# Southern Alicante - my impressions!



## Sirtravelot (Jul 20, 2011)

Heya!

We finally got here and after few days I'm ready to share what I think!

First of all, I've never seen so many houses at once. *Some areas, as far as the eye can see, are full of houses.* It's like a sea of houses! You get a headache just looking into the distance! How many are bought? How many are sold? How many empty? How many are holiday homes? I'm not sure I want to know the truth.

Heck, they aren't even nice houses. They all look the same. It's like little boxes that all look the same. But the best of it all?* THEY ARE STILL BUILDING!!*

You go down one street and see mid-constructed houses which have been abandoned, and then you walk 2 more minutes and you see a stack of houses being built. *How's that possible?* 

Hell, every second shop here is an estate agent catering to one nationality or another. I don't know how many cars I have seen with estate agent advertisements. -_-

Also, lots and lots of nationalities here. Spanish, British, German, Irish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Russian. Quite a lot of Russian I think. I don't mind this much, all these people have money which they spend and keep the economy going. Take them away, and everything would descend into utter chaos.

For example, they just built this brand new shopping centre called La Zenia Boulevard. It's got a good mix of nationalities there, and there is money flowing about but I wonder how long it'll take until those shops start closing. *Right near there they are also STILL building houses.* It boggles the mind.

Anyway, not sure if I love it here. *We wanna take a drive up to Denia and Javea to have a look at that corner of Spain. However, for people who live there, has there been as much house building as down here? *I'm really not too fond of these McSpanishHouses that you see stacked everywhere. 

There's a serious lack of actual Spanish flare here, but I'd have to sacrifice that if I want to work as an optom among that age group. I'm really just looking for a good mix of nationalities, specifically British, Spanish and German.

We know Spain has plenty of problems. I read into it nearly every day and I am very cautious. But would I still trade the lifestyle for Scotland? So far, yes!

Also, we had a quick drive through Torrevieja. I couldn't wait to get out of there!


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Sirtravelot said:


> Heya!
> 
> We finally got here and after few days I'm ready to share what I think!
> 
> ...


there hasn't been any proper building in Jávea for several years - there's the odd individual project but no 'urbs' - & yes, there are some not quite finished because the builder ran out of money - & some which are finished but are 90 % empty


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Sirtravelot said:


> Heya!
> 
> We finally got here and after few days I'm ready to share what I think!
> 
> ...


Yes, some places on the East coast are like that and the natural beauty of a lot of places has been lost for ever. But it also has to be said that some of those places were just scrubland to statr with.
I am surprised to hear that building is still going on though. There have been a few big projects in Madrid, like out of town shopping centres (which are hugely popular, but actually only take clients away from the nearby towns where shops are closing down in...) and a huge residential area near the Real Madrid training ground for example.
There are places that aren't so built up that you'll find too - Torrevieja and Orihuela not being two of them. I can't give you place names, but if you look a little inland you'll stand more chance of getting away from large purpose built urbanizaciones.
Nice hear from you now that you're here. Keep on telling what you find, and what you think of it!


----------



## Sirtravelot (Jul 20, 2011)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Yes, some places on the East coast are like that and the natural beauty of a lot of places has been lost for ever. But it also has to be said that some of those places were just scrubland to statr with.
> I am surprised to hear that building is still going on though. There have been a few big projects in Madrid, like out of town shopping centres (which are hugely popular, but actually only take clients away from the nearby towns where shops are closing down in...) and a huge residential area near the Real Madrid training ground for example.
> There are places that aren't so built up that you'll find too - Torrevieja and Orihuela not being two of them. I can't give you place names, but if you look a little inland you'll stand more chance of getting away from large purpose built urbanizaciones.
> Nice hear from you now that you're here. Keep on telling what you find, and what you think of it!


We actually thought of going a little bit inland towards Villamartin. Our thought was that, by going inland, maybe we'd find some Spanish pockets. NOPE! We'll try a bit farther tomorrow towards Quesada. And thanks, I'll keep this updated! We're here for 3 weeks.



xabiachica said:


> there hasn't been any proper building in Jávea for several years - there's the odd individual project but* no 'urbs'* - & yes, there are some not quite finished because the builder ran out of money - & some which are finished but are 90 % empty


Thank god!


