If windsurfing is not your motive, there can still be an appeal in wandering the crumbling ramparts, gazing out to sea or down into the network of lanes that surround the fifteenth-century, Baroque-fronted church of San Mateo (daily 9am-1pm & 6-8.30pm), which has a beautiful late Gothic interior. Also worth a look is the Castillo de Guzman (Tues-Sun 10am-2pm & 4-8pm; a?¬1.20), the site of many a struggle for this strategic foothold into Spain. It is named after GuzmA?n el Bueno (the Good), Tarifa's infamous commander during the Moorish siege of 1292, who earned his tag for a superlative piece of tragic drama. GuzmA?n's nine-year-old son had been taken hostage by a Spanish traitor and surrender of the garrison was demanded as the price of the boy's life. Choosing "honour without a son, to a son with dishonour", GuzmA?n threw down his own dagger for the execution. The story - a famous piece of heroic resistance in Spain - had echoes in the Civil War siege of the AlcA?zar at Toledo, when the Nationalist commander refused similar threats, an echo much exploited for propaganda purposes.

A new attraction in Tarifa is popular whale and dolphin spotting excursions to the Strait of Gibraltar which leave daily from the harbour. The trip is a fairly steep a?¬27 (reductions for under 14s), but this includes another trip free of charge if there are no sightings. Places must be booked in advance from either of two non-profit-making organizations: Whale Watch, CafA© Continental , Paseo de la Alameda (tel 956 684 776), or FIRMM (Foundation for Information and Research on Marine Mammals; tel & fax 956 627 008, or mobile tel 919 459 441) at c/Pedro CortA©s 3, slightly west of the church of San Mateo, off c/El Bravo.