My partner and I stayed for one night at the Hotel Rodalquilar, in the village of the same name, last weekend.

Rodalquilar is a stangely haunting and melancholy place - when the gold mine closed in the 1960s, the population plummeted and there is a prominent area of abandoned miners' houses. The mine workings and buildings can still be seen in the mountains. In additon, many Holywood 'Spaghetti Westerns' were filmed in the area.

Rodalquilar is very well-situated for exploring the stunning Cabo de Gata National Park, and highlights for us included Nijar, the tiny mountain village of Huebro, the abandoned 18th century Embalse de Isobel II (reservoir & dam), the Playa de los Genoveses, and the idyllic seaside village of Isleta del Moro.

The hotel sits in an enclosure just outside town, near to a fabulous beach, and in a desert with strangely-flowering cacti. It consists of a kind of courtyard with Islamic water features and a swimming... more