Salinas de Torrevieja (the salt train tour)
Torrevieja is a destination for European tourists, many from the northern countries. They come here for the climate and the beach. Like any tourist spot in the world there are attractions outside of the beach that can occupy a few hours or days of your holiday. We have lived here over three years now and for three years I have heard Terri-Lynn repeatedly ask me to take her on the Salt train tour. Now, it is not as if I objected to the idea, it was just never really a focal point of my thoughts during the day. So finally, after being tired of hearing about it I made the effort to look it up, find out the departure times and buy two tickets.
The train leaves from the Paseo de la Libertad near the visitors center in Torrevieja and costs $8.95 euro per adult for a one hour tour. And, being a person that normally very much dislikes anything associated with tourists I must admit it was extremely enjoyable and well worth the time and money.
The train takes us to an area of the salt production that is not accesible to visitors. They believe the salt production here started around 1803. This is the oldest and largest salt production area in Europe. We planned out our trip for the early evening to enjoy the sun setting on the lagoon.
Upon arriving we drove past mountains of salt. The tour has a recorded audio of the history of salt production in Torrevieja in both Spanish and English.
It was a beautiful night and a facinating tour. Highly reccomended.
Torrevieja produces 600,000 tons of salt per year and each salt ship like the one pictured above can hold 30,000 tons of salt. The salt is shipped across Europe and even to the United States.
