Alicanteos

The word Denia come from the goddess Diana (also as Artemis for the Greek, goddess of the hunt). The city has Roman origin and was dedicated to that goddess.
Denia is located 20 Kms from the sea, the city is known to be a good holiday resort where visitors can practices sports such as sailing, Windsurfing, Diving, Fishing, Tennis, Golf (18 hole), Riding, Hiking, Biking, Karting. Historic monument includes The Castle of Dénia, Church and Convent “San Antonio” and a few museums.
From Denia you can take the ferry to visit the Balearic island, there is also a special railway line(Limón Express) that link Denia to Alicante. The city of Valencia is also not too far away from Denia less than 30 minutes of driving.

If you love nature the natural park of Montgo is a must see. Montgo is establish on the territory of Denia and Javea almost parallel with the coast line, the highest point reaches the altitude of 753 M. There is rich a flora with more than 600 species with many of them being endemics. Denia has a speciality for fishes and seafood , One of its most popular specialty is the gamba roja (red shrimps), popular restaurants are El poblet , El Pegoli, Drassanes.

Denia has 39,000 inhabitants (as of 2004) and a fair share of British and German ex-pats. Like many places on the Costa Blanca , Denia is in real estate boom, there are an estimate 40,000 apartements to let for holidays. Many new development of villa, duplex and appartements also take place in Denia. Unlike some other city Denia is not phantom during the winter. If you are interested to settle there, I encourage you to visit the city during December or January. You will see the real Denia with less tourists but still many foreigners. There is an English school around in the town of Javea for student between 7 and 11 years old. The programme is based on the British National Curriculum. More info at http://www.firsprimary.com/educ.htm

In that desert area Elche is a real oasis you will understand that statement when you will be in the Palmeral of Elche (listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage List) on a surface of 507′4 ha (5.074.193 m2). The Palmeral is definitively the landmark of this place. This is a very green city with 12,39 m2 per inhabitants they are so much park and green space there, that make Elche a very pleasant environment to live and may be work. Elche has close to 167,000 inhabitant this is the biggest city of the area with Alicante ( 318,000 inhabitants).

Elche is a very cultural city. They are a lot of things to do there even if you are not a tourist and live there on permanent basis , Elche has various festivals such as el Festival Internacional de Teatro y Música Medieval(Festival international of theater and medieval music), Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Elche (Festival international of independent films)and the Festival Internacional de la Oralidad. The excellent climate (average : 17 °C during the winter and 26 °C during the summer) of the area make it possible to practice outdoor all the time during the year. They are infrastructure to practice football, rugby, athletic, climbing and roller-staking . The various natural parks, the zoo, the museums, the antiques buildings and the calm and peaceful atmosphere make of Elche a pleasant place to live. If you speak Spanish you have more chance to find a job there. In fact, I have a few British friends working in Elche.

Elche has it own industrial area (Elche Parque Industrial ) with more than 80 companies, job seekers may consider to apply to one of those companies , the list is available at http://www.elcheparqueindustrial.com/index_in.asp. Shoes making, construction, tourism, agriculture are the sectors that work well in Elche.

If you want to settle in the expat community Elche may not be for you. It is very necessary to speak Spanish there, but then Elche has it advantage cheaper price for to buy or rent a house or flat, job opportunity, well located near Alicante airport and the various freeways, good infrastructure and of course, Elche is the so researched real Spain.

Located 92 Km from Alicante , Javea-Xàbia has 18,753 inhabitants. The town has some interesting monuments such as the San Bartolomé’s church of gothic style, it was built in 16th century by Domingo Urteaga, there are also the old military towers built in the 14th century. Javea- Xàbia enjoy en excellent climate located near the natural park of Montgo and deserved by a railway line (Limon Express) that link Denia- Javea and Alicante and some other cities on the coast line.

