Discover the Spanish coast

The costas of Spain, one map

Pick a costa, refine the map by what you want to find, and dive into the places worth knowing.

Explore the map Browse the costas
586Places mapped
15Kinds of place
15Costas on the map

The costas at a glance

Where are the costas in Spain?

Spain’s coastline is divided into costas: named holiday coasts, usually one per province, each with its own character. The Costa Blanca’s turquoise coves and palm-lined promenades, the wild cliffs of the Costa Brava, the sun-soaked beaches of the Costa del Sol. Ten costas run along the Mediterranean from the French border to Gibraltar, the Costa de la Luz faces the Atlantic in the south-west, and three line the Bay of Biscay in the north; the Balearic Islands lie offshore. That makes 14 mainland costas and Galicia’s two coasts on this map, plus the Balearic Islands.

CostaMap gathers the places worth knowing on each of them — not just the famous beaches, but the quiet coves, hilltop villages, nature reserves and lookout points — and puts them on one honest map. Pick a costa below or on the map to open its guide. In the north-west, Galicia’s Atlantic shore has two guides of its own: the Galician coast (the Costa da Morte and the Rías Altas) and the Rías Baixas.

Map of the Spanish costasThe named coasts of mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, from the Costa Brava at the French border to the Costa de la Luz at the Portuguese border and round the north coast to the Basque Country.Costa BravaCosta de BarcelonaCosta DoradaCosta del AzaharCosta de ValenciaCosta BlancaBalearic IslandsCosta CálidaCosta de AlmeríaCosta TropicalCosta del SolCosta de la LuzRías BaixasGalician coastCosta VerdeCosta de CantabriaCosta VascaSPAIN
Coastline: Natural Earth (public domain). Coast boundaries follow the provinces and are approximate.
  1. Costa BravaCosta BravaGironaPortbou on the French border to Blanes, about 200 km of coves and cliffsPhoto: Karsten Ratzke, CC0
  2. Costa de BarcelonaCosta de BarcelonaBarcelona, with the Maresme and the GarrafMalgrat de Mar to Cubelles: the Maresme, Barcelona city and the GarrafPhoto: DimiTalen, CC0
  3. Costa DoradaCosta DoradaTarragonaCunit to the Ebro Delta, via Tarragona and SalouPhoto: Stch2022, CC0
  4. Costa del AzaharCosta del AzaharCastellónVinaròs to Almenara, via Peñíscola and BenicàssimPhoto: Carlos Reusser from Santiago, Chile, CC0
  5. Costa de ValenciaCosta de ValenciaValenciaCastellón border to Oliva, via València, the Albufera, Cullera and GandiaPhoto: remacomput (Flickr), CC0
  6. Costa BlancaCosta BlancaAlicanteDénia to Pilar de la Horadada, more than 200 km of shorelinePhoto: Simon Cobb, CC0
  7. Costa CálidaCosta CálidaMurciaAbout 250 km from the Mar Menor and La Manga to Cartagena and ÁguilasPhoto: P4K1T0, CC0
  8. Costa de AlmeríaCosta de AlmeríaAlmeríaVera and Mojácar in the east to Adra in the west, via Cabo de GataPhoto: Nicolas Vigier, CC0
  9. Costa TropicalCosta TropicalGranadaLa Rábita to La Herradura, via Motril, Salobreña and AlmuñécarPhoto: Jebulon, CC0
  10. Costa del SolCosta del SolMálagaNerja to Manilva, more than 150 km via Málaga and MarbellaPhoto: Rober Martinez, CC0
  11. Costa de la LuzCosta de la LuzCádiz and HuelvaAtlantic coast from Tarifa to the Portuguese border at the GuadianaPhoto: Carlos ZGZ from Paris, France, CC0
  12. Rías BaixasRías BaixasPontevedra and southern A CoruñaRía de Muros e Noia south to A Guarda on the Miño, with the Cíes and Ons islandsPhoto: Mario Sánchez, CC BY-SA 2.0
  13. Galician coastGalician coastA Coruña and LugoCarnota and Fisterra round the Costa da Morte and the Rías Altas to RibadeoPhoto: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0
  14. Costa VerdeCosta VerdeAsturiasThe Eo estuary on the Galician border to the Tina Mayor estuaryPhoto: marta gonzalez, Public domain
  15. Costa de CantabriaCosta de CantabriaCantabriaSan Vicente de la Barquera, Santander and Santoña to the Basque borderPhoto: Zarateman, CC0
  16. Costa VascaCosta VascaBizkaia and GipuzkoaMuskiz to Hondarribia, opposite Hendaye in FrancePhoto: Coralma*, CC0
  17. Balearic IslandsBalearic IslandsMallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, FormenteraFour main islands offshore in the MediterraneanPhoto: Nicolas Vigier, CC0

There is no official count: the costas are tourism names, not administrative units. CostaMap counts 14 mainland costas, Galicia’s two coasts and the Balearic Islands, following Catalonia’s tourist board, which treats the Maresme and the Garraf as parts of the Costa de Barcelona. From–to points follow the official tourist boards cited in each guide.

