'''El Puerto de Santa Maria''' (El Puerto in short) [http://www.elpuertosm.es/webs/turismoelpuerto/default.asp] is a small sized city (82306 inhabitants in 2005) located in the Cadiz Province in the Andalucia region of Spain. It lies on the North-East shore of the Cadiz Bay and is easily reachable from the city of Cadiz in a short boat trip aboard "El vaporcito" (or "El vapor del Puerto")
Understand
Get in
By air
From the nearby airport (15km away) of Jerez. There are regular flights to/from Madrid and other main Spanish airports, but also some international flights: Ryanair serves flights direct from London Stansted, Condor from Munich, Air Berlin from lots of German destinations via Palma de Mallorca.
Otherwise use the more distant airports of Seville (Sevilla) or Malaga better connected.
By train
From Madrid the "Talgo" train runs twice a day and is a pretty fast and convenient connection covering the distance in just 4 and a half hours.
Get around
There is a decent network of local buses, specially necessary if you need to get to the beach areas west and east of the city centre. Getting around by car is generally easy and parking space is also relatively easy to find. Only avoid the peak season in August when most Spanish people take holidays and go by the thousands to El Puerto, which has become a trendy national destination.
See
The multiple sherry wine "Bodegas" that abound in the centre of town.
Do
Enjoy some of the wonderful '''beaches''' that El Puerto has to offer. Among them: La Puntilla, Las Redes, Valdelagrana, Fuentebravia. Pristine white sand beaches, well serviced and not as crowded as their mediterranean counterparts in "La costa del Sol"
Learn Spanish
Buy
Eat
Uncountable gastronomical delicacies both in the form of restaurants and the more informal tapas bars (not less delicious or delicate).
Tapas bars
'''El Laul'''.
'''El Betis'''.
'''El rincon del Jamon'''.
Top of the range restaurants
'''El Faro'''
'''Casa Flores'''
'''Los Portales'''
Drink
This is one of the 3 cities of the Sherry wine (together with Jerez and Sanlucar de Barrameda), so make sure you try it in all its possible incarnations: Fino (dry), Oloroso, Dulce, Pale cream. Also try the excellent brandys.
Sleep
Lots of hotels in town and around, one of the best hotel offers from all the cities in the Cadiz Province. Good base place to explore the surroundings and other places in the Cadiz Province
Get out
Cadiz: just a short trip across the Cadiz Bay
Sanlucar de Barrameda: together with El Puerto and Jerez one of the towns of the "Sherry triangle". On the mouth of the Guadalquivir river
Jerez