What you can see on the Santa Pola webcam
The camera looks out from a boatyard inside the harbour. In front of it are covered boats on trailers, a small red-and-white light at the end of the quay and the still water of the inner basin; to the left, cargo ships tie up at the commercial quay, and beyond the harbour mouth the bay opens out to the horizon. It is a good check on the colour of the sea, the cloud and whether the bay is flat or ruffled by the wind, and a 24-hour time-lapse shows how the day has gone.
Santa Pola harbour and its little lighthouse
From a nautical business inside Santa Pola harbour, this wide-angle camera looks south across the port. In the foreground, boats wrapped in covers wait on trailers beside a crane, a small red-and-white lighthouse stands at the end of the quay, and floating pontoons lie in the still water of the inner basin. To the left, cargo ships berth at the commercial quay; beyond the breakwater the bay stretches away to the horizon, with the low coast to the south-west faint in the distance.
Watch the surface outside the harbour for the wind, and the boats passing the harbour mouth, among them, in season, the ferries to Tabarca. It plays as a time-lapse of the last 24 hours, so you can see how the wind and the light have changed through the day.
A working harbour and its salt pans
Santa Pola grew up around a fortress begun in 1557 to defend this coast, and fishing has kept its harbour busy ever since, with a fish market on the quay. West of the town, the Salinas de Santa Pola is a natural park and a wetland of international importance, where salt is still worked and flamingos wade in the shallow pools. On the cape to the east, a lighthouse lit in 1858 stands on an old watchtower above 144-metre (470 ft) cliffs.
When to watch Santa Pola
Mainland Spain is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland all year. The camera faces south, so the sun crosses the view and turns the water silver around midday; mornings and late afternoons are clearer. The bay is sheltered and the climate dry and mild, with average temperatures of about 14 °C in January and 26 °C in August.
Around Santa Pola
Tabarca, about 5 miles (8 km) out from the harbour, is a tiny walled island village surrounded by Spain's first marine reserve, created in 1986. Gran Alacant and the dunes of El Carabassí lie to the north, Elche is a short drive inland, and Alicante is about 12 miles (20 km) up the coast.
Visiting Santa Pola
Alicante–Elche airport is about 7 miles (11 km) to the north. Boats to Tabarca sail from the harbour, more often in summer, and the town beaches line the bay on both sides of the port.