Where Costa Calma is
Costa Calma sits in the south of Fuerteventura, in the municipality of Pájara, at the start of the Jandía peninsula and next to the Jandía nature reserve. Wikipedia puts its population at about 5,670 (2013). It is a purpose-built resort rather than an old town — the tourist board opens its own page by calling it “an oasis in Fuerteventura”.
Its position is central to the southern half of the island. The Canary Islands Tourist Board’s published figures put the airport at about 65 km and an hour away — the middle of the three southern bases, between the close east-coast resorts and the far-south tip. Our airport transfers guide has the arrival detail and where to stay compares it with the rest of the island.
The calm coast, and where the name comes from
The name is the clue. Wikipedia records that Costa Calma — “the calm coast” — got its name because the prevailing winds normally leave this part of the coast and its waters protected and calm. The tourist board describes a resort that lives up to its name, built around rest and tranquillity rather than nightlife.
That protected water is what separates Costa Calma from the island’s exposed north and west. The tourist board’s beaches feature adds the detail that matters: the beach here is partly sheltered by the hotels and apartments behind it, so swimmers can step from a pool to the sea in a few paces. See the beaches guide for the contrast coast by coast, and surf safety for reading the sea anywhere you swim.
The beach and Sotavento
Costa Calma Beach is a two-kilometre curve of white sand and turquoise water that the tourist board singles out among the island’s best — a shore for an easy, quiet walk with ochre hills behind it. Next to it, the Sotavento coast is the bigger name: the board describes it as five beaches (La Barca, Risco del Paso, Mirador, Malnombre and Los Canarios) that can be walked without interruption at low tide, an extensive white-sand area with a shallow lagoon behind a sand bar.
Sotavento is also where the island’s wind-sport reputation was made: Wikipedia notes that it has hosted several windsurfing championships. That is the honest reason to know the beach’s name — not a promise of a quiet swim. Check the day’s wind before you decide which stretch to use.
Wind sports, and why this coast is known for them
The tourist board lists windsurfing and kite surfing as two of the most popular sports in Costa Calma, and notes that plenty of visitors come simply for the tranquillity and the scenery. The board’s beaches feature adds that Sotavento is ideal for those new to windsurfing, thanks to that shallow lagoon behind the sand bar.
If wind sports are your reason for coming, this is a southern counterpart to the north’s scene. The wind and kite guide covers why the island works at all and how the two coasts differ, and live wind, weather and waves shows what each coast is doing today.
A resort developed since the 1970s
Costa Calma is a young town. Wikipedia records that it was developed as a tourist community in the 1970s, which is why it reads as a resort first and a village second — wide, planned and built around the beach. The tourist board notes hotels and apartments at a range of prices, so most visitors can find accommodation to suit them.
The board also lists the town’s services — restaurants and catering, nightlife and public transport — which is the practical reason a resort like this works without a car. Nothing here is ranked: this page names no hotel and no restaurant.
Days that are not beach days
The tourist board points to one big draw nearby: the island’s largest attraction park, home to hundreds of plant and animal species and pitched at families. Beyond it, the Jandía nature reserve sits at the end of the peninsula, and the long southern beaches run on towards the far-south tip.
For the rest of the island, treat Costa Calma as a base rather than a destination. The interior villages and the northern dunes are a real drive from here, so group your days — see things to do for what is beyond the beach and places by car for how to plan the driving.
Getting there and getting around
The airport run is about 65 km and an hour by road. Fuerteventura is the flattest and, after Tenerife, the second-largest island in the archipelago, and the Canary Islands Tourist Board lists 17 bus routes covering it, so a serviced resort on the south-east coast is manageable without a car.
Getting around compares car, bus, taxi and bike; car hire explains the paperwork if you decide to drive; and the itinerary guide shows how a week changes when you base yourself in the south.
The shape of a day
Because the water is protected, the morning is the natural time for the beach — the light is soft and the sand is quiet. The middle of the day belongs to the shade of the resort’s terraces and cafés, a few steps from the sand. The afternoon is when the wind usually arrives, which is when the coast turns from swimming water into wind-sport water.
Evenings are low-key here, in keeping with the name: restaurants and a walk rather than a party strip. None of this is a schedule you have to keep — it is simply how the resort is laid out, and it is why it works for an easy, unhurried week.
Who it suits
Costa Calma suits three kinds of trip well. Wind-sport travellers, because Sotavento is a genuine name in the sport and the water is set up for beginners. Families and anyone who wants a rest-first week, because the whole resort is built around a sheltered beach and easy services. And southern-based trips that want to reach the Jandía coast, which is far closer from here than from the airport.
It does not suit a short first trip that also wants the north. The island is long, and Costa Calma is an hour from the airport and further still from Corralejo — so if you plan to see both ends, read north or south first. For the quieter coves of the north-west coast, see El Cotillo; for the near-airport resort, see Caleta de Fuste.
What this page is not
This is a guide to a place, not a hotel ranking and not a booking service. It names no accommodation, takes no reservations and publishes no list of “best” restaurants — those are decisions the tourist board’s own directories and a walk down the street are better at than we are.
It also publishes no surf-break locations, access routes or pins; that is a deliberate part of how this guide works. Opening hours, boat times and prices change with the season, so confirm anything time-sensitive locally on the day.
Sources & method
The facts on this page come from the Fuerteventura Tourist Board’s own Costa Calma and beaches pages, from the Canary Islands Tourist Board’s moving-around guide — the airport distance, the resort description, the beach and the wind sports — and from Wikipedia’s Costa Calma article for the town’s history, its name and the Sotavento championships, cited with attribution. Everything else — how the resort works as a base, which trip it suits and how a day tends to fall — is editorial. No hotel or restaurant is ranked or recommended and nothing here is bookable. Confirm times, prices and opening hours locally.
- Fuerteventura Tourist Board — Costa Calma
- Fuerteventura Tourist Board — The best beaches of Fuerteventura
- Canary Islands Tourist Board — Moving around within the island
- Wikipedia — Costa Calma