Map of the Spanish coast by region

Spain’s mainland coast falls into four stretches: the north coast on the Bay of Biscay with Galicia’s Atlantic corner, the east and south coasts on the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic south-west. Each costa opens its own map.

North and north-west coast

On the Bay of Biscay, from the French border west through the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias, then round the Atlantic corner of Galicia to the Portuguese border.

Costa Vasca · Costa de Cantabria · Costa Verde · Galician coast · Rías Baixas

East coast of Spain

On the Mediterranean, from the French border south through Catalonia (Girona, Barcelona, Tarragona) and the Valencian coast (Castellón, Valencia, Alicante).

Costa Brava · Costa de Barcelona · Costa Dorada · Costa del Azahar · Costa de Valencia · Costa Blanca

South coast of Spain

On the Mediterranean, from Murcia west through Almería, Granada and Málaga.

Costa Cálida · Costa de Almería · Costa Tropical · Costa del Sol

Atlantic coast (south-west)

From Tarifa to the Portuguese border, in the provinces of Cádiz and Huelva.

Costa de la Luz

Balearic Islands

In the Mediterranean off the east coast: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.

Balearic Islands

Latest on CostaMap

All coasts ↓
BeachPlaya de Mónsul (Cabo de Gata)Historic siteCabo de Palos Lighthouse (Cartagena)TownAlcalà de Xivert (Castellón)BeachL’Ahuir Beach (Gandia)Historic siteValldigna Monastery (Simat de la Valldigna)BeachPlaya de la Concha (Oropesa del Mar)

One map, every kind of place

Explore the Spanish costas

586 places across 15 kinds, from the Costa Brava at the French border to the Costa de la Luz next to Portugal, and out to the Balearic Islands. The map below holds them all: sandy beaches and small coves, resort towns and whitewashed villages, castles and old quarters, natural parks and wetlands, museums, viewpoints, hiking trails, marinas and campsites.

Pick a kind of place to show only those pins, or use the filters beside the map to combine place types and costas. Click a pin to see what the place is, how to get there and what else is close by. The counts cover places on or near the coast; campsites far inland are left out.

Place type

Type of place

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Balcó de la Mediterrània, BenidormAI image · EbizappleBenidorm

Balcó de la Mediterrània

Benidorm’s famous viewpoint, with panoramic views over the Mediterranean and the town beaches.

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Pick your stretch of coast

The costas of Spain

Fourteen costas on the mainland plus the Balearic Islands, each with its own guide and map (the Costa de Barcelona also has pages for the Maresme and the Garraf). The Costa Blanca is the deepest so far; places are added coast by coast.

How many costas does Spain have?

There is no official register. The costas are names, not administrative units — most of them coined during the tourism boom of the mid–twentieth century, a few of them older, and several of them overlapping. Spain has roughly 8,000 km of coastline spread across ten mainland regions and two archipelagos, and where you draw the line between one costa and the next is partly a matter of which sign you read.

The oldest of the names is the Costa Brava, used in print from 1908. The rest followed in the 1950s and 1960s, when each province wanted a name a travel agent could sell. That is why the Costa de Barcelona, the Costa del Garraf and the Costa del Maresme all describe pieces of the same province — and why the Costa Valenciana and the Costa del Azahar are sometimes treated as one coast and sometimes as two.

CostaMap counts 14 mainland costas, Galicia’s two coasts and the Balearic Islands. The Maresme and the Garraf, which Catalonia’s tourist board treats as parts of the Costa de Barcelona, also get their own pages, so there are 17 coast pages in all. Where names compete, we keep the one used locally and on signage.

The Mediterranean, south to north

Costa Tropical

Granada’s short, steep coast between Nerja and Motril, where the Sierra Nevada drops almost straight into the sea. Subtropical fruit grows on the terraces above Almuñécar and Salobreña.

Explore Costa Tropical →

Costa Blanca

Alicante province: Benidorm and Torrevieja at one end of the scale, the coves of the Marina Alta and the cliffs of Cap de la Nau at the other. The stretch this site knows best.

Explore Costa Blanca →

The Atlantic and Cantabrian coasts

The islands

What “mapped” means here

Every coast above has its own page and its own map. What differs is depth: 586 places are on the map so far, sorted into 15 kinds of place, from beaches and coves to towns, natural parks and campsites. The Costa Blanca is the most complete, because that is where the project started. New places are added coast by coast rather than spread thinly across all seventeen coast pages at once.

Each place gets the same treatment: where it is, what it actually is, how to reach it, when to go, and what is worth seeing nearby. No affiliate ranking, no invented star ratings — just the location and an honest description. If a place is quiet in November, the page says so.

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