Last spring my husband and two children visited the ?up and coming? resort of Costa Almeria; Roquetas de Mar for our annual holiday. It was not long ago that I had not heard of it. Although when we arrived we were surprised at how established it was as a holiday resort. The hotels are quite high rise, but the sand stretches for miles, and it is really quite a cosmopolitan holiday resort. I heard that it was the only package holiday resort in the Costa Almeria. There are plenty of very nice hotels, restaurants, a weekly market, and plenty of water sports. Roquetas de Mar is a great place to spend the week relaxing by the pool or the beach. Most of our days were taken up by doing just this. Then of an evening we would walk into town and choose a different restaurant each night. The local food in Roquetas de mar is excellent. Originally Roquetas de mar was a fishing village; hence the seafood in the local restaurants is cooked to perfection. Eating seafood on your holiday is a great way of not putting on any weight! The local ice creams shops are excellent, with home made flavours such as pistachio and kinder egg, delicious.

On a couple of days we did venture out of Roquetas de Mar for an excursion. We were told that no holiday to the Costa Almeria is complete without visiting Texas Hollywood. A film set where the famous cowboy films such as a ?Fistful of Dollars? and ?the Good the Bad and the Ugly? were filmed. Now I expected it to have a feel of Disney where you were very well aware of being on a film set but Texas Hollywood was so rustic and real you could almost forget you were on a film set! There is a cowboy bar with swing door where you can order yourself a drink and the cowboys come running in a surprisingly shoot their guns and the scare the life out of you if you aren't expecting it. The there is the photography studio where you can dress up as a cowboy and have a memento of the day. I wore white linen which I wouldn't recommend as part of the authenticity of this day is a huge amount of dust!

One day we visited the Cabo del Gato Nijar natural park, had a walk around the lighthouse, took a picnic, and thoroughly enjoyed looking for grass snakes, eagles, and pink flamingos.

All in all it was a very relaxing holiday in Roquetas de Mar and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to chill for a week in the sunshine, having a few decent options for day trips.