Mrs Eve Brady

Costa Blanca, Healthiest place in the world to live. (Source; W.H.O. 2000)

Guardamar Del Segura is situated on the 'White Coast of the Costa Blanca'...

Guardamar and the local surrounding area is known as the "Market Garden of Europe" and the gastronomic centre of Spain with its plentiful daily markets displaying a mouth-watering array of fresh fish, meats and every conceivable variety of fruit and vegetables.

The Southern Costa Blanca has the added benefits, which are recognised by the "World Health Organisation" as being one of the healthiest environments to live in Europe. The Guardamar climate makes it an ideal holiday location for year round holiday activities. Especially if you want to fulfil that yearning for a round of golf at Villamartin, while on holiday during those dreary winter months in the sun!

This fabulous area of Guardamar has safe white sandy beaches that seem to go on forever, most of them being proud to display the award winning Triple Blue Flag for cleanliness and safety.

Bustling Spanish fishing villages and towns such as Torrevieja, Benidorm and Plicate, numerous Marinas, an outstanding selection of championship Golf Clubs all add to the beauty of the region. The whole area is surrounded by orange and lemon groves with two central lakes one of which is home to Flamingos and wild migratory birds.

The Guardamar coast of the Costa Blanca is undoubtedly one of Europe's most attractive destinations when it comes to enjoying the sun and beaches in full contact with nature.

With the sun shining almost round (335 days a year) coupled with an enviable average temperature of 20ºc allows for all types of activities at any time. The natural landscape and parks also provide for trekking, horse-riding, bicycle riding or mountaineering.

Throughout history, the Iberians, Carthaginians, Romans and Muslims established important settlements in the lands, as corroborated by the many terraces scattered all over the province, and added to the colour and vibrancy the Costa Blanca is loved for.

Golfers Paradise...
situated close to Guardamar and Torrevieja are three major golf courses, Villamartin, Las Ramblas and Campccamor for golfing holidays. Villamartin golf course is considered to be one of the best courses on the Costa Blanca!

The players can enjoy a fully equipped network of courses with unsurpassed facilities, and more importantly, in an enviable climate with temperatures ranging on average from 11ºc in January to 27ºc in August. This fact, coupled with the very few days of rain in the year (30) has ensured it has become one of Europe's top golfing destinations, especially in the winter. The courses designed by prestigious golfers like the Spanish champions Severiano Ballesteros or José María Olazabal. Golf can be played all over the Costa Blanca coastline and is enjoyable for both low and high handicap players.

Local Golf Courses...
Villamartin Golf Club Ctra. Alicante-Cartagena Km 50. Tele: (0034) 96 676 51 60 . Fax 96 676 51 58

Las Ramblas Golf Club Ctra. Alicante-Cartagena Km 48.Tele: (0034) 96 532 20 11 . Fax 96 532 21 59

Campccamor Golf Club. Ctra. Cartagena-Alicante Km 48.Tele: (0034) 96 532 13 66. Fax 96 512 24 54

Sports and free time...
the Guardamar coast of the Costa Blanca offers endless opportunities to practice water sports, from sailing to surfing, from SCUBA diving to fishing. A great deal of the water sports in the area are organised by local Guardamar nautical clubs and marinas, most of them very efficiently organised competitions, initiation and advanced courses to improve competence. We cannot mention sports without mentioning the Spanish love for their horses, and many stables abound for pony trekking and more arduous rides.

A Place to Live...
the summers in Guardamar are hot and dry while the winters are very mild. The winter sun is beneficial to calming the aches and pains associated with wet and cold climates. During the winter the Guardamar average temperature is 18ºc (64ºf) and during the summer it rises to 30ºc (86ºf). Couple this with only 30 days of rain each year, and you have the perfect place to live permanently or just spend the winter months.

Guardamar Del Segura...
is nestled between the old town of Guardamar and the beach lies the enormous 'Queen Sophia' park, thick with trees and plants where visitors can enjoy cool refreshing walks even on the hottest days. To enhance the natural surroundings, ponds, botanical tours and samples of aquatic fauna have been added. However, the dune area, formed by sediments from the mouth of the Segura River, is the unique part of this town, as wave and tidal deposits created these dunes over many centuries. More than 800 hectares of coastal parkland (Parquet natural) have carefully preserved the hundreds of monumental dunes when pine, palm and eucalyptus trees were planted at the beginning of the 20th century to prevent the dunes invading the urban area. The Guadamar Peurto Pinar Apartments are very close to the magnificent Parcuet Natural and beaches! Guardamar boasts eleven miles of dunes and beaches which give you the choice of isolated spots or the more frequented stretches to spend the day relaxing or just strolling along.

The ancient town of Guardamar del Segura was built on a hill whose skirts were washed by the Segura River. Still preserved there are the ruins of a castle and other historic remains from Hellenic times. On the Iberian site of Cabezó Lucero an important archaeological discovery was made when a bust of a woman was unearthed, it is now called the Dame of Guardamar, and is similar to the famous Dame of Elche. Another important archaeological site from the Arab times is the mosque of the Caliphate Rabita.

Tourist development in Guardamar Del Segura has been slow and sympathetic to the environment and the construction of a marina near the mouth of the Segura River has added a new attraction to this already select area.