Large and spacious villa is common in Javea/Xabia, this situation tend to attract rich expats from all part of Europe. Properties prices for a villa with seaview are between 600,000 Euro and 1,200,000 euro, without a seaview more inland villas are between 300,000 Euro and 500,000 euro, but it is still possible to find cheaper house in the new development market. Some neighborhood of Javea seem entirely new and some seems older in fact the center of the town is older classic Spanish architecture but the closer you are from the sea, the newer the building are. Even some entire streets seem to only be populate by newly build houses and apartments. Hopefully, they are not tall building in Javea that’s the difference with town like Benidorm and Calpe. Even if there are new construction they respect a certain style.

Ondara’s bullring in the avenue Dr. Fleming is what made Ondara a famous town has most notable bullfighters performed there. Nowadays, Ondara organize another varitiey of game involving bulls but this time they aren’t hurt. The game involves picking flowers from the bull’s ears, running across the ring wearing a rubber tyre and fishing eels out of a bucket, all without touching or being caught by the bull.
The animals will wear rubber balls on their horns to avoid any injuries. But La tauromaquia (bullfighting) is still the main fiesta.

Ondara has affection for bulls as you can see. When the bullring was destroyed during
the Civil War it was later rebuilt in 1957 as this city is definitely a matador heaven. This is also demonstrated by the Plaza de Toros built in 1801. Ondara is located 16 Km inland from the coast near Denia and Benidoleig in the mountainous Marina Alta.
If you love hiking and sport related to mountains the area is worth a visit and consideration. The town is adding facilities for people who which to practice climbing. They are also improving the lodging capacity.

There are not a lot of foreign tourists in this town of 5,511 inhabitants. This is the real Spain with all the tradition that you have better to respect or adopt if you want to have good relationship with the locals. Ondara’s economy is based on services and trade. They have a lot good restaurants with more than 20 different type of Tapas.

The real estate market in Ondara is dynamic with offers for flat, apartment, villa. Prices are in the average of the Costa Blanca , around 130-170,000 Euro for apartment with 3 bedrooms (annual price rise is 9 %).

Orihuela (Oriola)

Orihuela has 54,000 inhabitants (as of 2004), located inland 54 km from Alicante and 15 km from Murcia, Orihuela is in the south of the Alicante’s province. An ideal location for traveler because they have the choice between Murcia Airport (15 minutes by car) and Alicante airport (40 minutes by car).
Orihuela is one of the most if not the most monumental city of the province. The river Segura crosses the city doing good (for the agriculture) and bad (floods) for the population. Orihuela is the most monumental city of the province of Alicante, the street of Orihuela have churches, palaces, museums , this is an authentic art show off.
Even the office of tourism is located in the Palace of Marqués de Rubalcava building of neo-baroque style a large part of building is open to visitors. In the same building you can find the Museum of Reconquest , dedicated to the celebration Moors and Christians.
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Located in the south of the province of Alicante Torrevieja has 82,000 inhabitant (from 144 countries, only 43,000 Spaniards ) and is distant of 48 Km from Alicante capital. Traditionally, Torrevieja was known for its salt mines, the city export between 700,000 and 1 million tons of salt and is the biggest European exporter.
Except from the salt mines there are in Torrevieja many things to enjoy such as El Parque Naturale de Las Lagunas de La Mata y Torrevieja (Nature Park of the Lagoons of La Mata and Torrevieja) , nature lovers will be amazed by this place with more than 100 different species of birds and the rich botanic taking place there. Near Torrevieja they are 5 greenlands golf courses of quality. Being a coastal city Torrevieja has its beaches (5 of them) surrounded of flamingos, no doubt, Torrevieja is also known to be a very appreciated holiday resort with more than 2 millions visitors per year, the city is the facto an expats heaven. You will not be surprise to learn that the main economic activity of the city is the tourism. Tourists come from Spain itself, northern Europe, Ireland, United Kingdom and Eastern Europe. Torrevieja is well equipped to receive large number of tourists with more than 70,000 holiday residences and more than 2,700 bed in hotels. Tourism activity reach a peak during Easter and the summer, the rest of the year, the city is more or less empty. Which is good if you want to live in peace.

