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Alicante Region Of Spain

Things to do/go/see - for families

All this information was gathered by holidaying in the area (Campello), in August,  for the last 6 years. Observations by a family of 2 adults and 2 children (13 & 9), none of whom speak any/much Spanish but carry numerous phrase books and dictionaries (although my wife did attend beginners Spanish classes a while back).

San Juan - Miles of sandy beaches, fairly clean, very easy parking on the main road that runs along the front. Can get a little rough if the wind is blowing, good first aid/lifeguard facilities. Its also right next to the Alicante/Denia railway. Click for full size pictures.

Campello - Looks like a man made beach, not as sandy as San Juan but calmer. Popular with the locals, very difficult to park. There is a very nice pedestrian promenade with lots of (fairly expensive) restaurants and a very good factory store shoe shop, 3000 pts for a pair of leather shoes!. The beach is mostly pebbles.

Between Campello and Villajoyosa there are many small coves with beaches, the nicest is a sandy little beach just off the main road by the bull, cross the railway and down the hill. There is a restaurant and a snack bar. Can get very popular. Good location, although there is a lot of new building work going on in the area.

Villajoyosa - A personal favourite, a long stretch of clean and nice sand, can get a bit rough in windy conditions. The beach has some children's facilities and volleyball courts. Behind the beach are many local restaurants and bars and a tree lined promenade. Parking can get a little tricky in high season, but you can normally find spaces at the south end of the beach. There is an annual Christians and Moors festival at the end of July, cumulating with a excellent firework display at just after midnight on the beach, picnic time.

Benidorm - Well what can you say about Benidorm? Not our cup of tea so we keep well away. There has been a clamp down on parking spaces over the last few years so don't even try. The railway station is around 15/20 minutes walk from the main beaches. 2 main beaches, very big, very clean and very crowded! Not so many 'fish n'chips' places, more multi cultural than previously. Still the place to get English Keg beer and Sky TV.

There are many resorts north of Benidorm, most have miles of semi-sandy beaches. Anyone have any recommendations?

I suppose the main attraction for many is the new theme/adventure park, Terra Mitica, built on the site originally reserved for Eurodisney before Paris got chosen. Its built into the side of a hill with impressive views over Benidorm. Its a themed park with 5 different areas (Greek/Roman/Spanish etc.) Each area contains eateries to do with that area. Some of the rides may be a little tame for those used to the biggies at Eurodisnay/Alton Towers etc. Its focal point must be the very large woodern rollercoaster (min age 16 & hight restiction) that dominates the site. The whole place is well laid out, the down side are the shows which are entirly in Spanish (not a great problem) but we were a bit confused when they were on. Its not cheap, but then what sort of park like this is? Its also open till late during high season. A day would not be enough to try everything. Huge car parks and shuttle busses from the town make getting there easy. If you like that sort of thing you'll enjoy yourself.

There are 3 safari type parks in the area we have visited, Elche (Rio Sarafi), Aitani and the one in Benidorm called Mundomar. All 3 offer a slightly different view of wild animals. We thought that Rio Safari was quite a sad set up with the animals not looking particularly happy, its more of a wild animal zoo than a safari park, but we did go in 1996 so things might have changed. Aitina was more like it. Lots of space for all the various animals (Lions, tigers, elephants and most of what you would expect in a safari park). You have to drive around the park, which is situated up in the hills behind Benidorm, (quite a few miles from the coast, takes quite a while due to the terrain). Lots of opportunities for photographs. Well worth a visit. Mundomar in Benidorm is situated in the hill due north of Benidorm, right next to the watersplash park (this means that there is LOTS of traffic making there way to the parks, the large car parks can fill up quite quickly). Very good view over northern Benidorm from the top of the park by the dolphin pool. There are 3 main shows, sea lions, dolphins (very good) and parrots (this show is held in an air-conditioned room, take your lunch and wait for the next show, very useful for high season temperatures). Worth a visit, give yourself about 3/4 hours to see all the shows and animals. You can find 'money-off' vouchers for most of these attractions at big supermarkets (we got ours in Carrafeur, San Juan, Alicante) also available at the airport and the massive Carrafeur hypermarket (next to McDonalds for those who can't go without), there is now a fairly large shopping centre there, including a Lidl and Macro. Admission for 2 adults and 2 children with discount was 5000 pts (20 pounds). We went 2 years in a row so it must be OK.