The fields surrounding Guardamar are covered by citrus fruit orchards and fertile vegetable gardens, and the ancient settlement of nestles at the mouth of the Segura River. Guardamar is surrounded by rolling sand dunes planted with eucalyptus, palms and pines making its beaches amongst the best on the whole coast. The pine groves around the mouth of the river have become a park, in the middle of which you can visit a mosque unearthed from a deep blanket of sand. In the town itself are many fish restaurants specialising in the local langoustines (large prawns).

Torrevieja...
A short drive from Guardamar is Torrevieja, The City of Salt is primarily a tourist resort, but it's also a vibrant working town. The salt it extracts from the La Manta and Torrevieja salt flats now listed as a nature park dominates its history. The Torrevieja salt flats have a perimeter of 15 miles and are connected to the La manta lagoon. From the lagoon, the Acequión canal runs to the sea. Salt has been mined here since the middle ages, although the area saw its greatest glory during the 19th century. Salt from the lake is exported worldwide and production now exceeds a million tonnes a year.

Today in Torrevija are residential estates which have been sympathetically on the surround hills, but the salt flats have been preserved as parkland and is the home nesting area for thousands of flamingos. Visitors to the park include those who come to take mud baths reputed to have therapeutic value for skin conditions and aching joints.

Torrevieja means 'old tower' in Spanish and the basic attractions are sun, sand and salt. The redevelopment of the esplanade and the Port of Torrejar area has proven to be an enjoyable tourist attraction and the town has a large number of independent shops providing some interesting browsing and subsequent purchases. The town has a number of excellent beaches, Los Locos, El Cura and Los Naufragos; all have been awarded the coveted European Blue Flag standard for cleanliness and water quality.

Torrevieja's distinctive low-level houses and wide streets are a feature of its rebuilding following an earthquake although older buildings do remain including the remains of a Roman fort. With its beaches, sports facilities, restaurants, summer nightlife, port, promenade and all year around funfair it is a popular holiday destination, particularly with the Spanish themselves. Spanish music fans flock here in August for the Habanera festival - a celebration of the lilting music brought to the town by Cuban salt exporters in the 19th century.

La Manga and the Mar Menor...
Drive a little further from Guardamar and you will find the Mar Menor is separated from the Mediterranean from a thin strip of land about 13 miles long known as La Manga. This in turn has the effect of turning the Mar Menor into a large swimming pool with warm calm waters that rarely drop below 18 degrees centigrade, even in winter. This is where people come to play and there are a wide variety of water sports on offer from diving to sailing and windsurfing as well as massive stretches of fine white sand for the more sedentary sun worshipper.

Elche (Elx)...
Elche is well worth a visit while staying in Guardamar...its a former Roman colony, Elche boasts the largest palm grove in Europe with over 300,000 palm trees in and around the city, which are protected by law. Visitors will want to concentrate their attentions on the old town, which has plenty of interesting museums and historical buildings to dip in and out of and a myriad of palm tree shaded squares. Elche's main sites are crowded around the baroque basilica of Sante Maria whose blue tiled dome dominates the town centre.

Elche town, with its 200, 00 inhabitants, is situated inland approximately 16 miles from Alicante. Elche is famous for its palm trees and in El Palmeral Park (The Park of the Palms) has some 600 species and over 200,000 specimens, one for each of the inhabitants. These palms are cultivated and exported around the world. Even on the hottest days, with the overhead fonds to keep you cool, a stroll through the park is a very pleasant experience indeed. At the centre of the park is a cafeteria and restaurant where you can enjoy a cool drink or a meal.
The museum of archaeology and the museum at l'Alcudia are located on the site where the extraordinary 'Dame of Elche' was found.

Elche is also the largest shoe producer in Spain exporting to a number of the worlds top stores (seek out some bargains locally) and also has its own university teaching Medicine, Law, Marketing and Public Relations amongst its courses. Another place of note is its Safari park, situated a few miles from Elche, which has many exotic animals.

Orihuela...
The river Segura which runs along the side of the apartments in Guardamar were once the capital of the area. Orihuela today is a historical inland town, largely untouched by tourism where the streets are lined with orange trees and shady squares are fringed with ornate palacios and crumbling facades. The elegant churches and buildings bear witness to the town's rich heritage as an affluent university and cathedral city, before Alicante usurped its position as regional capital in the 19th century making it a pleasant place to soak up both sun and culture.

Island of Tabarca...
Catch a boat from Guardamar marina to the island of Tabarca, the main island of a small archipelago, which was fortified for Genoese prisoners in the 18th century. The walled town looks rather like a grandiose folly with the unfinished church and entrance arch ridiculously oversized in comparison to the squat fishing shacks and dusty roads. A walk around the island takes about 90 minutes and you will see the old lighthouse and a solar station that generates the islands electricity. The island only has around 100 residents who live a kind of double life according to the season - in winter they work on the fishing boats and in summer in the beach restaurants. Ecologists consider the marine reserve surrounding the island to be a model of its type and many visitors come to enjoy the snorkelling or sub-aqua diving in its protected waters.

Make Guardamar Del Segura your next holiday destination but book early to avoid disappointment!