Tag: Driving Holidays in Spain

Biker Friendly Accommodation in Spain

Motorbike Friendly Accommodation in Spain

Motorbike guests on the way home! Spain is a very biker friendly country with a tremendously good road infrastructure – and far fewer cars than in the UK or many other countries in Europe.  This makes for an ideal place to enjoy a ride on your motorbike if you are a resident here and of course a great holiday destination for a motorbike road trip. We have always been pleased to welcome guests on a motorbike holiday and have had many such visitors in the past – often visiting us several times.  We were therefore very pleased when we received a booking from Tony and his friend Dave who wanted to stay with us as part of their trip back to England, after having enjoyed a biking holiday in the area to the south of Alicante. They had spent time with their wives in a villa in Alicante province, having crossed over to Spain via the ferry to Santander and biked direct down from there.  Once at their destination, they hired a car for their wives to use during their visit, whilst Tony and Dave enjoyed taking their bikes out on the open and uncrowded roads in the area Once…

Read Article

2015 Year in Review

bed and breakfast accommodation with pool

Villa Florencia Gandia 2015 has been a busy year for us all at Villa Florencia, with a constant succession of guests both old and new. This marks our 9th full year of welcoming visitors into our home and it is great to see so many of them coming back to us year after year. Our general mix of guests this year was very much along the usual lines, with a large number coming (not surprisingly) for the sunshine and warmth that is not to be found in the northern parts of Europe so easily, but also many coming for a variety of other reasons. Over the years we have been able to promote ourselves to certain “niche” markets that all help to make Villa Florencia an appealing place to stay and enjoy what the local area has to offer The year started with beautiful weather – which developed into a very hot summer – and this early sunshine encouraged our first rock-climbing visitors to stay with us. The whole area of the Costa Blanca is a well-known destination for climbers in the cooler months of the year and it is always a pleasure to have them stay with us here….

Read Article

Las Fallas & Easter Fiestas

Las Fallas Fiesta in Gandia! “Las Fallas” is one of the biggest fiestas of the year in the Valencia region – it’s the one that everyone has seen pictures about, where the different districts of each town build huge wood and papier-mâché effigies about local events and then they all get burnt to the ground on the night of March 19th – St. Joseph’s day. The fiesta is a huge attraction for tourists, both Spanish and foreign, and we were delighted to welcome Sandy and her husband David back to us for a second year to enjoy the preparations and festivities.  They chose to stay in our self-catering apartment again as they found last year that it suited them perfectly.  They combined their accommodation there with taking breakfast and dinner in the dining terrace with the other guests, so had the advantages of both.  As far as Valencian residents are concerned, Fallas marks the end of the old season – essentially winter – and the beginning of the spring and all things new.  It always culminates on the same date, March 19th, and so also marks the beginning of the build-up to the most important time of year of all…

Read Article

Autumn Sunshine Activity Holidays

Autumn Sunshine Activity Holidays! The heat of summer may be over, but the weather continues to be beautiful, with lots of sunshine and very mild temperatures. It is at this time of year – and also of course in the spring – when there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy all the other delights of this part of the Costa Blanca than just the summer seaside attractions. Lucy and Ashley recently returned to us for their third visit, and they take great pleasure in participating in outdoor pastimes and sports – something which this area of the Costa Blanca offers the fringe season visitor in abundance. They stayed with us for just over a week in our self-catering apartment and made the most of their time getting out and about doing lots of different activities as well as some conventional sightseeing in Valencia city itself. Because temperatures have remained so mild, it is still very pleasant to swim in the sea so Lucy & Ashley decided one day to combine two of their interests into one all-day experience. They had made arrangements to go horse riding at stables near the beach, and so went for an escorted ride along the…

Read Article

Autumn Sunshine Holidays

Autumn Sunshine Holidays in 2013 We have been delighted to welcome a steady succession of guests this year who have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather we have been experiencing here on the Costa Blanca. The summer this year has been a very long-lasting one with daytime temperatures in October in the high twenties or occasionally even the low thirties. Night temperatures are of course lower now, which means that the swimming pool is only usable by the more hardy of our guests, but there is still a great opportunity for getting a late tan and storing up some sunshine before having to endure the winter months ahead in northern Europe. There is still plenty to do here during such lovely warm days, and of course the sea temperature is still holding up well for those guests who are beach enthusiasts. And once the novelty of sitting and enjoying the sunshine at this time of year has worn off a bit, the slightly cooler temperatures mean that our guests can take part in outdoor activities which might be uncomfortable during the really hot months of the summer. Sue and Gareth for example came for a few days relaxation in…

Read Article

Family Holidays Costa Blanca

Family Holidays Costa Blanca We usually have several Italian guests during the course of the summer season, but this year we had not seen any – until we received a booking from Stefano and his wife Elisabetta, who wanted to come to us from Rome in early September for just over a week. They were a family of four, and when they arrived we were pleased to welcome them, along with their two teenage daughters Pamela and Chiara. They wanted to come to our part of Spain for a family holiday and to see what this part of the Costa Blanca had to offer – it was not a part of the country they knew well, but it is one they thought they would like. They had done their homework before leaving Italy and had a tentative itinerary worked out of all the sights they wanted to see during their visit. The Costa Blanca is a great part of Spain for a family holiday as there is something for everyone, and in the summer of course the wonderful beaches come into their own. Most days they went on an excursion to one of the towns along the coast, as well…

