This tourist hotspot is visited by more than 250,000 sunseekers every summer, but it’s become known for being a bit of a “marmite” destination, splitting opinions.
Earlier this year, Which? Travel readers named and shamed Spain’s worst seaside towns and the town of La Manga came in second place.
Located on the shores of Mar Menor in the Region of Murcia, some tourists described La Manga as “faded” and “tacky”.
The coastal town is a popular Spanish destination, which was built up significantly in the late 20th century. It features one long strip of land outstretched into the sea, with many high-rise buildings.
Steve B. reviewed it on Google and said: “I love Spain so much, for me it is the best country in the world with the nicest people and the best food.
“But this place is the absolute worst I have ever been in Spain, horrible ugly”
And Jo Beyer said: “How can you slam such a wonderful stretch of coastline with such cheap concrete castles, so insensitively and carelessly towards nature?”
Despite a negative backlash, many still enjoy visiting the town.
Ksenia Berghem said: “It’s a unique place – 21 km long and only 100 metres wide rock with the city on it. Clean sand beaches on both sides. There are a lot of small supermarkets and cafeterias.
“Buildings are not very different in style, some of them are a little bit boring, the same colour and architecture. But the place itself is interesting. Worth a visit.”
The strip remained largely untouched until the 1960s, when it became more popular with tourists, leading to a thorough urbanisation of the area.
The urbanisation occurred because Spain wanted to encourage tourism in the parts of the country that weren’t getting any tourist activity.
Tourism remains a major pillar of Spain’s economy and, according to Caixa Bank, some 24 million international tourists arrived in the country up until April this year.
Tourism also accounted for 71 percent of real growth in the Spanish economy in 2023, according to the tourism lobby group Exceltur.