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The beaches of the Mar Menor are part of four municipalities: San Pedro del Pinatar, San Javier, Los Alcazares and Cartagena. Together they offer visitors a wide and varied range of water sports activities. The calm, shallow waters of the inland sea and an annual pleasant water temperature provide ideal conditions for people who want to indulge their love of sailing or canoeing, for example. Windsurfers are more or less guaranteed a predictable afternoon wind at La Mota Beach in San Pedro, which makes it easy to build up speed without having to take unnecessary risks.
San Javier has many schools in both Santiago de la Ribera and La Manga marinas for people who want to learn sports such as canoeing, sailing and diving. There is a windsurfing and sailing school on the popular Playa de Colon.
Europe's largest saltwater lagoon is also a magnet for the most common of all water sports, namely swimming. The relatively high water temperatures and the shallow, calm water are important advantages. The Mar Menor is nowhere deeper than seven metres and in many places the swimmer can walk 50 metres into the lagoon and still only be waist deep in water.
When you look at the activities offered by clubs, schools, commercial companies and in the marinas, it is clear that boredom is not an option in the waters of the Mar Menor. Here is a selection of what is on offer: paddle, snorkelling, water skiing, catamaran, flyboard, banana boat, canoe, kayak, kite surfing and a range of boat excursions for small or large groups.
For those who prefer being under water to being on the water, there is the possibility of diving for shipwrecks. There are many of them. The Costa Calida has the largest concentration of shipwrecks in the entire Mediterranean.
