Scouted entries, coloured by today. The colour is the sea state at the spot, not a guarantee: the wash and a slippery entry you judge on site.
exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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- There is no crowd here and there will not be, because the beach is closed, but summer boat traffic is heavy: launches run along the cliff towards Cap de la Nau all day. The working window is sunrise to midday, after that the wind gets up. Water is 26 °C in August and 14 °C in February and March. Night is off limits anywhere in Spain.
- tide
- The level is irrelevant. What matters is that you are working on the shoulder of the coast's main cape: the flow bending round Cap de la Nau brushes Ambolo too, and the swell reflected off the wall adds to it, setting up a nasty cross sea right against the rock. Check your drift on the buoy every few dives, especially after three days of Llevant.
- shelter
- A cove under the cliff on the southwest shoulder of Cap de la Nau, with the islet of Illa del Descobridor alongside. The front faces south and southeast, so the cape's bulk holds off Gregal and Llevant well: in a northeasterly gale it can be almost calm here. Migjorn and Llebeig, though, come in unhindered and hit the undercut rock square on.
- conditions
- A spot for experienced divers: depth comes at once, the wall runs down, and you work where the swell rebounds off the rock. Come with Gregal and northerlies, and with Ponent it is perfect, 15 to 20 metres of visibility. With southerly and southwesterly do not even approach: the undercut sets up a cross sea and there is no way out. No act banning spearfishing was found here.
- hazard
- The big danger here is not underwater but over your head: the beach has been officially closed for some twenty years because of rockfall, in 2025 a hundred people were evacuated and the police patrol the access. Do not stand under the wall or leave gear there. Then depth without a safety net, reflected swell, and the standing rule: no scuba while spearfishing, buoy mandatory.
- access
- There is no way in by land: the path down is officially closed, there are signs, and in summer patrols come through. The only legal option is from the water: kayak or paddleboard from Granadella along the cliff, or a boat out of Xàbia harbour. The Varadero slipway, incidentally, is shut from 1 March to 30 June for protected wildlife; after that private use is free.
Rocky ground below Cap de la Nau; deep bottom, exposed to swell, advanced.
Google MapsCabo de la NaoXàbia
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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- The cape runs on the breeze timetable: clean and quiet from sunrise to eleven, after which the northeasterly hardens and holds until six in the evening. The season is September to November, water from 25 down to 19 °C and the tourist launches gone. Remember the Comunitat Valenciana licence: from age 16, with a medical certificate, valid two years.
- tide
- This is the most current-swept point on the whole coast: the along-shore flow running south hits the cape and speeds up around its nose. The Xàbia Red Cross puts Cap de la Nau first on its list of points dangerous for surf and current. The tidal level, meanwhile, is dead: 12 to 14 centimetres. Always work off the buoy and start against the flow.
- shelter
- The easternmost point of Alicante province: here the coast breaks and by definition there is no shelter, because swell from any sector between northeast and south finds the cape. The rule is simple: with Llevant and Gregal you move south of the cape to Granadella and Moraig; with southerly swell, north to Portitxol and Sardinera. The nose itself only works in flat calm.
- conditions
- Come only in a flat calm or on settled Ponent: then the gorgonian walls read out to 20 metres and you can see the whole structure. In any wind from the 55-170 sector the cape sets up a cross sea and there is nothing to work with. No act banning spearfishing at the cape was found, and that means "no ban found", not permission: the Sant Antoni reserve lies far to the north.
- hazard
- The cape gathers everything at once. Traffic: launches and yachts cut the nose close in, and here the buoy saves your life rather than ticking a box. Depth: the walls run a long way down, and this is exactly where a tank starts to tempt you, but scuba is banned for spearfishing, RD 347/2011 art. 3.c. At the foot of the cape the Cova dels Orgues opens up: do not go in.
- access
- Asphalt runs up from Xàbia to the lighthouse and the viewpoint and there is parking, but there is no beach under the cape at all: you cannot get down the cliff to the water. In practice two options remain: a boat from Xàbia harbour, about fifteen minutes' run, or a long swim along the shore from Ambolo or Granadella, which with this current is not for everyone.
Alicante's easternmost cape; deep drop-offs with gorgonians, dentex and grouper, very exposed to the E wind.
exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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- From 2 June to 6 September there is a daytime crowd and access control, and dive boats and snorkellers sit in the cove all through the high season, so it is dawn or nothing. Water is 26 °C in August and 14 °C in February. The best months are October and November: nobody around and still 22 and 19 degrees. Night is banned.