Read Article

Pet Friendly Accommodation Costa Blanca

Pet Friendly Accommodation Costa Blanca Last Thursday morning we received an unexpected phone call from a German speaking couple wanting to spend that night with us as a stop-over on their way down to Malaga, where they were renting a finca for a fortnight’ holiday. They only wanted one night’s accommodation as part of a driving holiday towards the south and they particularly wanted to stay the night at our pet friendly accommodation because they were accompanied by their lovely Golden Retriever/Labrador cross, who was called Pasha. They arrived around four o’clock in the afternoon, having set off from their home in Switzerland the previous day and received a warm welcome here – not only from us but also from our own dogs, who are always happy to welcome a guest dog! After the initial excitement had died down, Pasha was content to settle in their room for a short time while his owners relaxed in the garden. However, the weather was so warm and sunny that soon they decided to have a swim in the pool and so brought Pasha down to the garden to join them. He loves playing in streams and rivers where they live, and soon…

Read Article

Spanish Property Hunters become Buyers!

Househunters become Buyers! Back in April, we had the pleasure of having Mark and Rosalyn stay with us on a Spanish property house-hunting trip. They loved the area and saw several Spanish properties that they thought had possibilities, but their visit was greatly marred by a serious car accident they had. It was not their fault – a car hit them on the wrong side of the road in heavy rain – and they were not seriously injured, but it inevitably cast a shadow over their visit. However, when they left they said they were still keen on the area and that we would see them again. It was therefore a lovely surprise when they paid an unexpected visit a couple of days ago – they were driving past our house on the way to Gandia. The bigger surprise, however, was that in the interim they had purchased a really lovely Spanish property, a villa in the area at a very realistic price! It turns out they had spotted some properties on another estate agent’s website, had viewed them on a couple of day-trips to area (which is why we had not seen them here as guests again), and decided…

Read Article

Mountain Biking Skills Training Week-end

Mountain Bike Skills Training

Mountain Biking Skills Training Week-end We were delighted to welcome Raul and Eva to our casa rural in Gandia last weekend. They had booked one of our all-inclusive mountain biking packages which we offer in conjunction with MountainBikingValencia.com . These are available as a weekend break of 2 nights with one day’s guided mountain biking, a break of 3 nights with 2 days’ biking, or a week’s holiday of 7 nights with 3 days’ biking. Of course, if guests wanted a different length of stay, or more or less biking included, we would be only too pleased to tailor-make a holiday to their specifications. In any event, breakfast and dinner are included every day and packed lunches are provided on mountain biking trips, as well as the services of a qualified and experienced guide. Raul and Eva had previously used the services of Dave Warrington for single day excursions whilst they were already in the area for professional reasons, but this time they had decided they wanted to spend longer enjoying the surroundings in this lovely part of the country. They drove down from their home in Catalunya, arriving late on Friday evening, with the intention of spending the day on…

Read Article

Short Breaks to Spain

Short Breaks to Spain It is always a pleasure when past guests come back to see us again, and this week John and Jacqui did exactly that – they had visited us last September, and decided to return to us for an early summer Short Breaks to Spain. Last year they stayed with us for only one night as they were on their way to their villa they own in Estepona near Gibraltar and they found us by virtue of our pet friendly accommodation. They were travelling with their labradoodle named Monti and so were pleased to find that we welcomed pets and were conveniently placed along their route. They were driving down south last year, but this time they were not in fact going to their villa at all. They now have some tenants renting it for several months, but they wanted to come back to us and see more of our part of the northern Cost Blanca. They flew to Valencia and spent their first night there, taking the opportunity the next morning to use the tourist bus to acquaint themselves with the city. In the afternoon they caught the train to Gandia, where we collected them from…

Read Article

Self Catering Breaks – Costa Blanca Sunshine

Self Catering Breaks – Costa Blanca Sunshine Some time ago we received a reservation from Beverley and Steve for our self-catering apartment, which they wanted to book for three days for themselves and some friends. Beverley and Steve divide their time between their home near Murcia and their house in England, and their friends were coming to visit for a few days, so they wanted to travel around and see some sights along the Costa Blanca during their time together. They arrived on Monday after spending some time sightseeing on the way north. They had called in at Guadalest to see the castle there before carrying on to reach us mid-afternoon, which gave them plenty of time to settle in to their apartment. They spent the rest of the day there, having decided to cook their own evening meal and watch television during the evening. On Tuesday they set off to spend the day in Valencia city, taking the train from Xeraco around 9.30am and arriving in the city about an hour later. They took the sightseeing bus in order to get their bearings and decide what they wanted to return and see in more detail later in the day,…

Read Article

Sold! Spanish Property Sellers

Spanish Property

Sold! Spanish Property Sellers Jeanette and Kevin from the UK made a booking to come and stay with us this week, as they had sold their holiday villa in La Drova to another couple who had been property hunters – also from the UK – who were wanting to have a holiday base in the La Safor area.Jeanette and Kevin decided to make an unhurried trip of it, arriving with us on the Sunday and staying until the following Saturday, with the appointment at the notary’s office scheduled for the Wednesday. They were driving down from the UK in their car, crossing by ferry to Santander, which is something they had often done in the past when visiting their property. Apparently they used to come on average for about six weeks each year, and had owned property in this area for over ten years – their house in La Drova was their second one. Property hunters seem to be slightly on the increase now that house prices have fallen to levels not seen in Spain for a very long time. Foreigners who want to buy a home have become aware that Spain now offers good value properties once again, and…

Read Article