A taste of Spain

Advantages: Nice weather, pretty cheap
Disadvantages: Almost like being home because of a large Norwegian community

...A short summary My wife Nikki and I went on a trip to Albir right north of Benidorm in Spain in the period August 27th to September 5th 2004. We went together with our friends Olav and Allis and their two kids. During our stay we got a chance to drive around a little bit, visit the theme park Terra Mittica, the water park Aqualandia, drink some good Spanish red wine etc. I hope that this short trip report can be of some use to others that are going to the same destination. Get in touch if you have any questions or comments :-) Please check my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com if you want to see more pictures from the trip. Prelude When I was young I remember that we had some family friends that were going on vacation to Spain. At that time it seemed so exotic at least compared to our road trips around Norway. Well, over the years...

gard 10.10.2004 · Read review
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Review of Costa Blanca (Spain)

Javea: my first taste of spain!

Advantages: Javea= gorgeous, hot, cheap
Disadvantages: a very smelly fish market

...You may be surprised to find a 22 year old writing a review of a relatively quiet spanish town rather than a club orientated 18-30 style holiday. This is because much as I do like to drink on my holiday (after all thats what holidays are for!), I also quite like to remember what I've spent a year saving for! So instead of flying off to your typical 18-30 British holiday makers spanish destination, I decided to jet off to Javea, Costa Blanca, Spain. The holiday was mainly arranged by my boyfriend and his friend, who had both been there before and both declare that they are 'past their clubbing days'! We arranged our holiday with James Villas, whose representatives were very helpful throughout (especially when the main fuse blew in the middle of the night and no-one knew where spanish fuse boxes were hiden and it was too dark to look...

Kaytee4d1 14.06.2005 · Read review
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Review of Costa Blanca (Spain)

Lanzarote Princess, Playa Blanca, Lanzarote

Advantages: Warm in April, great hotel
Disadvantages: Not warm enough to swim, not a pretty island

...This is a review of a package holiday to Lanzarote. 5 * Lanzarote Princess, Playa Blanca, Lanzarote We paid £737 each for two adults plus £367 for one child for 11 nights HB at the end of April , 2001. We travelled with Airtours and booked through a local high street travel agent. Flight and Transfer Our first trip to Lanzarote, in fact our first trip to the Canaries. It’s four hour flight, we had an hour’s delay at Gatwick but apart from that the journey was fine. Usual delay getting on the bus after arriving at Arrecife but we arrived at the hotel within an hour or so. Lanzarote is not pretty in the conventional sense. The landscape you would see from the bus looked something like a cross between a moonscape and a building site. Water must be at a premium because “lush” is not a word you will be...

michael_john_owen 03.11.2002 · Read review
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Review of Lanzarote (Spain)

Is this rearly Spain or is it heaven?

Advantages: Sun sea and a great atmosphere
Disadvantages: Too many morrocan's and Soth Americans.

...From the moment you land in Spain you will feel more laid back and de-stressed about life, and when this happens you know you are following in the footsteps of the locals. You see the Spanish have it down to a fine art, it is a proven fact that they tend to live longer than us and this is why! I have family living in Javea, and for this reason of course I visit very often, maybe the other contributing factors do have a large part of my frequent trips so I will tell you what has captivated me so much, about this small resort on the Costa Blanca :). The nearest airport is Alicante, which is about an Hour and 15 minutes away by car. The roads leading out off the airport towards Benedorm are mainly very fast moving motorways, which in summer can be very crowded all day and into the night so please be ready for a little delay?s on this...

Dawnlb 09.08.2003 · Read review
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Review of Costa Blanca (Spain)

Orange Blossom Coast

Advantages: Great Weather, Scenery, Food, People, Culture, Beaches
Disadvantages: Benidorm is spoilt,Some parts over-run, Crime Rate,

...with Easyjet and book it all online. Never had any problems with them. My car rental company always give us almost new cars. We now have these yellow glow in the dark jackets which are the law now in Spain and you must have them, one per person in your car incase you break down at night. I find spirits in Spain very cheap and always take a few bottles home. Rum for £3 a bottle and Malibu for £5 a bottle. I do think parts of the Costa Blanca have been too built up and some places have lost their character. Too much building along the coast. Along the Denia coast road they have made most of the beach wider and laid sand down. Be careful if you sun bathe early in the day as there has been a couple of awful accidents with these beach cleaning lorries and people sunbathing and the lorry drivers not seeing them. I have noticed forest fires in...

