Thursday 8th – Sunday 11th March 2018
One of our boys, Matthew was flying out to spend a Torrevieja Long Weekend with us, so after a rainy night, we had our fingers crossed the weather would improve.
Access to Alicante airport from our campsite was easy. Just a 25 minute hop on the AP-7 and we were there.
As predicted the clouds cleared and the temperature began to rise and that’s how the rest of the weekend remained. Hot and sunny 😉
In all our time at Marjal we had never ventured to Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca and only being a 30 minute drive south it seemed the perfect choice for some sun, sea, sand and sangria! We made a number of visits over the course of the weekend to explore some of the beaches, as well as the food and drink 😉
Initially we made our way on the AP 7 but in hindsight we should have exited the Autopista before the toll peaje, onto the CV-91 north into Torrevieja or CV-905 between the two salt lakes, one of which is rose tinted and the other greenish-blue in colour.
La Mata and Torrevieja lagoons together form a nature reserve called Las Salinas de Torrevieja and one of the main attractions is the vast amount of flamingos which frequent the pink lake during the breeding season.
Beach One
La Playa Náufragos with its small promenade. There were a few palm trees dotted on the sandy beach but not a lot else at this time of year.
Beach Two
South of the port is the Playa el Acequion. It is located in the heart of the Puerto de Torrevieja and quite sheltered by the Muelle de la Sal, sea wall, and the buildings directly behind the beach.
Behind the crescent shaped beach are numerous restaurants and bars, as well as apartments and it was quite busy for the time of year. I wouldn’t say it was one of the prettiest beaches we have found but its proximity to the town makes its very popular.
We enjoyed tapas and a few beverages and Matthew introduced us to an Aperol spritz, an Italian wine based cocktail. Particularly refreshing on a warm spring day 😉
A stroll north along the beach leads to a bridge over which is an entrance to the port.
There was a variety of places to eat or just watch the world go by. The marina is home to a huge number of sailing vessels, somewhere in the region of 900!
Beach Three
Today we took AP-7 for 9.5 kms, exit 740 onto CV-91 and N-332 heading from the north into Torrevieja.
Just a short stroll from where we parked the car in Urb Molino Blanco brought us to the Playa de la Mata, fine sandy beach with a long promenade which runs behind the beach, with several restaurants and bars.
The beach stretches over 2 kilometres south from the cove of Cabo Cervera to the dunes of Guardamar and the Torre de La Mata at the northern end and is the longest beach in the town. It is a Blue Flag beach and is well equipped with a variety of recreational facilities as well as wheelchair access.
Away from the houses and restaurants which line the promenade there is direct access from the Parque del Molino del Agua, a seafront nature reserve which has high dunes as well as pine woods and a stream.
We enjoyed a lunchtime meal in one of the many beach-side restaurants, whilst watching the world go by.
Mother’s Day Lunch
We parked the car on the road along the coast at the southern most end of Playa de la Mata beach on Av de los Españoles.
On the corner of the road was Restaurante Matute, which was to be our lunch venue, although we didn’t realise it at the time.
We were able to access the beach from the road and noticed that the coastline was beginning to look somewhat different.
As we left the small sandy beach at the Cabo Cervera and rounded the headland we became intrigued by the rock formations.
It was volcanic in its appearance in some parts, whilst other areas looked like waves of sand which had been transformed into hard petrified rock.
Many rock pools had formed in crevices and the area was uneven and tricky to navigate, but not impossible.
Above the rocky area was scrub land and succulents growing and steps had been carved from the rocks to allow access to the area.
It was obviously a popular place to fish, but appeared quite a tricky procedure, not only to get to the water’s edge, let alone set up your lines!
Time for lunch! As we hadn’t seen any other restaurants on our explorations we decided that we would head back to the one where we parked the car.
On our way though we did pass an unusual restaurant, Restaurante Barlovento on Calle del Cabo. It was situated under an apartment block above the small sandy cove and resembled a Spanish galleon. Even inside looked like the interior of a ship!
We paused for a beverage and having read conflicting Trip Advisor comments, plus the lack of attention by the waiting staff, we made the decision not to eat there.
Restaurante Matute was the perfect choice. We chose a table on the outside balcony and enjoyed a fantastic meal of grilled cuttlefish; squid ink paella, a beef stroganoff and a pitcher or 2 of homemade Sangria. Although the meal was a little on the expensive side, the portion sizes were huge and tasted delicious!
