The short answer
If you only have one evening, get on the walls. Las Murallas cost nothing, need no booking, and put you at eye level with the water. If you want a seat and a drink instead of a stone ledge, come up to our rooftop on Carrera 7, which is open 8am to midnight every day and has happy hour daily. If you've got a whole day to give it, spend it at Blue Apple Beach on Tierra Bomba and come back on the boat.
The rest of this page is the case for each one, and who should skip which.
Las Murallas: free, no booking, best value in the city
The walls are the sunset spot we recommend most, because you can be on them ten minutes after deciding to go. Las Murallas are the stone fortifications that ring the old town, and on the seaward side you can climb up onto the top and walk. No ticket, no gate, no opening hours to check.
Our advice is to pick a short stretch and stay put rather than walking the whole ring trying to find a better view; the light here doesn't hang around long enough for a scouting mission. Come up before the sun is actually low, sit on the wall facing the water, and let it happen. It will be busy. That's fine, the crowd on the walls at that hour is half the atmosphere, couples and vendors and people who finished work.
Who should skip it: anyone who wants a bathroom, a table, or somewhere to put a drink down. The walls are stone and that's the whole offer. Our walls-at-sunset guide has the detail on where to get on and where to stop.
Our rooftop: a seat, a drink, and two plunge pools
Come up to ours if you want the view without standing for it. We were the first hotel in the city to open our rooftop to the public, so you don't need to be staying with us to be up here. There's a cocktail bar, an all-day diner and two little plunge pools, and we're open from 8am until midnight, seven days a week, with happy hour every day.
Two practical things. First, book a table. Sunset is exactly when everyone wants to be up here and we'd rather you had a seat than a story about not getting one. Second, we're honest about what this is: it gets loud after dark, and the room fills with locals as well as guests. That's the point of the place. If you want colonial hush at sunset, the walls will serve you better than we will.
If you want to be in the water rather than near it, the pool day pass is 25 euros for two people and gets you the plunge pools for the day, so you can arrive in the afternoon heat and still be up here when the light turns. Ask for whatever Chef Pedro is doing with the catch that day while you're at it. This is a place to stay that's also a place the city comes to.
Blue Apple Beach, Tierra Bomba: the all-day version
This is the one that takes planning, and it's the one you'll talk about. Blue Apple Beach is our beach club on Tierra Bomba, the island across the water from the city, so getting there is a boat ride rather than a taxi. It's a day, not an outing: you go in the morning, you're in the sea by eleven, and the afternoon takes care of itself.
On getting there: bring cash and a dry bag if you're going to take a local water taxi. It's a small boat and spray happens. Or book a spot on the Blue Apple boat, which is a far more comfortable ride direct to the Blue Apple Beach dock.
The one thing we'd tell you to check before you build a sunset around it is the boat schedule back, because a crossing isn't something to improvise in the dark. Plenty of people do the beach all day, catch the boat back in the late afternoon, and take the actual sunset from the walls or from our roof. That's not a compromise, it's the better plan.
Plaza de San Diego: where to be afterwards
After the light goes, sit in the square. Plaza de San Diego is the small plaza in our neighbourhood, the one our street opens onto, and it's what the early part of the evening is for: you eat outside, the square fills up, nobody is rushing you. It isn't a sunset view, it's the thing you do at the end of one, and it's a two-minute problem to get home from.
We send more guests here than anywhere else on this page, because it needs no ticket, no boat and no reservation.
How we'd actually stack the evening
| Time | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Late afternoon | Our rooftop, plunge pools | Beat the heat, get the seat before the rush |
| Golden hour | Las Murallas, seaward side | Free, at the water, no booking |
| After dark | Our rooftop again, or Members Only on Fri and Sat | Bar till midnight; jazz and burlesque from 8pm at weekends |
| Later | Plaza de San Diego | Outside, unhurried, short walk home |
One evening, two of these, not four. The mistake is trying to collect them.
A note on the weather
September and October are our rainy months, and rain here tends to arrive hard and leave fast rather than settling in for the day. A grey afternoon is not a cancelled sunset. We wrote a longer piece on what the rainy season is actually like if you're travelling now.
Fancy without being boring: that's the evening we're describing. Get up somewhere high, get something cold, stop checking the time.