Playa de la Concha is the most celebrated urban beach in Spain — a perfect crescent of fine pale sand cupped between the wooded hills of Monte Urgull and Monte Igueldo, with Santa Clara island sitting in the middle of the bay like a punctuation mark. The paseo (seafront promenade) runs along its entire length, bordered by the famous white iron railing and lined with parasols that appear each summer morning like clockwork.
The beach is broad and sandy, with calm water protected by the curve of the bay. The swimming is good from June to September. At low tide you can walk out to the island on a sandbar. The paseo itself is one of the great urban promenades of Europe: a kilometre and a half of perfect Edwardian elegance, with the Miramar Palace visible on its headland at the western end. In the evenings, when the beach empties, families and couples walk the full length and back, looking out over water that turns amber and then violet as the sun drops over Monte Igueldo.