In our travel around Spain we have been to the National Park of Doñana, situated on the right bank of the river Guadalquivir at its estuary in the Atlantic Ocean, important above all for its population of birds, with 5 endangered species. It is also one of the largest heronries in the Mediterranean region and the most important wintering site in Spain for waterfowl.

The first thing to say is that if you want to enjoy fully your visit to the park, you have to book one of the guided tours, starting generally from the Visitor Centre of Acebuche (the most important of the five), with which organized companies bring you with a bus to explore the inner parts of the park and to watch birds. There is one tour of the northern part of the park and one of the southern; there is also a boat trip on the Guadalquivir from Sanlúcar de Barrameda that shows you the right bank of the river, included in the park, staying outside of it. But we couldn’t do that because we didn’t know before our travel in Spain in which date we could arrive to the national park, because our itinerary wasn’t based on precise time planning.

If you want to visit places similar to those included in the National Park, you might visit the Natural Park (it surrounds the National Park in 4 sections and acts as a kind of Buffer Zone) that has 2 Visitor Centres and 7 Trails and you can access it without problems; however it is not part of the WHS, so it isn’t the best thing to do for WHS collectors.

The main problem in visiting this WHS is that it is entirely surrounded by a fence (situated exactly on the boundary of the WHS) and it is forbidden to go inside the park because of the protection of animals living there. Only one small traffic road runs inside it going to a place called Palacio de Doñana, but it is closed.

If you haven’t booked a guided tour you can view the WHS only from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, a town situated on the left bank of the Guadalquivir, and from the road A 483, that starts in Almonte (in the municipality of which the western part of the park is located), running along the western border of the park. We chose this road and first went to El Rocío, a small vernacular village with a nice sanctuary situated on the north-western boundary of the park, from which, staying outside of it on some terraces arranged along a path (looking a little bit like a lakeside), you can see one of the marshes (or salty lagoons) of the park. It is quite a pleasant walk and the only place from which you can see a marsh on your own, although it is not the best way to watch birds. A very picturesque image is that of horses grazing on small “islands” surrounded by water.

From El Rocío you can also have a walk along two of the only four paths that let you go inside the park: the Raya Real Trail, 15 km long, of which 6 in the WHS along its northern border and 9 in the Natural Park, and the La Rocina Trail, 12 km long running in the narrow strip (that isn’t included in the WHS) of the National Park comprising the stream La Rocina. However we decided not to do this trails because of the lack of time.

After the visit to El Rocío we continued with our car along the western border of the park and its fence. From here you can see on your left the typical and very particular vegetation of the park consisting of scrub woodland and maquis.

Finally we arrived to Matalascañas, a coastal resort full of modern buildings, even very big hotels, and of people going to the sea; this modern scenery certainly damages the authenticity of the park because the buildings are situated only few meters from the fence of the park. In the middle of this village, outside the National Park, there is a Dunes Park, in which you can walk on some paths. However, it is much better to go to the eastern end of the village, where are the other two paths going inside the park: the Dunes Trail, a short walk 1,5 km long, with much more authentic fixed (stabilized by vegetation) and mobile dunes, and the Beach Trail, running along the southern coastal border of the park for 32 km. We have been at the beginning of the two routes: it is a pleasant walk.

My review of the can sound a little bit complicated, so if you want to know more, go the web pages http://www.discoveringdonana.com/Doñana.htm. However this is really the complicated situation you will find if you would like to visit the park.

I quite liked the National Park because of its variety of biotopes but certainly with the guided tours our visit could have been better and however there are not really spectacular natural features. It doesn’t deserve a long travel specifically to visit it but if you are in Andalusia it is really worthy to be visited, especially with the tours. I can’t say if the Park deserves its inscription on the WHL because I haven’t visited the inner parts of it, but they are certainly beautiful. However I think that the National Park and also the WHS could be larger and include also the Natural Park, that is similar.

In the photo you can see the marshes viewed from the terraces of the village El Rocío.