Zafra

Zafra is the main town in this part of southern Extremadura, situated just off of the A66/N630 that travels south to Seville and north to Merida and beyond into northern Extremadura.

Like much of Extremadura, Zafra balances the old and the new with some attractive traditional features within the town. Right at the centre is a Parador, a hotel developed within a converted castle and near to here some pleasant plazas with fountains and palm trees. There are plenty of bars offering tapas or more substantial raciones and even an Irish pub. Whilst Seville may offer the nearest Indian restaurant (though we once heard mention of one just over the Portugeuse border on a message board), Zafra does have a Chinese restaurant to help ease you through the early stages of going native when quite frankly you just couldn't face another olive.

Most of the important facilities are available in Zafra with a number of large supermarkets, including a Carrefour, and a vibrant and lively shopping district in the centre, near to Zafra's bull ring. On the eastern side of Zafra is the commercial district where you'll find large furniture and kitchen stores, garages and car sales and a range of other businesses.

Back in the town centre you can also find all the usual small privately run businesses including a fantastic delicatessan, gift shops, clothes and shoe shops, internet cafes, computer shops and a tiled pharmacy with crystal chandeliers that has to be seen to be believed; can you surreptitiously have your photo taken in the ballroom grandeur of a spanish chemist?

There are a number of hotels and guest houses inside and outside Zafra for those whose budget doesn't stretch to being cossetted in the Parador. Once a year you can be sure that all these will be fully booked when Zafra hosts a big livestock fair, that spills over into the town as a whole imbuing the whole of Zafra with a party atmosphere.

Seville offers the nearest airport to Zafra and can be accessed in between an hour and a half and two hours, though this time will drop when the A66 two lane motorway is completed in 2008. There are currently several stretches of motorway already open between Zafra and Seville and more stretches will open during the course of this year as they're completed.

See our picture gallery of Zafra

See our picture gallery of La Luna al Fuego, 2007

See our picture gallery of the Feria de Zafra, 2007

We'll try to keep adding to these galleries of Zafra, here in Extremadura, on a regular basis.

If there are any specific pictures of Zafra that you think we should take to illustrate the town or if you have pictures of Zafra that you'd like to share, please get in touch.