Cycling

A great way to discover this unique area is to tour the Mar Menor and the La Manga region by bicycle. Below are several cycle routes to explore the region. Estimated times are included.

Tour of the Mar Menor

Length - 56.5 kilometres

Difficulty - There is no difficulty in this route as all of the roads used are on flat ground and are well marked. The only possible thing to take into account is the length of the trip and for this reason may only be suitable for the more experienced riders.
Duration - The trip can be completed in five or six hours

Recommendations - There are no alternative dirt tracks in the north part of the route, between La Puntica and Los Alcazares, riders having to use the main road. Precautions should be taken and bikers should ride in single file and on the hard shoulder.

Description of the route
The excursion has been planned out in various stages, working anti-clockwise, starting from the windmill La Ezequiela, at the end of the Playa de La Mota. The distances between each main area are marked in kilometres, thus permitting each individual to make up his own route.

0.0km La Ezequila windmill. From here there is a marked path that runs between the land that separates the salt flats and the Mar Menor.
2.5km At this point you reach a tarmac road
2.7km Quintin windmill. Arrival at Villa Nanitos. For the next few kilometres you ride on a main road. Be careful of the motor vehicles.
4.2km Town of Lo Pagan. Continue along the promenade
6.9km Town of La Rivera. Continue along the promenade
7.3km On reaching the square, turn right towards San Javier
7.8km Crossroads. Turn left along the road that passes the airport
10.3km Pass the Murcia-San Javier airport and continue straight on
13.2km Los Narejos
15.2km Los Alcazares. By using the promenade you can go through the town without having to use the roads
19.0km Crossroads - Turn left towards Los Urrutias
23.2km Town of Los Urrutias. Once again ride along the promenade. At the end of the promenade, next to the Yacht Club you then turn onto a dirt track running along a small ravine, which borders the south part of the Mar Menor.
25.2km Estrella de Mar residential development. The path passes through an area of dark earth due to the slag brought down by the rain water from the nearby mining area of La Union.
30.0km Los Nietos - The entrance takes you to the promenade which can be used to ride through the town
31.6km Isla Menores
32.6km Mar de Cristal. At the end of the promenade, take the first tarmac road to the left, at the next bend turn off the road onto a dirt track opposite.
34.5km After a pleasing ride through the typical vegetation of this area, you come to the Campsite Villas Caravaning.
35.4km Town of Playa Honda. Ride through the town on the promenade, which ends in a dirt track.
36.4km Marchamalo salt flats.
37.1km The path is cut off by a wall which has been built right up to the waters edge. You will have to push the bicycle around this obstacle. You then cross the residential area of El Vivero and from there take a sandy path which borders the water and takes you to a pier.
38.7km Puerto Bello - You have now entered La Manga. Take the first tarmac road to the right.
39.2km You are then on the main road of La Manga. Turn left onto the bicycle lane.
41.3km Monteblanco
45.3km Casino - The bicycle lane ends here
51.3km Swing bridge in El Estacio
56.2km Veneciola residential development
56.4km End of the road and of the tour. The canals crossing the encanizadas impede the possibility of continuing.

Hothouse bicycle route

A biking excursion through the flat interior, crossing fruit and vegetable crops and immense fields of hothouses, there ingenious yet simple structures of plastic and wood that have revolutionised the farming system in the Cartagena area.

Los Alcázares - San Javier - Los Alcázares
 
Length - 22 kilometres

Difficulty - None

Duration - 2 hours and 30 minutes

Recommendations - It is best to avoid the hot midday hours. Although most of the ride is along dirt tracks or roads that have very light traffic, it is necessary to be careful of motor vehicles and to ride in single file.

