Tabernas - Spain's own Wild West town.

Tabernas sits right on the edge of the Tabernas Desert in Almeria province, Andalucia & is Europe's only true desert. It is a land of near-lunar badlands, dry river beds and barren slopes bleached by the sun; the setting for more Western movies than anywhere else in Europe.

The town itself has a long history. Its name is thought to come from 'Thabernax', the place where travellers and ancient Greek legions stopped to be supplied at roadside inns, called 'tabernas'. Prehistoric settlements have been found nearby, such as Terrera Ventura, a Neolithic farming settlement from around 2850-1950 BC. Overlooking the town is the 11th century Muslim Castillo de Tabernas, built from the honey-coloured sandstone of the area, which during the Nasrid period was the second most important citadel in Almeria. The surrounding hills were also a famous hideout for Andalucia's 19th century 'bandoleros' or bandits.

Tabernas became a tourist town in the 1960s when the desert was discovered by film makers. The Hollywood Western the dry dusty plains looked just like Arizona & the place was soon turning out dozens of 'Spaghetti Westerns'. Sergio Leone shot A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More & The Good, The Bad and The Ugly here, making a star of Clint Eastwood. Over the years more than 300 films have been made on these sets & in these ravines, from Lawrence of Arabia and Patton to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and, more recently, Game of Thrones, filmed in the Rambla del Cautivo and Rambla del Buho gorges.

The film sets built for these movies were kept and turned into Wild West theme parks, and these are the real attraction today. Fort Bravo (also called Texas Hollywood), Oasys (once known as Mini Hollywood) and Western Leone all have their full Western streets, saloons, bank facades, vintage stagecoaches and horseback gunfight shows staged several times a day. You can even dress up in cowboy clothes for a photo to take home.

The Western theme carries right into the village itself; Tabernas' tourist office on Avenida de las Angustias is built as a Wild West saloon. The town is also home to the only Western film festival in the world, the Almeria Western Film Festival (AWFF), held every year since 2010 with film screenings, concerts and street events. For something completely different, the desert also hosts the Plataforma Solar de Almeria, Europe's largest solar thermal research centre.

If you ever get the chance, a day trip out to the Wild West of Tabernas is a real treat; great for kids and grown-ups alike, and a fun escape from the beach resorts of Almeria. Yeeee-hah!