all 33 beaches in the municipality of Mazarrón, or for more information relating to Mazarrón.