Altea, Spain

I was determined after our trip down south, having spent a day (and a couple of hours another day) at the beach that we needed a vacation.

We had not had one since the kids came along.  We are only about 5 hours from the beach and since we had already been down south, we thought we would trying going somewhere near Valencia on the east coast of Spain.  I started researching online for places to stay.  I was really wanting to find something right on the water so we could have sea views, but knowing our budget I knew that might be difficult.  We enjoy finding apartments instead of hotels so that we can still cook our own food and keep from going out as much.  But after our last experience I was not sure I wanted to do that.  

I started out by looking at hotels.  Finding a hotel that suits the size of our family was another issue.  So I went back to looking at apartments.  Wow, was I pleasantly surprised when I found a 4 bedroom apartment with ocean views in Altea (pronounced al-tay-ya).  There was a cancellation so we were given a good price.  I double checked to see if there was a coffee pot (you know, the very important and necessary items, ha!!) and it had one, so I figured we were good to go!

We could not believe it when we walked in and saw the views and amenities.  Not only were there basics for cooking (like spices and sugar) the owner had purchased a few items like milk, cheese slices, ham slices, some bread, and butter.  After our last experience this was a huge improvement!

And what a view!!  Here are the kids on the terrace our first evening. 

Directly below the apartment is a sidewalk, a small street with a promenade and a rock beach.  But being on the third floor, when sitting down all you could see was water!  We left the sliding glass doors open at all times to hear the water rolling over the rocks!  It was glorious!  We didn't realize it was a rock beach before arriving.  We would have preferred a nice sandy beach but that's ok.  We went to some local Chinese stores and found us some cheap water shoes to help with walking on the rocks.

We spent the first 2 days at the rock beach in front of our apartment.  I really wanted to find a sandy beach in the area, so our second evening there we took a drive to the big touristy town just south of Altea called Benidorm.  I had looked there for a place to stay, but upon arriving I was so glad we weren't staying there.  It was busy and fast paced.  Not what we were looking for.  It reminded me of something like Las Vegas.  

The traffic was awful and we never even made it to the beach we were looking for because of it.  Plus we would have to pay for parking.  So, we turned around and headed back to our place.

I got to looking through the tourist brochures at the apartment and decided to check out the town just north of Altea called Calpe.  It looked like they had some sandy beaches, so the next morning we loaded everyone and everything into the car and headed there.  We found a gorgeous sandy beach!  Of course, so did everyone else in the area.  It was packed!!!  We spent a few hours and then decided to leave.  Too much action for us.  We decided we liked the quiet, less crowded rocky beaches and slow paced feel of Altea.

We truly wanted a slow vacation.  Jerry was not interested in doing any touristy things.  All he wanted to do was play at the beach.  Me and the kids were ok with that!!  Each day we would take our time in the mornings, have a nice breakfast.  Then head to the beach to play in the water.  After that we would head home, clean up and would go out to eat.  After eating we would usually walk the promenade and one evening we went to look at the boats in the harbor and watch the little crabs on the rocks.  That was our kind of vacation!

Here are a few pictures of our time!

On our way to Altea.  All across Spain you will find these huge billboard bulls.

First glimpses of the sea!!

View from the apartment

Sunrise!!  I got up early every morning at about 7:30 just to see this!!

There were times I was in the water more than the kids!!

Mr Rock Monster!!

Me and my girl!

 Jerry captured this shot and I just love it!

  

On our way back from Calpe we saw this guy in the sky!

The apartment

We were sad that our beach vacation was quickly over, but we had a great time and made some sweet memories!