Travelogue

We arrive at Camping La MarinaAlthough I do most of the trip planning, I always put Herb in charge of selecting ones along a beach, as he is definitely the beach aficionado in the family. Our plan was to ws continue meandering down the Mediterranean Coast and camp somewhere on a nice beach in striking distance to Grenada, where we had tickets for a guided tour of the Alhambra on the following Tuesday.

That criteria brought us to Camping La Marina, picked by Trip Advisor as the best campground on the Costa Blanca. The campground (more like a theme park) has facilities way beyond anything we have ever encountered at a campground in the U.S.

There is an Aquamarine Park with ten spectacular water slides, a play area with a giant tipping buckets that periodically dumps gallons of water on heads below, and a theme pool surrounded by tropical plants and a jacuzzi.

La Marina BeachIn addition to the water park, there is a lovely restaurant specializing in paella overlooking the pool, an extremely well-equipped fitness center and spa, a very well-stocked supermarket (with fresh bread every morning), an outdoor cafe serving ice cream and coffee, and more.

The pitches are pretty spacious by European standards and separated by hedges to provide some degree of privacy, and while not directly on the water, it is just a 10-minute walk along a boardwalk through a forest to a lovely sandy beach. Just a short walk to the right is the Playa Els Tossals, another one of Spain’s popular naturist beaches.

La Marina Aquamarine ParkUnfortunately, our La Marina stop overlapped a weekend, so the campground was very crowded with families and kids who were still in school. It pretty much cleared out Sunday night.

Unlike U.S. campgrounds where the quiet hours start at 10 pm, here in Spain, where people never seem to go to sleep, quiet time didn’t start until midnight, and kids took advantage of every last minute, riding bikes, kicking soccer balls, playing tag, etc. right up until the clock struck 12.

Our first day at La Marina was pretty overcast and windy, so we spent the morning running on a treadmill in the fitness center followed by my first paella in the upscale campground restaurant.

Although it was a bit too chilly and windy to just hang out on the beach, we took an afternoon walk along the Playa Els Tossals to the jetty where the Segur River flows into the Mediterranean. We also got our first sighting of Africa, just above the horizon.

The next morning we awoke to sunny skies, so we made our commute along the boardwalk to the Playa Els Tossals and spent the day sunning and swimming in the Mediterranean. It was very relaxing - good thing, because the pace of the trip was going to pick up from here.

Description

Beach by La MarinaBeautiful campground in Alicante, picked by Trip Advisor as the best campground on the Costa Blanca. The campground (more like a theme park) has facilities way beyond anything we have ever encountered at a campground in the U.S.

There is an Aquamarine Park with ten spectacular water slides, a play area with a giant tipping buckets that periodically dumps gallons of water on heads below, and a theme pool surrounded by tropical plants and a jacuzzi.

In addition to the water park, there is a lovely restaurant specializing in paella overlooking the pool, an extremely well-equipped fitness center and spa, a very well-stocked supermarket (with fresh bread every morning), an outdoor cafe serving ice cream and coffee, and more.

The pitches are pretty spacious by European standards and separated by hedges to provide some degree of privacy, and while not directly on the water, it is just a 10-minute walk along a boardwalk through a forest to a lovely sandy beach. Just a short walk to the right is the Playa Els Tossals, another one of Spain’s popular naturist beaches.