Los Narejos vs Los Alcázares: Best Family Beach for September

Which beach do the locals actually take their own kids to once September rolls around and the coach parties have packed up and gone home? Ask anyone who's lived round here more than a summer or two and you'll get one of two answers: Los Alcázares, or Los Narejos. Rarely both. It's a proper local argument, the kind that comes up over a caña at the beach bar once the August madness has died down, and after a decade of dragging my own kids between the two, I've got a firm opinion on it.

Last Tuesday I walked the length of the Los Alcázares paseo at half nine in the morning with a coffee in hand, and the difference from three weeks ago was startling. No queue for the bakery. No fight for a sunbed. Just a few dog walkers, a couple of old boys fishing off the rocks near the old seaplane hangars, and the Mar Menor sitting flat and glassy like it had been ironed overnight. September does something to this coastline that August never lets you see.

Los Alcázares in September: warm, shallow, and finally yours again

Los Alcázares is the obvious pick for families with younger children, and for good reason. The water off Playa del Espejo and Playa Carlos III barely reaches your knees for the first thirty metres out, which means toddlers can wander about feeling brave without you having a heart attack every ten seconds. The Mar Menor's shallow, salty water also warms up fast in spring and holds its heat right through autumn, so even now, well into September, you can get in without that sharp intake of breath you'd get on the Mediterranean side near Cartagena.

What changes this month is the crowd, not the sand. The chiringuitos along the front are still open, but you can actually get a table without a wait. The playground near the rambla, which in August feels like a scrum of sunburnt toddlers, empties out by mid-morning once the local school run starts. If you're staying at one of the holiday rentals near Roda Golf, it's a ten-minute drive and you'll have parking sorted without circling for twenty minutes, which is not something I could say for you in July.

The bit the guidebooks skip

Head to the far northern end of the Los Alcázares seafront, past the last of the beach bars, and there's a stretch of beach the tourist maps never bother marking. Locals call it the quiet end. Shallower still, fewer people, and a decent spot to let the kids dig without someone's beach tennis ball landing on your towel every five minutes.

Los Narejos: the beach even some Roda Golf regulars haven't found

Los Narejos sits between Santiago de la Ribera and Los Alcázares, and it's the one visitors to the area genuinely overlook. There's no big promenade with ice cream vans queued three deep, no rows of matching sunbeds. It's smaller, quieter, and mostly used by Murcian families who've got a second home here rather than by tourists passing through.

What I love about Los Narejos in September is the pace. The beach itself is narrower than Los Alcázares, and the water gets deep a touch sooner, so it suits kids who are already confident swimmers rather than the very small ones. But the trade-off is peace. You can hear conversations at a normal volume. The local bar does a menu del día that hasn't changed in years and doesn't need to. If your family wants a beach afternoon that feels like a local secret rather than a postcard, this is it.

It's also a five-minute drive further than Los Alcázares if you're based near Roda Golf, which puts a lot of visitors off in high season. In September, with the roads quieter and the sun less brutal, that extra bit of distance stops mattering.

What actually changes once the summer crowd goes home

September on the Mar Menor isn't a lesser version of August, it's a different holiday entirely. Sea temperatures stay warm well into October because the lagoon is shallow and slow to cool. The wind, which can whip up in the afternoons this time of year and is worth reading about if you're also planning a round at one of the courses near Roda Golf, tends to settle by early evening, leaving those long golden hours on the beach that August's heat simply doesn't allow.

Jellyfish, which everyone worries about after a hot August, thin out noticeably as the water temperature starts its gentle slide down. Restaurant staff have time to chat. Shopkeepers remember your name by the second visit. It's the version of this coast that made a lot of us move here in the first place.

So which one wins?

For families with toddlers or nervous swimmers, Los Alcázares takes it, mainly for the shallow water and the facilities right on the front. For families with older kids who'd rather build a den than queue for a waffle cone, Los Narejos is the better September morning. Honestly, we do both in the same week most years, and neither ever feels like the consolation prize.

If you're weighing up where to base yourselves for a September trip, it's worth reading up on the wider Los Alcázares and San Javier area before you book, since both beaches, along with the golf courses and the Mar Menor itself, are close enough to treat as one long lazy loop rather than a choice you have to commit to. And if you fancy more of these local comparisons before you land, have a browse through the rest of our blog or drop us a line via the contact page if you want tips tailored to where you're staying.