Almeria Activities

Albar nestles in a remote rural village, where you will find plenty of privacy and tranquil beauty. Yet you will also be within an easy journey of many unique and delightful places of recreation, exploration, culture, or adventure.

Beaches

Coastal Village of Agua Amarga

Cabo de Gata Beaches & Coves

There are many other interesting beaches and coves in the Cabo de Gata.

So much to discover and explore

Excursions scheduled and unscheduled are available, as well as lots of great in-house and locally-based learning experiences. The Gallery always has something interesting to show.

We have several festivals that we are directly involved in organising, and numerous others that you can participate in while using us as a base. And there are plenty of other events that you can add to your social calendar, from our regular Listen and Lunch afternoons, to holiday festivities such as Halloween and Semana Santa.

Local and Homegrown Festivals

There are many charming town fiestas to keep in mind during the course of the year. For most, you will have to keep an eye on our calendar, or a local village diary for dates, because fiesta dates will not be confirmed until close to the time they take place. Local people will be aware of fiesta dates and other happenings, so be sure to ask around during your visit.

Don’t forget El Pilar’s own village fiesta, held in mid-October.

Fiestas in Lubrin
Fiestas in Sorbas

Albar organises and hosts exciting and unique festivals in the village of El Pilar. This year, we have two great festivals for you to look forward to in October.
Music Workshop End-of-the-Week Parties

Our music workshops weeks at La Fuente always end with a great party night, to which all of our friends and neighbours are invited. Join us on one of these dates if you’re in the area. You bring a drink, we provide tapas and music sessions, American and Spanish!

The Gallery is our Exhibition and Conference Space

Albar’s Gallery is a newly-built and expertly designed exhibition and conference space. It is an appealing, well-proportioned room for the purpose of housing exhibitions of painting, ceramic and sculpture, and for hosting gatherings of up to 75 people.

The gallery’s generous and well-proportioned hall is cool and well-lit. It is a flexible, fully AV equipped and air-conditioned space with a seating capacity for up to 55 people and standing room for 75.

The facility measures 80 square metres and has a similar amount of wall display area. Great care and attention to detail has been taken to ensure industry standard display lighting, and the gallery is finished to a very high standard.

The Gallery serves as a showcase for traditional and contemporary aspects of the culture of our area including work by artists of the local region. It aims to help to increase awareness of ancestral and modern art of the area, as well as to make this work accessible to the general public, free of charge.

Excursions

You might wish to join in one of our programmed public outings, such as the Almond Blossom Walks. Or, you and your group can choose a private excursion for yourselves, using ideas from our list of things to do. This includes, to give a few examples, caving, visiting a local pottery, a pilgrimage to a mountaintop shrine, and touring the Alhambra. If you need assistance with directions or booking transport, we are always here to help.

Finally, a Casona Granado excursion could be something you arrange yourself as the main purpose of your visit, using Casona Granado as your base. You might come as a cycling club to do some touring for example, or with a group of geologists to study the area. We have room for eighteen people in the casona, and we can arrange further accommodation as needed at one of our sister sites or with cooperating local hotels.

The Concept of Excursions at Albar can mean many things…

You might wish to join in one of our programmed public outings, such as the Almond Blossom Walks.

Or, you and your group can choose a private excursion for yourselves, using ideas from our list of things to do. This includes, to give a few examples, caving, visiting a local pottery, a pilgrimage to a mountaintop shrine, and touring the Alhambra. If you need assistance with directions or booking transport, we are always here to help.

Finally, an Albar excursion could be something you arrange yourself as the main purpose of your visit, using Albar as base camp. You might come as a cycling club to do some touring for example, or with a group of geologists to study the area. We have room for eighteen people in the casona, and we can arrange further accommodation as needed at one of our sister sites or with cooperating local hotels.

There are plenty of local events of interest…

Why not come to the area for the Gastronomic Week of tapas in Lubrin? This is a great week for food lovers in October which culminates in a sumptuous food competition.

Foraging Walks

Foraging walks will be scheduled for March or April.

Early Spring Wildflower

Early spring wildflower walks will happen in April or May.