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Sirtravelot said:


> We actually thought of going a little bit inland towards Villamartin. Our thought was that, by going inland, maybe we'd find some Spanish pockets. NOPE! We'll try a bit farther tomorrow towards Quesada. And thanks, I'll keep this updated! We're here for 3 weeks.


Nothing like seeing it for yourself, is there?!


----------



## Sirtravelot (Jul 20, 2011)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Nothing like seeing it for yourself, is there?!



Seeing is believing! 


Also, it amazes us how cheap things are. It's not THAT cheap, but nowhere in Scotland can you eat out for a good meal under 20 euros with drinks included. Plus the sun. Plus the warmth.


----------



## Lolito (Aug 25, 2012)

If you are coming north from Alicante, you have to visit, the south of Valencia, just a couple of miles north of Denia and voila! you are in Valencia area! - Visit Oliva, Gandia, Xeraco, Tavernes, all on the coast and within 30 miles. Maybe you should visit Valencia City too, it is just about 1 hour 20 mins from Denia, or even less.


----------



## Sirtravelot (Jul 20, 2011)

Lolito said:


> If you are coming north from Alicante, you have to visit, the south of Valencia, just a couple of miles north of Denia and voila! you are in Valencia area! - Visit Oliva, Gandia, Xeraco, Tavernes, all on the coast and within 30 miles. Maybe you should visit Valencia City too, it is just about 1 hour 20 mins from Denia, or even less.



Yeah! We're gonna have to see how we do. We're thinking of possibly spending night or two in Denia or Javea to have a decent look around. We checked out Google Maps and it says it's only 1 hour and 45 minutes from where we are. And only 1 hour and 13 minutes to Benidorm! Not that we want to linger there, however.


----------



## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

You've got to come down the coast southwards past San Javier before you will find far less built up areas.
Benidorm is not as bad as you would think , especially If you go in the old town. First time I had to go there I was absolutely dreading it but was pleasantly surprised. Obviously it is better out of the main holiday season.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

I visited Alicante, Torrevieja and Orihuela in the 1960s when I was a student travelling around Spain. Alicante was a smallish, sedate little town, Orihuela was old and crumbling, very Spanish and Torrevieja was just a village, really. Very pretty.

About twelve years ago my son and dil were travelling around Spain looking for somewhere to buy a house. They made a brief visit to Alicante where they said they found it difficult to find a good restaurant but easy to find burger bars, fried chicken establishments and fish and chip shops. They also visited several places in that area including Torrevieja and Orihuela but the area as a whole was not to their taste, being too developed with a high proportion of immigrants which gave an impression of Blackpool on heat. They eventually settled on a uniquely quiet stretch of the CdS near Estepona, in a village where we now live.

That does not mean that there is anything 'wrong' with these places or that they are 'not Spanish'. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of people live there or visit and obviously are happy there. When I see photos of these places though I can't help thinking how lovely and unspoilt they once were. Spain has changed beyond belief in fifty years. We saw Benidorm being built!! I remember visiting a deserted Alhambra....no queues, hardly any visitors. We saw notices on beaches detailing the dimensions of swimwear permissible and on one beach a little old man sitting on a chair beside the notice with a tape measure. 
In some villages in central Spain women seemed invisible. I remember old men sitting in the shade in a village square jeering and clapping as I got into the driving seat of our car.
I also remember being stopped and arrested by Guardia Civil near Ciudad Real. They said I was driving dangerously which I wasn't and we had to follow them to the police station where I was kept in a room until a large fine was paid. When I was released and went to sit in the driving seat of our car my then husband took the keys at which a Guardia officer said 'Is better woman no drive'. I opened my mouth to make a tart reply but found my husband's hand clamped over it. We had already paid over nearly all our cash as a fine for my 'dangerous driving'.
We had to cut our trip short and head for home. All the way I had an urge to write 'Franco is a ****' on all white surfaces.
WE later found there had been a flare-up over Gibraltar at that time and wondered if that had anything to do with what happened.


