Advantages: Climate/Cheap in certain items/Friendly country/Close to the UK/Breathtaking places
Disadvantages: Traffic congestion/unemployment/Sun/

...Its that time of year when the hot weather is near , the football season has come to an end :O( , the nation is going exam crazy & Tim Henman will yet again let his fans down at Wimbledon , - The latter for me signals summer is close & so a vacation to sunny Spain is not far away. Many of you may be planning to visit Spain this summer , whether it be mainland or the surrounding islands or at least thought about visiting Spain for the first time but wasn`t quite sure what to expect. Then I hope the following information will come in useful to frequent visitors & to first time visitors. So for all you SANGRIA holiday makers ….. listen up! . •••••••••••••• Accomodation •••••... Read review

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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... Read review

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Advantages: Climate ... Pretty cheap ...Breathtaking places
Disadvantages: Can get very hot in peak season & high traffic congestion

...Alicante (Spain) is like my second home , although I have recently bought an apartment in Guardamar Del Segura (Alicante), thirty minutes drive from Alicante city . I have been visiting this part of Southern Spain for more than twenty years. During my twenty year visit , I have seen Alicante & its surrounding towns turn from shabby non-existent places into bustling and vibrant resorts. Anybody visiting Alicante & its surrounding resorts today , would not believe the dramatic changes that have taken place over the last 20 years or so. The scale of growth & expansion in the Alicante province is truly amazing - it no longer plays second fiddle to cities such as Barcelona & Madrid. This beautiful city & its neighbouring resorts all of which lie on the Costa Blanca coastline are growing not only in size but in popularity. So much so... Read review

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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... Read review

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Advantages: Very exciting race, differing from it's dowdy image
Disadvantages: Buttons misfortune, the boredom of seeing Schumacher win - again

...Time for another of my fortnightly editions of the Grand Prix weekend. If you’ve missed anything, you can catch up here It doesn’t seem a long time since the F1 party returned in Australia nearly 2 months ago, but we are already at the 5th round in Spain. With Ferrari staking their claim after a simple 1-2 at the last round in San Marino, Williams have shown some cracks in their armour, after a mediocre weekend. Mclaren too have now found themselves in a bitter battle with the resurgent Renault, and not tackling Ferrari, their season objective. But with 12 rounds to go, there is a long way to go. SUMMARY OF LAST YEARS RACE In what was a rather mundane race, the spoils went to Michael Schumacher who was handed victory on a silver plate, when the already trouble hit Mika Hakkinen stuttered to a halt on the final... Read review

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Advantages: beautiful bulidings, great atmosphere...
Disadvantages: none

...I have already written several opinions on my experiences in Spain so far, but the time has come to write about my favourite place here, Granada. For those unfamiliar with Spanish Geography, Granada is in Southern Spain, about 70 miles north-east of the Costa del Sol and very close to Spain's highest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada. It is an ancient city and was for many years the capital of Moorish Spain - the Moors being an old Musilm people related to modern Arabs. In fact, until the Christian "reconquest" in 1562, Granada was the last bastion of Islam in the West . Nowadays, Granada is the most incredible mixture of ancient and modern, Eastern and Western. The city centre boasts some of the most lovely 18th and 19th century Spanish architechture, alongside a substantial Moorish quarter with its exotic arches and of course... Read review

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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... Read review

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Advantages: Beaches, good climate (in general), night life, cultural places...
Disadvantages: Not to come..

...Spain is the second biggest touristic destination in the world, just in the last year we received 40 million people (the same amount that the Spanish population), most of them came in summer attracted by the good beaches and climate, but there’s much more in Spain that I will write about. I will try to do a virtual walk around all the states (called autonomic communities), with a special importance for those which are the most touristic. Spain is divided in 17 autonomic communities that also are divided in provinces. This are the communities starting from the north-west to the south and later the islands. GALICIA It is the community where the rains are more often, but during the summer, it is possible to enjoy the beaches (which in my opinion are worse that the ones of the south), and many cultural places. Santiago de... Read review

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Advantages: See first review
Disadvantages: See first review

.... The scenery got lovelier and lovelier and as we ascended and then we came across a huge area of burnt-out vegetation. It was colossal, just as we had seen on the way down to Spain, like winter had drawn in, but there alone. The tour lady told us that all year round, Catalonia has these beautiful green mountains because the trees on them are generally pine trees and so they are evergreens, but here, everything was burnt out dark brown and black. The authorities believe that 90% of such fires are started deliberately and, as she thoughtfully remarked, it is sad. We arrived in Rupit after about two hours on the coach. Not long beforehand we passed its little sister village, Pruit, which you will note has the same letters, but a different order; sweet, isn’t it? Well, Rupit was founded in the late 10th Century and has artefacts dating from then... Read review

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Advantages: lots of sun
Disadvantages: coming home

...and sophisticated. Do not expect clothing to be cheap, as this is a richer part of Spain. Also down near the Marina you will find down one of the side streets a Sex Shop but beware the videos are dubbed over in Spanish ruining the whole affect, plus weird old guys going into the video booths. So you want to go out in Alicante for nightlife, well its good place to be as Alicante has a very large student population which creates a mixture of people to meet. Most people hit the Tapas bars around 8pm onwards, at midnight they move on into town for drinks at the many bars. The bars are all close together, you will find them near the marina and are free to enter. You will find the drinks filled plentiful and cheap in comparison to England. You will find that you will be offered drugs in Alicante as this is the main port where most of the Cannabis... Read review

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