Tarifa, Spain

Spreading out beyond its Moorish walls, TARIFA was until the mid-1980s a quiet village, known in Spain, if at all, for its abnormally high suicide rate – a result, it is said, of the unremitting winds that blow across the town and its environs. Today, it's a prosperous, popular and, at times, very crowded resort, following its discovery as Europe's prime windsurfing and kitesurfing spot. Equipment-rental shops line the main street, and regular competitions are held year-round. Development is moving ahead fast, but for the time being it remains an attractive place for a stopover.

If windsurfing is not your motive for visiting, 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 & 5.30–8.30pm; free), which has a beautiful late Gothic interior.