"Take a ferry to avoid parking hassles!" Top 5 Page for this destination Andalucía Transportation Tip by Bwana_Brown

After visiting the large cities of Granada and Sevilla, I thought I deserved a break from driving in congested areas - especially Cadiz, located as it is on a very narrow peninsula! As a result, we booked our accommodations in El Puerto de Santa Maria, a very nice little city across the Bay of Cadiz from our real destination.

With a population of about one million in the greater Cadiz area, and with 100,000 of those living in El Puerto, the European Metropolitan Transport Authorities decided that it was time for a ferry service to help relieve road traffic. This service went into operation in the summer of 2006 using two catamaran ferries with a traffic target of 480,000 trips per year. It proved successful and a third ferry was added to include passage to Rota (the large joint Spanish/American naval base just up the Bahia from El Puerto). The local company running the ferries is called Consorcio de Transportes Bahía de Cádiz.

We found the service to be efficient and very modern, with departures from both El Puerto and Cadiz every half-hour during the busy morning and late-afternoon periods. This view of one of the catamaran ferries leaving El Puerto on the River Guadalete was taken just before 6 PM as the sun was beginning to dip. We returned in the morning to try out the 30-minute voyage for ourselves!

We were early enough to be able to watch the ferry approach and docking procedures, which was great fun for me due to being born and raised on Canada's Atlantic Ocean coastline. The Consorcio de Transportes Bahia de Cadiz terminal has a very nice parking area which requires you to obtain a ticket from a kiosk when you enter and later pay whatever the necessary fee is when you leave (a very reasonable rate I thought when we returned about 3 hours later).

The ferry terminal was quite efficient at issuing our tickets (2 Euros per adult each way), after which we simply stood watching the docking and disembarkation procedures as our ferry arrived. It turned out to be the 'Bahia Cadiz Primero' which was one of the first two ferries to take up this route to Cadiz. Passenger loading procedures went well and we were soon underway on a beautiful morning for a voyage as we enjoyed looking back at central El Puerto (2nd photo) and the Bay itself as we crossed. The bulk of the few passengers on-board at this time of the year stayed below decks, but I enjoyed the fresh air above as our triple-hulled ferry powered out of El Puerto.

Mode: TO
Type: Ship/Boat
Website: http://www.cmtbc.es