Moraira & Nearby Towns, Costa Blanca, Spain

              

MORAIRA

Forty years ago, Moraira was a cluster of old houses, a small fishing community with a little church sitting next to the sea, and backed by beautiful mountains. Now it has a new role in life, but still retains the attractive features of its recent past. Slowly it has changed to become an attractive holiday resort, still simple in its appearance, a haven of peace, a mixture of old narrow streets at its heart enclosed by new streets furnished with attractive gardens and fountains. It will suit in particular those travellers looking for beauty, peace and tranquility, but it still has a lively night time scene without being a "Benidorm" type of resort.

           

Moraira now justifiably lives up to it's reputation as the "St. Tropez" of Spain. Two main reasons for this is that there are no buildings over 5 storeys allowed to be built, and this means there are no high-rise hotels and therefore no mass tourism. Secondly, the climate in the area is named as one of the top three most equitable climates in the world by the World Health Authority. Good quality shops, reasonably priced bars and restaurants are the ‘norm’. All three beaches in town are EEC Blue Flag approved, and offer a combination of lovely sand with many snorkelling opportunities. The beautiful beaches and promenades are amongst the prettiest to be found along the coast, and a Daily Mail article has named El Portet beach as the most beautiful on the east coast of Spain. Facilities devoted to walking, sailing, sub aqua, karting, golf and horse-riding offer sport and entertainment in and around the town, and the Friday market is a must. For the kids there is a permanent funfair.

             

The name Moraira is derived from the Arabic for Moorish princess, and in June each year the Moors and Christians Fiesta takes place during which a magnificent parade of Moorish and Christian groups vie for superiority, marching, dancing and riding through the streets dressed in wonderful, colourful costumes urged on by bands playing rousing and exotic music. There are many other "free" festivals during the summer season, street concerts, etc, designed for the discerning tourist. Click on "useful links" at the top of the page, and then on the "Teulada-Moraira" website for more details and timings of the many festivals.

      

 

WANT TO SEE MORE PICTURES OF MORAIRA?   CLICK >>>HERE FOR MORE

WANT TO SEE VIDEO'S OF MORAIRA?  CLICK >>>HERE  This takes you to the website of a famous local architect and builder but it's worth watching the four short video's to get a feel for Moraira AND to see houses in the "Villa Sol" style

 

JALON

Jalon is the main town in the Val de Pop, popularly known as the Jalon Valley, which is still largely agricultural and very rural. It is a beautiful setting, with a highly fertile valley bottom surrounded by beautiful mountains on both sides. It is situated only 15k or so inland from Moraira, and is easily accessible. The discerning visitor to the area thus has the choice of spectacular coast, beaches and Mediterranean; interspersed with the unspoilt beauty and grandeur of this wonderfully rugged rural area with mountains nearing 5000 ft high.

The valley has a well-earned reputation for the quality of its wines, and being very fertile produces in addition olives, almonds and a variety of citrus fruits as well as honey. Not surprisingly the town is a lively shopping centre selling local produce, particularly on market day, each Tuesday. Shops, bodegas, bars, and restaurants abound, including the famous "Allelulya" bar.

Every Saturday morning the promenade along the riverbank is the venue for a secondhand fair, ‘rastro’, which usually has on offer an intriguing mixture of potentially valuable antiques and interesting rubbish. Jalon is also a cultural centre in that it hosts a music festival, concerts, and a poetry competition, and is known as the Gateway to the Bernia, the beautiful mountain range, which separates the Jalon Valley from the coastal region around Altea.

As a centre for walking Jalon is excellent, and the tourist information office is a good source of information. The Costa Blanca Mountain Walkers have organised walks twice a week covering terrains of differing difficulties, and a temporary membership of this experienced and enthusiastic group only costs about 2 euro's.

Other Local Towns Worth a Visit    

VALENCIA is Spains third largest city, about 1hr 15 minutes from Moraira, and it's attractions deserve a large website all of it's own. Suffice to say it has many hundreds of wonderful buildings, some of which are World Heritage sites, all of which are "conveniently" gathered together in the marvellous Old Town. There are ultra modern harbour front developments; Europe's best indoor food market; the marvellous ultra modern buildings in the futuristic "City of Arts and Sciences" (above) which includes the sea life centre; a large program of improvement because of the "Americas Cup" yacht race in 2007, which will subsequently return to Valencia; a Primero League football club; a Formula 1 Grand prix in 2008 and 2009; and stunning bullring (whatever you think of bullfighting, the bullring is a lovely building!). As a destination city Valencia rivals even Barcelona and Madrid, and it's right on your doorstep whilst in Moraira!

Valencia is well known world wide for the FALLAS, an incredible week-long festival of fireworks, food and drink, and eventually the burning of hundreds of beautifully made bonfires - the bonfires are very expensive caricatures of politicians, singers, sportsmen, etc, in "Spitting Image" style and can cost hundreds of thousands of Euros to build - only to be burned down! This festival takes place in March.

CALPE is a lovely 7km coastal drive from Moraira, the road spectacularly hugging the contours of the Mediterranean all the way. Known for the "Ifach", a spectacular huge rock in a National Park that is Spain's second Gibraltar. Calpe has two lovely beaches each nearly a mile long, with wonderful sand. In addition apart from having a larger shopping centre than Moraira, it is known for it's inexpensive fish restaurants backing onto the Marina and fish quay.    

JAVEA is about 7km north of Moraira, and is split into three areas. At the southern end of the town is the Arunell beach area, a large stretch of golden sand in a beautiful bay that is a very lively spot - the beach is great for youngsters, and backing onto the beach are scores of bars, restaurants and shops. At night it gets even livelier!

The main town of Javea is a mile up the coast from the Arunell beach, and takes in the Marina, port, and the shopping centre, with lovely pebble beaches nearby. This is a dignified area.

Finally, and well worth a visit, is the old town of Javea,  2km or so inland from the port area but with lovely old narrow streets and some spectacular buildings all recently restored - the Church, Council House (Ajuntiamento), and the indoor fresh food market are the stars.

                                                                                                               ABOVE - A Valencia FALLAS figure being burnt

BENIDORM  deserves it's place on this page. Only 30 minutes drive from Moraira, it is everything that Moraira isn't - brash, mass tourism, unattractive in appearance with it's high rise buildings. BUT there is a real "buzz" to the place with it's two large sandy beaches, old town, "Brit" Bars, and cheap shops. In addition it has the Terra Mitica Theme Park, a kind of mini Euro Disney; Aquilandia, a very good water park; Mundomar, a marine "Sea World" park; and the Benidorm Palace, an inexpensive and well rated "Follie Bergeres" type dinner and show club for the adults evening entertainment.

ABOVE - Benidorm skyscrapers, beaches, and blue skies