Torrevieja can be a good place for retirement they are many development projects there. The offer for new or resale property is abundant. The area is also good to buy a house that you can rent to tourist at good price. Working in Torrevieja can be more difficult unless you have your own business, all jobs seems to be connected to tourism, real estate, home construction and salt extraction.

Villajoyosa , the happy town

27,000 inhabitants (as of 2004) located 32 km’s from Alicante and 10 km’s from Benidorm . Villajoyosa is known to be a port and a specialist in Chocolate. The tradition of chocolate making has its origin in the cacao trade with Venezuela and Ecuador.
The town has even its own chocolate museum this says a lot.

La fabrica de Chocolate Clavileño is a chocolate factory open to public for visit. Located outside the town in direction of Benidorm (road: N 332).

In order to see their houses from the see, the inhabitants painted their houses in vivid colours, yellow, blue, green. You can see those houses specific to Villajosoya in the neighbor of Arsenal , you will notice a wall built in ancient time to protect the town against invader. The port of Villajoyosa was important in the past.

Villajoyosa has 12 km’s of beach with the beach of Parais ( the favourite of the windsurfing lovers), playa del centro , which is a blue flag beach ,finally the playa Torres located near the roman tower of Sant Josep. There are other beaches one for the nudists at Raco Del Conill. All of those beaches have in common to be quiet place. Except may be the 28th july when they are celebrating the Moor and Christians with many people for other cities coming in Villajoyosa to assist the celebration. The celebration take place on the beaches. A trip with the Lemon Express Train will make you enjoy the views of the area.

The well kept museum of archeology of Villajoyosa (Situated in Calle Barranquet, Esquina Constitucion) has a collection of ancient objects Iberic and Roman, there are also a collection of objects about chocolate making and culture. There is a piece dating back 2600 years an Egyptian water jug. Perpendicular to the river Amadorio , the Colon Street a place where you can walk during the week end and making some shopping from there you can visit and the beautiful College of Doctor Alvaro Esquerdo, built in 1929.

Located 27 KM in the south of Alicante, La marina is an urbanization divided in 2 part one is typically called La marina village and he is near the sea. The second part is just called La marina , this is where most expat live, located to 3 KM from La marina village and the sea.

La marina population is mostly expats with a large ratio of Brits and Germans. Most shops are either owned by Brits or Germans, I do not remember a shop owned by a Spaniard in this part of La marina except the supermarket chains. La marina is a sort of England under the sun.
You can go to a newsagent and buy your regular british magazines or newspapers. If you rent a house there, chance is that the house will be furnished with at TV and a subscription to the BskyB sat tv network. Most people seem over 50 and retired, they are virtually no job opportunity unless the possibility to start your own shop or pub. Most jobs are in the city near by such as Elche (16 km) and Alicante (27 Km), it is recommend to have a car to live in La marina with one bus every 1h30, it is difficult to count on that transport mean. But taxi are available in abundance at the price of 1 euro per kilometer.
La marina enjoy all facilities to make the life of his inhabitants easier, they are hospitals, shopping mall, brit takeaway, supermarkets (with brits products), banks, car hire services. They are a few restaurants. The atmosphere in La marina is calm and peaceful. La marina village near the sea is also very quiet and calm, in the village you have a school and more shops owned by Spaniard this time.
They are a few ceramics business in the area. Near La marina beach there is a camping. One of particularity of La marina beach is to have dunes. It is nice to have a walk there and listen to the sound of locusts.

They are one school in La marina village and it is also the place where you can take the bus for Alicante or Torrevieja. They are 25 to 30 minutes of walk between La marina village and the other side la Urbanization La marina. In the Urbanization you can take bus for Elche and the near by villages such as San Fulgencio.

CATRAL

More inland located a few kilometer away from la Urbanisation is Catral a small Spanish village in real spain with almost no expat. Catral is very peaceful place surrounded by hills and deserts, you can feel an energy from the place. At least it raises some emotions , some people will not support such closeness to the nature, but then if you want to buy a very cheap house in the Alicante area, Catral is may be the the place not to miss.