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Separated by the Rio Quequen Grande but governed by the same municipalidad, Necochea and Quequen make a slightly schizophrenic couple. The dominant partner is NECOCHEA , a sprawling town which took off as a tourist resort in the 1970s. It's particularly popular with families, thanks to its much publicized wide beaches and a large, attractive park. These qualities apart, though, the town's attractions are somewhat limited. Its biggest handicap is its disjointed layout: the town centre proper, known as the centro viejo , sits some 3km inland, well away from the bustle of tourist activity which is packed into a pretty charmless grid of streets down by the seafront. The centro nuevo , as this area is known, is centred on Plaza San Martin and pedestrianized calles 83 and 85, which run between the plaza and the seafront and are lined with amusement arcades and small shopping malls. The enormous Parque Miguel Lillo (6am-9pm) lies immediately west of the centro nuevo, alongside Calle 89, and contains, amongst other things, a lake, campsites, a go-kart track and the Museo Historico Regional (Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 4.30-8.30pm) at the eastern end of the park, housed in a pretty, colonial-style building and containing a rather eclectic collection of exhibits and heavily labelled photographs showing Necochea's development. Since 1996, Necochea's municipalidad has also had jurisdiction over neigbouring QUEQUEN to the east, a much quieter and smaller town whose tranquillity is disturbed only by the lorries which rumble to and from its busy port, along Diagonal Almirante G. Brown. Quequen can seem a bit desolate - it's certainly not the place to be if you seek excitement - but in many ways it has a lot more character than its brasher neighbour. Once a rather upmarket resort, Quequen lost out to Necochea in the tourism stakes and its beachfront area remains a gentle, mostly residential strip given a quirky charm by a sprinkling of grand but rather dilapidated mansions standing on grassy lots. Necochea's beachfront is a typically regimented and extremely busy stretch of sand dominated by tents and sunshades and lined with restaurants. To the north, close to the mouth of the Rio Quequen, lies the quieter Playa de los Patos , flanked by low dunes and popular for fishing and surfing. There's a surf school here, La Escollera (classes daily 9am-1pm; $5). Quieter beaches still can be accessed in Quequen. An unsealed road hugs the coast here, taking you past the central beaches, less wide than Necochea's but still popular, to the aptly named Bahia de los Vientos ("Bay of winds"), where the hulks of shipwrecked boats rest on rocky outcrops. The beaches here are narrower and wilder and are a good place to head for for aimless strolling along the coast. To the south of Necochea, the beaches extend for some 30km; the most accessible of these undeveloped rocky beaches is known as Las Grutas , backed by low cliffs and lying around 10km from the centre. Another 5km or so along the coast road you reach Punta Negra - so-called for its dark sand, and popular with divers. Finally, 30km south of town lies the attractively rocky Cueva del Tigre , a popular fishing spot. This last stretch of coast road is best tackled in a 4WD: if you have an ordinary car you can take an alternative route via Avenida 10, which runs along the north side of Parque Miguel Lillo.
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