Chiringuitos confirmed for Cartagena and Mar Menor this Easter
Costas has authorised the installation of beach bars on Cartagena’s beaches this Semana Santa, while the Council works hard to bring the beaches up to scratch
The Coastal Demarcation authorities, who oversee all matters relating to the coastline of Spain, has given approval for chiringuito beach bars to be opened in Cartagena this March, to coincide with Easter week.
As such, most of the beach bars in the municipality of Cartagena will be allowed to open, including those in La Manga, Cala Reona, Cabo de Palos, Mar Menor (Playa Paraíso, Los Urrutias, Mar de Cristal, Islas Menores, Playa del Vivero, Cavanna, Los Nietos), to Isla Plana and La Azohía.
There are four chiringuitos which have not been given permission to open – two of them located on the beaches of Cala Reona-Cabo de Palos and La Manga, one on the Playa de los Alemanes beach and another in Los Urrutias – as they have been told that they first need to clear up the mess that they left abandoned on the beach last summer.
Even among those beach bars that are allowed to open, though, not all of them will as some of the managers of these establishments have found that the 10-day holiday for Easter does not bring in enough customers and cash to justify the outlay involved in purchasing supplies, hiring staff and more.
Meanwhile, the contract to tend green areas and landscaping of all areas of the Cartagena coast – both those of the Mar Menor and those of the west of the municipality towards Mazarrón – has not yet been awarded, which could lead to the summer having the coastal areas of Cartagena without the due care, proper cleaning and necessary resources.
Regardless, the Coastal department of the Cartagena City Council insists that the cleaning of the beaches of the Mar Menor has been intensified through the use of beach cleaning machines and tractors, and they point out that they have also brought in manual cleaning teams for the Bahía Bella area.
In addition, they have also begun putting in ‘beach furniture’ such as pergolas, walkways, footbaths and informative signs, so that 40% of the total beach work should be operational by Easter.
This season, the Council plans to put in four floating pontoons over certain beaches to be able to access the water without walking over the sludgy sand. The first of these will be in Cavanna, which will be assembled immediately, then there will be one in Playa Honda and two in Los Nietos to come in May.
On Gran Vía de La Manga, they say they intend to replace the old concrete benches with new wave-shaped white concrete models, which they bought back in December 2023 and still haven’t installed.
Image: Felipe G. Pagán / Ayuntamiento de Cartagena
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