This is a very pleasant city beach and one that you probably should visit if in Barcelona. Its close to a metro railway station it’s very easily accessible, although it’s slightly out of the main part of town, but an easy walk if you wish and have the time.
This beach is reflective of Barcelona’s atmosphere, vibrant, accepting and care free. It’s one of the many beaches the city has to offer and from what we saw, despite this one being nude, most of the ladies on the other beaches leave their bikini tops at home. You might see the occasional person also leaving their bottom bits at home too. However, this is a bit few and far between.
The beach is well serviced with lifeguards stationed about a hundred metres apart and the police also patrol the beach in a golf cart on the service road just behind the beach. The lifeguards and police are clothed and stay on duty till about 7pm in the summer months. The beach has showers just behind the beach which very refreshing after a swim. You can use these nude and most people do. A beach kiosk serves light meals, snacks, and drinks including beers, cocktails etc. It has a seated area for about 50-70 people with table service but takeaways are fine. You need to be dressed (swimsuits) to visit the kiosk. Just behind the kiosk are toilets and a medical station.
This beach also has a couple of hawkers walking the length of the beach selling cold drinks and beer. These fellows don’t miss much and could almost fall into the lurker category, they are always there. There are a couple of Asian massage ladies who also hawk the beach and it’s not uncommon to see a one of these ladies giving an oil massage right on the beach.
Surprisingly there is a small swell that creates a bit of a wave which a couple of people try and surf. There’s a kite surfing club at the city end of the beach and few other pleasure craft about.
You are likely to find the beach very crowded, even during the week especially in summer and it can remain busy well towards dusk. The crowd depending on when you go will be a mix of couples, singles and groups of friends and most of the crowd will be nude. However, some of the crowd at the ‘city’ end at the break wall might not be as they are there for the water craft activities.
As the city, is very accepting, there is a large gay community and they also hold a couple of gay events, especially in July. The beach during this time may have lots of blokes representing this lifestyle in couples, groups and singles. The ratio of males/females during these times can be about 90/10 and that’s being fairly generous. These fellows will be mostly nude, but quite a few of these fellows were wearing fluoro coloured Euro style swimming trunks and designer facial hair/stubble did seem to be the fashion. A couple of these fellows seemed to enjoy having a bit of wrestle in the water, nothing like a bit of testosterone release.
For the fashionistas, it appear that the fluoro safety work wear we see on building sites in Australia, has made it to general fashion with t-shirts, dresses, skirts etc in the range of colours we are used to seeing (lime, green, yellow, canary yellow, bright yellow, orange and tangerine). These have also come in a range of Euro style swim wear that should be the fashion fad of the next summer.
The theme continued to the bar where quite a few of these chaps were ‘hanging out’. The loud Euro Techo beats accompanied by the lyrics ‘Body to body, oow, oow’, repeating over and over, added to the atmosphere. To be fair it was Gay Pride time anyway.
However, the beach is used by male/female couples who will make the beach very crowded and usually it will be a 50/50 mix. All ages will be represented and they will tend to stay at the city end, the other end will mainly be textiles and the gentlemen will occupy the middle bit.
The beach is generally well behaved, but there may be the odd couple engaging in a bit of discrete libertine action. The discerning gentleman types are OK, apart from the odd arse slap, greetings by a quick peck on the lips etc and this could be anywhere else in the world.
Cleanliness – Impeccable – A few ciggy butts in the sand but otherwise very clean. They did have a couple of anti-litter signs and bins about.
Lurkers – The usual one or two, but they were just wandering around the crowd clothed, but really they were no problem, and again very well behaved.
Atmosphere – very good and well worth a visit just for that.
Sand – Course slightly grey colour with small pieces of shell.
Size of beach –about 500mts long and 250 wide.
This is a great beach and the fact that it is very close to town adds to its attraction. If you visit Barcelona, this is one of the cities attractions you should drop by and enjoy.