Rachey 14.03.2003 (16.05.2006) · Read review
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Review of Costa Blanca (Spain)

Summer sun at the Playa!

Advantages: Staff, cleanliness, rooms, food etc
Disadvantages: n/a

...If there's one thing I looked forward to all year, its a summer holiday. We try out best to make sure we go away every summer, and to date we haven't had very many bad experiences with the hotels we have picked. Last year, our choice of Holiday was to Tenerife. We booked our holiday at the very last minute. We were due to fly on July 6th, and at the beginning of April, we went into the travel agents and booked. Our choice of hotel, was the Iberostar Torviscas Playa, Costa Adeje, Tenerife. ** Travel Agents Recommendation/Booking. We started browsing through brochures and searching online for a summer holiday in around January. We came to the agreement that Tenerife would be our choice of hotel. We studied the prices in the brochures and haggled online, however although the offers online looked very good value for money, we...

SweetTooth93 20.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of Iberostar Torviscas Playa, Tenerife

Escape the winter blues in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote

Advantages: Lovely Weather, with great choice of last minute, cheap breaks
Disadvantages: Volcanic scenery is fascinating, but very barren in December

...It was November, 2005 and after 2 years of health problems, I couldn't stand the thought the long winter stretching out in front of me - I needed a holiday!! This wasn't my main holiday (Switzerland in February '06) - so I needed something cheap!! I considered lots of different destinations, but was lured by the December weather in the Canary Islands. I had never been before and had no idea which one to choose. After searching the holiday pages for 'Bargain & Late Breaks', I found one at a really good price at the Playa Blanca in Lanzarote. As my partner didn't have any holidays left - I asked my mum, who jumped at the chance. We booked on Saturday and flew on Thursday - one week, all-inclusive in the Paradise Island Aparthotel. On a cold, grey day we flew from Liverpool into the sunshine of Lanzarote. The Paradise Island is...

pollypiggy 06.11.2006 · Read review
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Review of Lanzarote (Spain)

Getting away from it all..... Playa Blanca

Advantages: Virtual year round sun, something for everyone
Disadvantages: Some areas are a little built up and touristy

...We have been to Lanzarote a couple of times but i think Playa Blanca on the south coast suited us the most. If you are looking for lively nightlife, discos, and karoake then this maybe isn't the place for you. We wanted a last minute break away from it all in some lovely warm weather, with nice beaches and restaurants and this is exactly what we got. We stayed in Playa Blanca at a small self catering complex (maybe 15 villas) called Puerto Chico. The apartments are basic in furnishings, slightly worn looking but have everything required for a self catering holiday (oven, grill, fridge & washing machine etc). Towels and bedding changed twice/week. The complex also has a pool and a Spa chop is located just outside the gates. The complex is situated on a sea front promenade literally 5 minues walk to the 'front'. You can walk in both...

salcin0 04.12.2005 · Read review
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Review of Lanzarote (Spain)

The White Coast

Advantages: nice coast with lovely countryside
Disadvantages: Urbanizaciones taking over, month of August to avoid

...The Costa Blanca stretches from Valencia down Spain´s southeastern coast to Cartagena, offering different landscapes from flat marshes to rugged coastlines. There is only one larger city, Alicante, where charter flights from Britain, Scandinavia and Central Europe spill their mostly sun-seeking clientele. My wife has always been one of these constantly freezing snowbirds who fears the continental Austrian winters, she doesn´t indulge in winter sports at all and would love to spend her life in a zone where temperatures never fall below 22°C... This is just to explain why one freezing December morning she came up with a realty ad from our paper that offered an appartement near Torrevieja on the Playa Flamenca (which has nothing to do with the Spanish national dance, it refers to a bunch of Flamish Belgians who were the first to...

herbb 29.04.2002 (12.03.2007) · Read review
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Review of Costa Blanca (Spain)

Beware of the Stinklers

Advantages: Quiet location, pretty views, All inclusive
Disadvantages: Busy,

...they weren't run the way I'd want them to be run but that's a professional thing with me), the golf, tennis courts and play park. It's a short walk to the rock pools as well as about 40 minutes to an hour into playa Blanca. The most we every paid for a taxi was 4?. I'd definitely recommend this hotel to anyone and believe a holiday is what you make it and it was a really good holiday which all 6 of us enjoyed....

Groovee 29.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of H10 Rubicón Palace, Playa Blanca