well me and my mates are going to mil palmeras next saturday which is a villiage/ very small town about 10 minutes taxi from murcia airport and its on the coast beach is stunning there and a nice strip of pubs and restaurants used to go there with my parents when i was younger so cant wait to see what its like now but dont think there is a nightclub there oh and were staying at the jessica beach appartments overlooking the bay !!!, and we booked thru suntransfers which was cheapest £64 return which i thought was well steep but divided up its no bad i suppose.

If you like quieter places try Cabos De Palos, playa honda, playa paraiso. THE TWO "PLAYAS" are on the edge of the Mar MeNOR and are basically purpose built accommodation. They do not have a lot of character, but for a long weekend break or 5-7 days you can get a 3 bed house very reasonable and all facilities are there. You can check out cabos, a beautiful village on the edge of La Manga Strip but still typically Spanish with twice weekly market and some beautiful restaurants.

Taxi from Murcia airport and frequent buses in and around resort and even train service to larger town of Cartagena will give you plenty of opportunity to travel around.
The mar menor is like a very large bath as the water temp is much higher than the med, check it out on google, you can even do the street view thing.

Thanks for the replies. I'll check out the places you mentioned. I'm sure we'll have a great time.
Regards
Gail

Can anyone recommend any nice places to watch with the girlfriend the England games during this years world cup 2010 ? we are staying at La torres golf resort and have a car

Hi PAT62 would need a bit more info as to where exactly you are, but would suggest that you find a bar within walking distance so that you can either drown your sorrows or celebrate yur team winning and leave the car behind. I assume you are at one of the polaris world type thingies with all facilities near to hand, so you will find somewhere within the resort as the majority of people will be watching the games and all the pubs will have the matches on t.v.

Thought I would update this thread as we did a day trip to Murcia last week and there wasn't much info about when I was looking.

It's ideal for the normal City sightseeing type day of parking up and just wandering around the streets on foot taking in the atmosphere and architecture of the area.

We visited the Cathedral which was stunning, Gothic, maybe 500 years old ? Words cannot really do justice to the beauty of it. As you can imagine it was unbearably hot being August, but there are pavement cafes that give shade and ice cold drinks including two just outside the Cathedral.

We then made our way to some botanical gardens which were not so spectacular, but gave us a pleasant walk along the river to get there. We went shopping in the small boutiques and department stores, but of course these shut at 2pm; then had a long lunch, there are plenty of places around to eat, prices the same as UK. It was a good place to spend 5 or 6 hours to break up a week of flop and drop on the coast and an attempt to find and enjoy some Spanish culture.

I'm sure with a decent street map and guide book, there is more to see, but we had limited time.

The roads from the la manga del mar end of the Costa Calida are excellent, journey took approx 45 mins. It's a toll road but the tolls are cheap at 2 X 3.25 Euros each way and for once we didn't have a problem findng somewhere to park.

Doe