Amerys Travels 2009- Costa Blanca, Spain- Benidorm

We had heard so much negative comment about beer swilling lager louts in Benidorm over the years since it first became popular in the 60’s for British package holidays, that we have been dreading going to look for ourselves, but at the same time knowing that a visit to Costa Blanca must include the good with the bad.

We expected a flat, featureless coastal plain beside a good beach covered with ugly high rise 60’s concrete tower blocks, and where there were rows of cafés offering Full English Breakfast, Fish and Chips and Real English Ale to a badly sunburnt clientele who all had a knotted handkerchief on their heads and wore socks with sandals. We didn’t see it as a “must see’ attraction on this coast, but thought it was worth having a meal there on the way back from dropping Brother Bill and Polly off at Alicante airport.

What we found was an attractive city of some ugly and some stylish high rise, including and surrounded by hills, beside three good beaches, each separated by hilly headlands, with thousands of palm trees lining the streets. Yes, about half of the café’s could have easily been found in Blackpool, but the rest served mainly Spanish food- or at least what passes for tourist Spanish food up and down the Costas. However, some were very authentic, and we were amazed by the high quality shops alongside the bucket and spade ones.

What surprised us most of all was how few English people there were around, and most we saw were the (as usual) very stylish Spanish families out for their evening stroll- grandparents through to babies all together, and all dressed up. Maybe most of the English package holidays have dinner included, and so they were absent from the streets in the evenings?

The extreme south of the city seems to be the new area, full of classy stylish new developments behind a nice beach, and then over the headland is what looks like the 1960’s developments of high rise apartments beside a huge beach of perfect sand, lined with palm trees, but unlike the very similar Miami Beach and Surfers Paradise beaches, the high accommodation towers did not take the sun off the beach in the evening.

Separating what we have been told is the northern-most Spanish beach (more high rise on a nice beach) from the main beach and a lovely little cove (see photo) is a small promontory, and as you can see, this has been made into a huge and attractive terrace with lovely views out to sea and down over both main beaches. Like the Balcon de Europe at Nerja, for those who have been there, but much bigger and more impressive.

This promontory marks the old town behind it, narrow marble lanes with many boutiques and touristy shops, along with all sorts of eating places. It was as nice as any Spanish “old town” and better than many, and this is were we had our evening meal.

Maybe the town is in a new ascendancy after some years of neglect (as happened to Torremolinos) but all in all we were very impressed and agreed that we could easily spend a week there, especially with places like Calpe, Moraira and the mountain villages close by.

And more about the mountain villages next time.

Richard and Christine
PS: SIXT car rental are clever enough to trace their name on blog sites- see their comment. We also thought they were very clever when they texted us as we got off the plane at Terminal 2 to tell us exactly where to wait for the shuttle bus, and then we only found by asking around that their bus only went to Terminal 1, so we had to catch an airport shuttle to the other terminal. And that’s where we (and another couple with the same directions) waited for one hour before spotting the bus on another part of the arrivals area and stopping it! (The driver said they were no longer allowed to stop where we had been directed)