----------



## Sirtravelot (Jul 20, 2011)

mrypg9 said:


> I visited Alicante, Torrevieja and Orihuela in the 1960s when I was a student travelling around Spain. Alicante was a smallish, sedate little town, Orihuela was old and crumbling, very Spanish and Torrevieja was just a village, really. Very pretty.
> 
> About twelve years ago my son and dil were travelling around Spain looking for somewhere to buy a house. They made a brief visit to Alicante where they said they found it difficult to find a good restaurant but easy to find burger bars, fried chicken establishments and fish and chip shops. They also visited several places in that area including Torrevieja and Orihuela but the area as a whole was not to their taste, being too developed with a high proportion of immigrants which gave an impression of Blackpool on heat. They eventually settled on a uniquely quiet stretch of the CdS near Estepona, in a village where we now live.
> 
> ...




Sounds like Portugal a bit. When my mother met with my father in their teens they had the police following them during the night in a car, checking up on what they were up to! My mom/mum even caused a car accident as she crossed the road while wearing jeans. Imagine that!

OK, another update: We went a little more inland to a place called Cuidad Quesada. It was much nicer, mainly because it wasn't quite as boringly set up. At least it had a bit of a main street! Also, it had a good mix of nationalities, but it was heavier on Norwegians since they even had a Norwegian academy as you got inside. 

However, every second shop was an estate agent. And in fact, some of those estate agencies were for sale! Life's little ironies.

So we went into one of the estate agencies to see what it was like. Now you got to imagine, this is the most established looking agency on the street and the walls are plastered with standard sized papers of houses for sale. The man who we talked to was very calm and relaxed. We told him what we were looking for and he showed us their portfolio. In all this he was very relaxed. He also mentioned that they were still building and that a new modern house could be built for us in less than a year. So, so calm. Never mind the burning building! 

To be honest, at this moment, I'm looking forward to checking out the northern bits of Alicante. However, if that doesn't do it, I think I'll have to give Mallorca a look.

Again, like you say, this place isn't bad. If it was then not so many people would live here, but I'm not sure if we would not want something "more". We had a talk and figured we like to be able to go "somewhere" every second weekend or so. When we used to live in Portugal we'd take a ride to the more international west coast or take a wee trip to Lisbon. I think I see some similarities there between Mallorca and Palma de Mallorca.


----------



## Navas (Sep 2, 2012)

mrypg9 said:


> When I see photos of these places though I can't help thinking how lovely and unspoilt they once were. Spain has changed beyond belief in fifty years. We saw Benidorm being built!!


I went with my parents to Benidorm in 1962. In my memory there was a line of new hotels (more being built, I think) along the front and the old town. Some friends of my parents had just retired there and my parents were curious to see it. It was so quiet, we thought that Benidorm probably did mean "Come and sleep!" We never went back. A few years ago we drove past and were horrified at all the high-rises. Not my kind of place at all.


----------



## Guest (May 9, 2013)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Nothing like seeing it for yourself, is there?!


Nope, and this is a lesson every potential immigrant should have engraved on their forehead. We went down this coast, fully intending to buy something, and hated it from day 1 apart from one place. Just not our thing, though others are obviously very happy here. To be fair, it was high summer and possibly the worst possible time to visit. On our next trip we went to Catalunya which we'd previously ruled out because we didn't want to have to learn Catalan. We fell in love with the area and actually found Catalan easier to understand than Spanish - We will probably end up there. At the moment we're in Andalucia, a place my husband had so low on our list of places to visit that it was being spoken of as one to see once we were already settled, on the grounds of high temps. He is now superglued here, with all talk of moving on forgotten, and it's coming a close second to Catalunya. The lesson is that preconceived ideas are meaningless unless you already know the area well. Our hours poring over Google images were wasted. You have to see it for yourself, as Pesky so rightly says. We'd heard about those endless blocks of flats down the east coast but seeing them had an impact we hadn't expected.


