The Birthday Diary

Tuesday 26th June 2018

Tuesday, my birthday! Instead of trying completely new places, we decided to revisit some of my favourites, with the exception of the beach.

I woke up to Feliz Cumpleaños banners scattered around the apartment and my cards ready to be opened. I won’t scare you with the photos of me opening them, I’ve definitely looked better…

After breakfast, we were ready to go.

First Stop – Guadalest

Guadalest truly deserves its title as being one of the prettiest villages in Spain. I don’t think there are many people who haven’t heard of Guadalest when coming to the Costa Blanca. It’s one of those villages that people just know.

When you’re travelling up the long and winding roads, it seems much further than the mere 20km that it is from Benidorm. It’s hard to imagine that this route used to only be accessible on a donkey. Can you imagine!?

Guadalest is simply a beautiful village. Overlooking the valley of the River Guadalest and surrounded by mountain ranges, such as Sierra de Aitana, it really proves its worth. Guadalest only has 300 permanent residents, it’s hard to comprehend when you’re walking around and there are evidently a lot more than 300. The village really does come to life with tourists.

The picturesque village has plenty of things to do, such as a drink in Plaza Gregori, or spoil yourselves with all of the museums they have to offer.

We enjoyed walking around the village and admiring the crystal blue water, that definitely looked fuller than the last time we saw it!

Second Stop – Campomanes

This beautiful harbour has been one of my favourite places. When we won’t have a car anymore, it won’t be as easily accessible, so I wanted to spend a bit more time here and take a dip in the sea and try out the beach that we didn’t get to go on before!

We stopped off at Campomanes to have some lunch on the beach. We did attempt to go to  Bay Club Altea for a cocktail to celebrate my birthday, but with the staff ignoring us for 30 minutes, we headed off to Lounge Bar Macao where we had a lovely drink overlooking the harbour.

More about Campomanes can be found here: The Birthday Diary // Greenwich Marina and Moraira

Third Stop – Playa El Xarco

The dog beach in Villajoyosa is much nicer than the one in Altea. If you have a dog and you’re wanting to find somewhere to sunbathe and play in the sea with your four-legged friend, then this is the one!

Playa El Xarco is a pebble beach, so come prepared with chairs and umbrella. It’s a beautiful cove with a tower to the right.

The journey down isn’t the easiest and it takes ignoring the signs because they don’t take you there! You have to go past the sign that says turn right and head further down, then you turn right and head downwards.

This beach is also patrolled by local police, so it’s essential you take your pet passport, ensure your dog is chipped, that they have a lead and that if your dog needs a muzzle, it’s wearing its muzzle. 

The police are ensuring that the dogs there are safe to be roaming around, not causing disturbance to other users of the beach, and for general safety for yourselves and other dogs. The police were really friendly and allowed dogs to be off lead running between the sea and the owners.

We had a better time at this beach and were able to lay on the pebbles and relax. Unlike in Altea, where the woodchippings were pretty uncomfortable and kept getting stuck in my feet! It’s recommended at both to wear swimming shoes.

Overall, I had a lovely birthday. It even finished with our guest singing Happy Birthday to me in Norweigan, so there’s a first!

Now my birthday has passed, this doesn’t end yet! We’ll still be discovering new places for a little while more yet!

Hasta luego,