- tide
- The tide is irrelevant here, the range is under twenty centimetres. Inside the cove there is no current at all: the walls lock it in. It starts outside the mouth, on the En Caló-Granadella line, and the Xàbia Red Cross specifically advises against swimming that route without a motor. The moment you clear the cove's points, check your drift against the buoy.
- shelter
- A narrow slot between two tall rock walls, its mouth turned east-southeast. The cove already lies south of Cap de la Nau and the cape's bulk cuts Gregal (NE): on a northeasterly day this is where people cross over from the other side. Xaloc (SE) and long southerly swell run straight into the mouth and bounce off the walls.
- conditions
- The best day is Ponent or Llebeig, wind off the land: over rock and boulders you see 15 to 20 metres, and in settled calm after a few offshore days it stretches to 25. Gregal works, because the cape holds it off. With Xaloc and long southerly swell the cove stirs to the bottom, leaving 4 or 5 metres and a murky layer along the shore.
- hazard
- On the law, honestly: we found no zonal act banning spearfishing at Granadella, and that means "no ban found", not "permitted". The Cap de Sant Antoni reserve ends far to the north, on the Punta de San Nicolás meridian. Then the physical: boats and kayaks in the mouth, snorkellers, 100 metres from swimmers, buoy mandatory, scuba forbidden.
- access
- Parking on C/ Pic Tort: 130 spaces, 9:00 to 19:00, 9 € a day, no booking possible; daily from 2 June to 6 September, then weekends only on 12-13, 19-20 and 26-27 September. There is a shuttle, the tourist train from Urb. La Guardia Park, 10:00 to 19:00 hourly, 6 € adult and 4 € reduced. You get in over coarse cobbles and rock starts at once.
Rocky cove between cliffs; drop-offs and boulders, sea bream, gilthead and dentex, exposed to the easterly (E).
Google Mapsexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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- Dawn is the only honest window: the parking meter starts at nine and by midday the cove is full of boats and kayaks. In 2026 Xàbia is preparing buoy marking of the Freu to close it to vessels; that bans no fishing, but it will change where the boats run. The water sits at 25 to 26 °C from July to September.
- tide
- Do not bother with the level: twenty centimetres change nothing. Do bother with the Freu, the 190-metre channel between shore and island, which squeezes the flow and speeds it up; the Xàbia Red Cross separately warns about currents on the island's east face. Enter the channel only with a buoy, and always start against the drift so you come back with it.
- shelter
- A cobble cove facing Illa del Portitxol: the island, 8.7 hectares and 72 metres high, sits 190 metres offshore and works as a natural breakwater, killing part of the easterly swell, so in its lee the water is calmer than outside. The shore faces east and northeast, so Llevant and Gregal come straight in, while Ponent and Llebeig bring the calm.
- conditions
- This is the north face of Cap de la Nau, and that is the whole point: when southerly swell runs or Xaloc blows, people move over here from Granadella. The good day is Ponent, Llebeig or light southerly, with 12 to 18 metres over rock and boulders. With Llevant and Gregal the cobbles churn along the shore, leaving 3 to 5 metres, plus a cross chop in the Freu.
- hazard
- Much is said about a micro-reserve in the channel, but it is only proposed by IROX and not approved: there is no fishing ban here. The real risks are different: boats crossing the Freu almost against the shore, snorkellers around the island, and a gun stowed with breathing gear on board, which under Ley 5/2017 art. 14.5 counts straight away as illegal fishing.
- access
- The C/ Barraca car park has only 59 spaces, 9:00 to 19:00, 9 € a day, no booking, on the same dates as Granadella. That is half the room, so you arrive in the dark. The walk down to the water is short and you get in over coarse cobbles, round ones that roll under your foot. The island is 190 metres off, but cross the channel only with a clear head and a buoy.
Rocky ground facing Portitxol island; rich rock bottom, exposed to the E.
Google Maps🔒 Cap NegreXàbia
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exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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Open in the app →exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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- You need an early start here for a different reason than in the coves: from midday to six in the evening the northeasterly breeze freshens and the way back along the point turns into hard work. In summer the water is 25-26 °C, in winter 14. The best mix of visibility and an empty shore is the second half of October. Night is banned by national rule.