The trip from Benidorm to Isle of Benidorm is also worth doing, although there is not much to do on the island once you get there. Some of the cruises offer a glass bottomed boat where you can see some of the fish. OK but it only lasts for a few minutes.

One thing we meant to do but ran out of time is the Lemon Express. This is a special train that leave Benidorn station and heads north into lemon country. The trains are air-conditioned and leave about 9.30 returning about 3.30 and the price includes sparking wine, visiting a guitar factory and the chance to buy wicker work at Gator de Gorges. Something for next year.

If you are interested in local wine a visit to the Jalon valley, and the town of Jalon is worth it.As you drive into the valley you are struck with the lushness of the area, vines and bunch's of grapes everywhere (well there were in August). Just outside the town is the local wine co-op where you can buy your wine straight from the cask in plastic containers, with the opportunity to taste first. The drive out of the valley southwards goes right up the side of a very big hill, impressive views over the valley, before eventually ending up heading straight towards Benidorm. Again if you want to try the local wine a visit here is highly recommended (although the 7 year old red wine is very sherry'ish, an acquired taste).There is also a boot fair on Saturdays, which continues well into lunchtime. Its not only the English that can sell rubbish, I suppose its a different kind of rubbish though. We did visit a restaurant right in the middle of the town, if you like English food this ones for you we were disappointed but the pizzas were OK.

Restaurants

Loads of them, 2 worth mentioning at the moment. The first is Bar Madrid in Villajoyosa, right on the sea front, good value and very handy. The 2nd needs your own transport as it is about 10 miles inland in a town called Sella on the road from Villajoyosa to Aitina. Bar Ronda is perched on a hillside with good views over the gorge. (the 2001 tour of Spain cycle race went right past the front door). It has a set menu of more food than you can comfortably eat as well as, seemingly unlimited local wine (both the red and white come heavily chilled), or (and?) sangria. A complementary digestive drink seems to be included, indeed sometimes forced on you. I seem to recall that all this was for 1500 pts. Almost no English is spoken by the staff although the clientele is from most European countries. Highly recommended, except for drivers. BE CAREFUL its very tempting. We had quite a nice tapas outside the station in Campello. If you get the time right you can even spot the 2 trains. There are lots of Tapas bars around but I think a splattering of Spanish helps.

The large supermarkets are now almost all Carrafour’s, as mentioned previously there is a very large one on the outskirts of Benidorm (just off the bypass), in high season it opens on Sundays, unlike the San Juan one. Local shops include Mercadona (open Sunday mornings, and stay open thru lunchtime). The other you will see locally is Mas y Mas, which close for lunch. Most shops close between 2.30-4.30/5.00. All good sized towns have market days, Campello is Wednesday, Villajoyosa is Thursday, now held on the sea front…lots of stalls. These have a good mixture of fresh food (loads of fruit & veg) & clothing. Worth finding one. One place everyone seems to head for is the Nike factory shop on the main road between Alicante and Campello, quite good prices. Next door is a Lidl, same down market setup as in the UK. Wine can be brought by the container in most towns, there is a good one just up from the station in Campello, they sell about 8 different cask wines, including a very acceptable Jumilla. There is a factory outlet for leather shoes on the sea front in Campello, very cheap

If you have anything to add/suggest please send me an email to:- home@rstocker.freeserve.co.uk

Why

Every August for the last 6 years we have spent our annual holiday, at a place called Alkibar Playa, near El Campello, Alicante, so we must like it! It is on the coast, close to many nice beaches, see above, and as we have a hire car for the 2 weeks getting to them is not a problem. We rent our car from Edi Rent a Car and never have had any problems, I asked if he would like some of my web space and he said yes please...Its been quite interesting finding out how to get your pages on search engines and how many people visit the site.