Description of the route
Leave Los Alcázares towards La Manga. On passing the petrol station on the left you will see a Fire Brigade Station. Right opposite the station there is a dirt track that takes you to Torre del Rame, take this road. Just past the tower the track bears right and is surrounded on either side by melon and pepper fields. Follow this route until you come to an old artesian well, then turn right again and continue until you reach the tarmac road that runs from Los Alcázares to Torre Pacheco. Follow this road for one kilometre towards Torre Pacheco until you reach the bar La Torre and a large white shed. Then turn right and continue for two and a half kilometres, going straight all the time and enjoying the scenery, hothouses, farms, watering reservoirs, very typical of the Mar Menor area and orchards of fruit trees. You will then reach a country road and continue until you reach the village of Roda and once in Roda turn left towards Dolores. From Dolores continue right to go to San Javier. If you are in a hurry to return you can then continue along the National Highway 332 which takes you straight to Los Alcázares, but this route is not so enjoyable due to the intense traffic. A better way is to cross San Javier going toward San Pedro del Pinatar until you reach the football pitch. There you will find a tarmac track to the right which will take you to the village of La Calavera, the oldest town in the municipality built on ruins of an ancestral home dating from the 13th century and dedicated to San Juan de la Calavera. From San Blas you will come to a large avenue and you should turn right which then leads to the road from San Javier to La Ribera. Turn right once again until you come to a crossroads with traffic lights, where you should turn left to enter a recently built development. Once past the development you will be able to see the country estate El Recuerdo surrounded by tall pine trees. Go around the estate towards the left and then along the same road which takes you to the airport. Shortly on the right you will reach Los Narejos and Los Alcázares, the end of the route.

Places of interest
Torre del Rame. A defence construction dating from the 16th century. The tower formed part of a vigilance system to avoid attacks from the Berberisc pirates who laid waste this area for centuries.

Hacienda de Roda - A perfect example of an old agricultural farm of the Mar Menor area, with its stately home, its interior courtyard and its store rooms for the farm equipment. Hothouses - due to the increased temperature created by the heat of the sun on the enclosure, various harvests can be gathered per year and crops cultivated that do not grow well in cold weather.
 
A bicycle tour of the Mining Hills

This round cycling trip which starts and ends in Los Belones, visits Portman Bay - one of the prettiest and yet solitary corners of the Murcian coast - and the famous mining hills of La Union.

Length - 24 kilometres

Maximum ascent - 240 metres

Difficulty - Easy. The only spots worth mentioning are two small hillocks, the first on the way to Portman bay (100 metres) and the second within the mining hills (240 metres).

Duration - 3 hours

Recommendations - Avoid the midday heat. Take care when riding along main roads. Within the mining area, avoid going too close to the wells.

0.0km Los Belones. Start from the Bar Deportivo and take the turning opposite the La Fuente Avenue, that takes you over the motorway.
1.1km Crossroads. You arrive at the village of Las Barracas. When you reach the electric transformer turn right along a tarmac path between some houses.
1.3km The tarmac peters out to dirt, you should be riding parallel to a waterhouse and should pass a rubbish tip.
1.7km Crossroads next to an electric piling. Turn right to cross the watercourse.
2.6km El Puntal riding school. Turn left on to the tarmac road towards a tower and a large watering pond.
2.8km Crossroads. Go straight over and follow the dirt track.
3.2km Crossroads. Turn left onto the road that runs from Los Belones to Portman.
6.3km Crossroads. To your right there is a dirt track that takes you to El Llano. Ignore this and go straight over following the road you are on and you will come to a small hill. Once over the hill you will be able to see the Bay of Portman.
8.5km Crossroads - Turn left towards the lighthouse.
10.1km Lighthouse and beach. From here you can see the awful ecological disaster that the bay has suffered at the hands of the local mining industry, now totally destroyed due to the slag. The beach is now nearly a kilometre further out than its original position. The bollards from the old port of Portman are now no more than grotesque caricatures inland. Turn back until you reach the crossroads.
11.7km Crossroads. Turn right towards Los Belones
13.7km Hillock (100 metres).
13.8km Turn left off the tarmac road onto a dirt track.
16.3km Hillock (240 metres) From here you have an incomparable view of the Mar Menor, of the summit of Carmoli and of the tortured miming area of La Union.
17.8km Crossroads to the right, towards El Llano del Beal.
18.1km Llano del Beal. Go straight through the town, downhill all the way.
18.8km After going under the railway bridge you reach the La Union/Los Nietos road. Turn right here.
21.5km Crossroads that join the La Manga motorway. Turn right onto the service road towards Los Belones.
24.0km Los Belones. End of the route.