Wind-swept: Unfurl your sails near the African coast (TURESPANA)

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Locals call it the wind capital, and with good reason. Tarifa, which faces out to the Strait of Gibraltar at the Mediterranean's narrow western neck, serves up some awesome sailing winds. Here, dazzling white sands, clear waters, and constant waves draw windsurfing aficionados to what is Europe's southernmost mainland point. Offshore, your sail billows to the same steady breezes that brought Arab colonizers to Spain in the eighth century and later impelled Columbus's caravels westward to a New World. Tarifa's a year-round thrill; winters are mild, and the searing heat of Andalusian summers is tempered by the winds that power you across the waves.