Almond Blossom Walks

Walks take place in late February or early March, depending upon when the blossom is expected to be at its peak.

Or, use our route information on this page to schedule your own walk or mountain bike trip.

Albar provides printed details of four walking routes and one route for mountain bikers. The notes here tell you what to take, what to wear, give route directions and provide a local map extract with the route available to download.

Route 1: Easy

Route 2: Moderate

Route 3 - Difficult

Route 4: Energetic

Route 1: Easy

Route 2: Moderate

Route 3 - Difficult

Route 4: Energetic

Route 1: Easy

ROUTE 1: Easy

Around El Pilar. Route 1: Easy

(2.5 Km / 40 Mins)

What to take: Water, camera during the Spring, map and directions
What to wear: Flat shoes, Trainers or boots, sun hat
Download route map: Here

Directions:

From Albar turn left and follow road into village square then follow road to your left slightly uphill until you reach an era after 200 meters with views across the Almond groves.
Follow road to Church then turn left until you reach main road after 300 meters
Taking care and walking on the left side of the road to face on-coming traffic turn left on main road for 120 meters then take first track on your right
Follow track for 300 meters until you reach a cross roads, third track on your left. Take left track uphill and follow for 500 meters until you reach a track on your right
Take this track then after 150 meters take first track on your right and follow downhill for 600 meters ignoring tracks to left and right until you reach main road
Turn right at main road and follow into El Pilar and reach Albar after 500 meters

Route 2: Moderate

Almonds and Rambla. Moderate (6.5 Km / 1.5 Hours)
What to take: Water, camera during the Spring, map and directions
What to wear: Trainers or boots, sun hat
Download route map: Here

Directions:

From the parking area at Albar take main road right then 3rd track to your left after 550 meters marked by a white post box
Continue on track until you reach Cortijo Los Panseco on your left after 1 km
Follow track to right and head south passing ruin on your left after 500 meters
Continue on track heading south for 1 km until you reach main road
Cross main road and take track opposite follow past house on your left, join Rambla after 300 meters and turn right
After 700 meters where Rambla divides follow smaller Rambla right for 2km until you return to Albar

Route 3 – Difficult

Atalaya Summit y el retorno (13 Km 5 Hours / Difficult)

What to take: Water – there is no water and little shade available on the route, camera, mobile phone, binoculars, map and directions
What to wear: Walking boots, sun hat and trousers for walking through brush– spare warm jumper or jacket
Download route map: Here

Directions:

From Albar turn left at main road then immediate right sign posted El Chive. Follow carretera asfaltada uphill for 2.4 kms
Then take dirt track on your left for 1.5 kms
At end of track turn left onto carretera asfaltada and follow uphill for 1.6 kms
Take first track on left at top of hill and follow for 600 meters until you reach a disused quarry
Climb face of quarry by easiest route the follow hunter track to first peak. From here you should be able to spot the white pillar marking the Atalaya summit 500 meters distant
Follow top of ridge to summit. There is a faint path a few meters to the south of the ridge

Route 4: Energetic

Ruta de Bicicleta De Montana. Energetic (15.5 Km)

Day Hike 6-7 Hours
By bicycle – 2.5 Hours

What to take: Water! There is no water and little shade available on the route. Camera, mobile phone, binoculars, map and directions
Download route map: Here

From Albar turn left at main road then immediate right sign posted El Chive. Follow carretera asfaltada uphill for 2.4 kms
Then take dirt track on your left for 1.5 kms
At end of track turn left onto carretera asfaltada and follow uphill for 1.9 kms
Take first track on right at top of hill and follow for 850 meters until the third track on your right
Follow track downhill in a series of ‘s’ bends at first for 1.3kms until you reach a house
Turn slightly right to continue down hill, follow main track down – ignoring all tracks on your left – for 2 kms until you reach a t junction
Turn right at the t junction and reach El Chive in 1.3kms
From El Chive follow carretera asfaltada right ignoring right turn after 800 meters
Instead follow carretera asfaltada up hill taking the right hand fork where it divides above the quarry. Follow up hill then long downhill until you reach El Pilar and Albar after 3.4 km

Almeria Activities