Spain for £14.99? I’ve Found a Naturist Corner Worth Escaping To

I’ve found another one. Manchester to Alicante from £14.99 this September — and instead of following everybody else towards the Costa Blanca, I’m turning south. About 11km beyond the historic port city of Cartagena is El Portús, where mountains tumble towards the Mediterranean and a little naturist world is tucked between the cliffs and the sea. This is the Spain I want: rugged, sunny, slightly hidden and a million miles from fighting somebody for the last hotel sunbed.

The naturist heart of it is Camping El Portús, with direct beach access and Cala Morena on the other side of the headland. This isn’t somewhere I’d visit merely to lie naked in the sunshine — although I’m hardly ruling that out.

There are bungalows, apartments and camping pitches, swimming pools, a restaurant beside the beach and hiking country immediately behind you. The surrounding Sierra de la Muela, Cabo Tiñoso and Roldán landscape gives the whole place that glorious sea in front, walking boots behind feeling I love. And then there’s Cartagena. I’d spend the morning swimming without worrying about a swimsuit, throw some clothes into my backpack and be exploring one of Spain’s great historic Mediterranean ports later that afternoon. Roman history, old fortifications, seafood and Spanish streets to get deliberately lost in — then back towards El Portús as the sun starts dropping behind the mountains. That, for me, is the difference between visiting a naturist venue and having a naturist travel adventure.

And the dangerous bit? Ryanair is currently advertising Manchester–Alicante from £14.99 one way during September. Obviously that headline fare isn’t your whole holiday — you still need the return, baggage, onward travel and somewhere to sleep — but fourteen pounds and ninety-nine pence to put the Mediterranean within reach is ridiculous enough to make me open another browser tab.

Naturist beach, mountains, Cartagena and Spanish sunshine: would El Portús tempt you off the usual tourist trail?