- tide
- The tide is an empty box here. The current is not: the Xàbia Red Cross names Cap Prim among the points where it warns of surf and flow, and advises against swimming the return leg between Cap Negre and La Barraca without a motor. Off the nose the flow turns, and at 15 to 20 metres it pulls noticeably towards Cala Blanca.
- shelter
- A long thin headland, shown on maps as Cap de Martí; Cala Sardinera opens on its southwest side and looks southeast. The logic is simple: in Gregal (NE) you tuck into Sardinera behind the body of the point, while the nose of Cap Prim has no shelter from any quarter. In Xaloc the cove takes it head-on and only the north face is left to work.
- conditions
- This is the clearest water on the coast: the rock drops away steeply, the bottom is clean, and on a quiet day after Ponent you see 15 to 20 metres, sometimes 25. Work it in westerlies and light northerlies. There is one legal limit and it matters: the Cap de Sant Antoni reserve starts about three kilometres north of here, and past that cape you cannot shoot.
- hazard
- First the boundary: it is about three kilometres from here to the Cap de Sant Antoni reserve, and nothing marks it on the water; if you push north, count the distance yourself. Second, depth: the walls run a long way down and the temptation is real, but scuba is banned for spearfishing across Spain and a shallow-water blackout arrives in silence. Never dive alone.
- access
- The headland has no car park of its own: you leave the car in the paid areas at Portitxol or Granadella and walk on along the coastal path through pine and agave. The drop to Sardinera is steep, over rock and roots, and awkward with a weight belt on. You get in over slabs and depth builds fast, so there is barely any swim to the structure.
Rocky point at Cap Prim; deep drop-offs, very exposed to the E-SE.
Google Maps🔒 Cap d'OrXàbia
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exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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Open in the app →🔒 Cap de MartíXàbia
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exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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Open in the app →Cova del MoraigXàbia
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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- In summer the cove comes alive early: a bar on the shore, snorkellers, dive centres running groups into the cave. So it is dawn and weekdays. Water is 26 °C in August, but September and October are when warmth and clarity meet. Night is banned, and in the Comunitat Valenciana spotlights are barred separately: a hand torch is allowed.
- tide
- The tide here is as dead as everywhere on this coast. Two things need calculating: the flow running along the vertical wall, which after a settled southerly moves steadily and noticeably, and the surge in the mouth, where cobbles roll and cloud the water right at the entrance while thirty metres out you see twenty. Watch the buoy: the wall makes it easy to lose your reference.
- shelter
- This is already Benitatxell, twelve kilometres southwest of Cap de la Nau, and the shore here faces south and southeast. Everything blowing from north and northeast is killed by the plateau above the cliff: in a hard Gregal you can work here when Xàbia is shut. Migjorn and Llebeig, by contrast, run straight into the cobble horseshoe and raise the surf.
- conditions
- The clearest water on this whole coast: locals advertise visibility of more than twenty metres and on a quiet day after Ponent that holds up. The bottom is rock and Posidonia, there is no river for tens of kilometres, so after an autumn gota fría this place clears faster than its neighbours. With a southerly wind visibility drops to 5 or 6 metres.
- hazard
- Under the southern flank of the cove the Cova dels Arcs opens, the entrance to a developed flooded cave system. It is a cave-diving objective, not a breath-hold site: do not go in a single metre, even if you can see light. Cova de les Morretes lies alongside it. Then there is the unstable cliff over your head and the coarse cobbles rolling in the surf.
- access
- From Benitatxell a surfaced hairpin road drops to the cove, with parking above and along the road; there is no paid control here, unlike Granadella and Portitxol. The walk down is short, you get in over coarse rounded cobbles and put your fins on in the water. It is a couple of minutes' swim along the south flank to the wall and the cave mouth.
Pebble cove under cliffs at Benitatxell with a flooded cave; clear deep water over rock.
Google Maps🔒 Morro CastellXàbia
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exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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Open in the app →🔒 Morro FalquíXàbia
borderline Pro · subscribers
exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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Open in the app → Pro · subscribers
exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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Open in the app →🔒 Punta PlanaXàbia
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exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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Open in the app →🔒 Punta de l'AlderàXàbia
borderline Pro · subscribers
exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the app → Pro · subscribers
exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
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The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the app →
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