Playa de El Puntal, Sandy beach in Santander Bay, Spain

Playa de El Puntal is a sandy beach in Santander Bay that stretches along a natural sandbar for several kilometers. The beach has golden sand and is positioned between the inner bay and the open Cantabrian Sea.

This sandbar was historically a fishing area before Santander's growth as a modern port city transformed the waterfront in the 1900s. The beach shifted from being a working landscape into a destination for leisure and recreation.

The beach's northern face, open to the Cantabrian Sea, is known as Las Quebrantas. In summer a boat service links Santander with the sandbar; the rest of the year it is reached by private boat or on foot from Somo. Nudism is practised in some areas, especially among the dunes.

You can reach the beach by boat from Santander's city center, with regular service during warmer months. The early morning and late afternoon tend to be quieter times for enjoying the sand and water.

The shoreline shifts noticeably depending on tidal cycles and the season, sometimes revealing wide sandy expanses and other times bringing water much closer to higher areas. This means the beach you see in the morning may look quite different by evening.