NARCIS RETURNS TO THE BEACHES OF VALENCIA IN SPAIN

There must be a reason, I think, as to why I keep returning to the peninsular Mediterranean coast of Spain. I first came to this area because of a friend. I knew there were fine beaches but with I thought they were average, nothing to brag about. Actually I much preferred the little beach coves further north on the Costa Brava at first. In fact those are beautiful for sure, but in terms of sandy beaches, with the exception of the 30km or so 'riviera' to the north of Barcelona called Maresme, there are not many to be found. Here I attach a small map of Spain where one can see in red the Maresme area.

When I drove south about 400 kms and reached the Comunidad Valenciana, I was impressed by the width of the beaches there. Since I am a true believer in first impressions and I love when trade winds gently caress the surface of the sea making for long and slightly crested waves, when I reached the beaches near Gandia, I was immediately captivated by its beauty. It was a dry and hot day in July of two years ago when I reached the beaches between Cullera and Alicante, o the south of the City of Valencia. The sea was cresty, the wind was just right and the beaches were not crowded. Contrary to the Maresme where I had been the week before. Plus I like sand. Take a look at this beach:

Dont' you find it exceptional? As I am blogging about this area of Spain on BookBeach, I noticed that in their Wikibeach section of the best beaches in the world, they feature the beaches of Valencia. Just go here EUROPE WIKIBEACH and enter the search word "Valencia". In fact along the whole coastline there are tens of beaches amongst which many beautiful ones. I attach a map of the Valencia region here below to show where these beaches are. As with all of my trips, for me is very important to have a nice environment in terms of hospitality, efficiency and many other factors, most important of all the people. The people in Valencia are less preoccupied with issues of separatism as I have found in my stay in the Maresme. There, the Catalan question seems to permeate every conversation, from casual to serious. For a tourist this is not really involved in this, sometimes behaviors become odious and that's not conducive to a good holiday. In Valencia this is not perceived by the regular Joe as myself in the day to day of a foreigner. There are, however other issues, mostly in terms of efficiency. Everything here seems complicated and bureaucracy is at its maximum. I will talk more about this soon.