----------



## Sirtravelot (Jul 20, 2011)

meetloaf said:


> Nope, and this is a lesson every potential immigrant should have engraved on their forehead. We went down this coast, fully intending to buy something, and hated it from day 1 apart from one place. Just not our thing, though others are obviously very happy here. To be fair, it was high summer and possibly the worst possible time to visit. On our next trip we went to Catalunya which we'd previously ruled out because we didn't want to have to learn Catalan. We fell in love with the area and actually found Catalan easier to understand than Spanish - We will probably end up there. At the moment we're in Andalucia, a place my husband had so low on our list of places to visit that it was being spoken of as one to see once we were already settled, on the grounds of high temps. He is now superglued here, with all talk of moving on forgotten, and it's coming a close second to Catalunya. The lesson is that preconceived ideas are meaningless unless you already know the area well. Our hours poring over Google images were wasted. You have to see it for yourself, as Pesky so rightly says. We'd heard about those endless blocks of flats down the east coast but seeing them had an impact we hadn't expected.



That is exactly what I am on about!

I can appreciate people living here, people do seem happy here and people are nice here, but to me it's too much of a mall culture and nothing is truly Spanish. 

Ok, another update: I went to a certain kind of British store that sells glasses whose name must not be named *coughit'sverygreencough* and was told my chances for a job were not bad at all! Especially, or because, of my the four languages that I speak. The Spanish owner of the place was very nice and gave me tremendous advice on how to go from here. Guys, I am very buzzed and excited! I'll be sleeping much better, I tell you now! 

I actually feel like Spain has become more of a reality than a dream. I realize it's still going to be difficult, but I feel like I'm seeing some sort of light at the end of a long tunnel. Now it's a question of WHERE in Spain.


----------



## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

We just got back from spending a week around Alicante(the town) so we could find a rental property, we didn't really see much of the city itself just drove through a couple of times but we used the northern end of El Campello as a base and all in all enjoyed it but I can certainly see many of the observations you have made, for anyone who knows the area we stayed was the next part up from Coveta Fuma.
I don't know we went only as far south as Elche and Santa Pola so maybe you were further south?

Still our impressions of the area we had the villa in was it was very quiet, surely 50% of the places were empty but our villa was nice and well detached so it wouldn't of mattered if people lived next door. It was definitely a holiday area and I imagine in peak time it would be my idea of hell but we weren't looking to live there so that wasn't a problem.

The other areas we looked around were very nice at times but still had the urb feeling, some we would steer well clear of and others came into consideration as a place we could spend a bit of time in. As far as construction we saw plenty of half built places but no work was actually being done on them. You mentioned a lack of Spanish flare and we commented on the same thing, my wife(who is French) said it's very Cote d'Azur in the way that it might as well be any place and for me it reminded me of the Gold Coast in Queensland just a touch. But hey, that's the area and we knew that before we went.

Agents? Well they are a bit of a nightmare, sure they are everywhere but getting them to do anything constructive is the real challenge. OK we had a only week but found that they wouldn't keep appointments, create new appointments without confirmation, want you to see places you have no interest in and are just downright slack. 
Although the English agents and private sellers are a delight to deal with.

It's funny you mention further North again, I believe the properties available up there are amazing but it's just too far for us as we don't have the luxury of being able to choose too far from work so have to stay within a reasonable commute of Alicante.
We did however manage to find a property that we would like to rent which is pending atm, it's a compromise for sure and it was always going to be with so little notice but it will serve us well for a year or so until we can find a place more to our liking place to buy. That said the places we found and looked at are all amazingly good value for money compared to what we can find here.


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Very interesting reading this thread for me, so thanks to all. I don't know the south of Spain very well (have been to quite a few parts, but briefly, and some of them many years ago), but recently as some of you will know I've been on a couple of visits to Orihuela and Torrevieja. I also went there a few years ago with my parents, and I don't think I'd have believed it if I hadn't seen it. The expanse of buildings everywhere is incredible. Another thing that left an impression on me was the huge areas of plastic where lots of vegetables are force fed with chemicals so they can end up in our salads - :hungry:


----------

