El Palmar 59.2
#3266 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇪🇸 Spain · Cádiz · near Cádiz
Very consistent, no off season, gentle enough to learn.
Best time to surf El Palmar
The best time to surf El Palmar is February, March, November. It rarely works. In February the water sits around 15°C, so pack a 4/3 with boots, and the typical wave is 1.2 m. The nearest airport is TNG (58 km) and the nearest town is Cádiz (38 km).
| Month | Surfable | Clean | Size | Water | Suit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 90% | 29% | 1.1 m | 16°C | 4/3 |
| Feb | 98% | 39% | 1.2 m | 15°C | 4/3 |
| Mar | 95% | 33% | 1.3 m | 15°C | 4/3 |
| Apr | 99% | 23% | 1.2 m | 16°C | 3/2 |
| May | 83% | 7% | 0.9 m | 18°C | 3/2 |
| Jun | 84% | 2% | 0.8 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Jul | 70% | 2% | 0.7 m | 22°C | 2mm |
| Aug | 60% | 2% | 0.7 m | 22°C | 2mm |
| Sep | 67% | 13% | 0.7 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Oct | 84% | 21% | 1.0 m | 20°C | 2mm |
| Nov | 96% | 32% | 1.2 m | 19°C | 3/2 |
| Dec | 99% | 26% | 1.4 m | 17°C | 3/2 |
What is under El Palmar
Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor drops to 87 m, shoaling steadily over the last kilometres. Alongside the bank the survey finds a channel, 369 m against 87 m, deep enough to bend swell onto one peak instead of spreading it along the beach.
Measured, not estimated: NOAA ETOPO 2022 global relief at 15 arc-seconds, about 460 m per cell, sampled along this spot’s own swell window. At that scale the survey sees passes and channels; it cannot see a reef ledge, so nothing here is said about how the wave breaks.
Why 59.2
Seven parts, each normalised 0 to 1 and multiplied by its weight; the sum is scaled so the best spot in the world scores 100. Wave quality and what the spot does on its best days carry more than half of it, which is what separates this from a ranking of where the water is warm.
The detail
Faces 245° with 50% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 70% of days. Mean peak period 9.5 s. Days over 3 m: 1%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 1.8 m, with a peak period of 13 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 67%. Months that work: 12 of 12. Coordinates 36.234, -6.074 (OpenStreetMap).
Live here
4 homes for sale within 30 km of El Palmar, up to 60,000 euro. Houses and flats you can move into, never plots of land. Cheapest right now €17,000. Checked 2026-09-13. Listings from Fotocasa and the agents themselves; we take no part in the deal.
€17,000Flat · 40 m² · 2 roomsBarbate6 km from the spot →
€50,000Home · 28 m² · 1 roomVejer de la Frontera10 km from the spot →
€50,000Flat · 57 m² · 2 roomsBarbate15 km from the spot →
€54,400Flat · 58 m² · 2 roomsBarbate14 km from the spot →What it costs to be here
Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for Spain (2025, United States = 1.00) applied to a fixed surfer basket, then adjusted for how remote the spot is. Your own number moves with the season and how you live.
Sumba has eight spots in this ranking, the best of them inside the world top 50. A cabin is €11,500. The land it sits on is separate, from €6,500 (€9,950 oceanfront), on an 80-year lease that extends at the end. Water, septic and electricity are another €6,500, and furniture is on top, so a finished cabin lands around €28,000 plus the land, payable in instalments.
Eco Beach City is run by the same people as SurfRanking, so treat this as our own advert, not a recommendation. It is an off-plan property in Indonesia: take your own legal and financial advice before paying anything.
Spots nearby
Filters by month, level and water, map, side by side comparison and a trip planner.