Tina
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Torrevieja in February Trip report
We spent a week in Torrevieja at the very beginning of February. We stayed in an apartment in the Cabo Cervera area on the way to La Mata.
On Friday we went to the market in the morning and to San Pedro del Pinatar for Camino Quintin in the afternoon.
On Saturday we walked along the beach to La Mata in the morning and then strolled around the centre/sea front of Torrevieja in the afternoon.
On Sunday we went to Elche.
On Monday we walked along the beach in the morning and visited the lagunas in the afternoon.
On Tuesday we went to Calblanque nature reserve and coast and then continued on to Cartagena.
On Wednesday the plan was to visit Murcia. We didn't. It’s over an hour by car, the day before was a busy day and the weather became splendid – the wind dropped and it was a beautiful day. In the morning we walked to the market at La Mata and topped up on tomatoes and bananas and in the afternoon took the car back to La Mata, walked along the beach to the wall where we sheltered the other day and relaxed and enjoyed the sun before a little shopping and getting ready for leaving the next day.
Torrevieja is a large urban area, the third largest in the province of Alicante, stretching from the coast to the more recent urbanized areas towards the lagoons. So there’s a lot of traffic on the main road which skirts the town, to the point of queues at most times of the day in January. Once we got off that road, it was quiet driving around and at the supermarket etc.
It’s a very cosmopolitan place. Yes, some(!) Spanish people, but also people of all nationalities, I’d have to look at the statistics to see if one nationality prevails. In February it was quiet and pleasant. The Friday market had an incredibly good and varied selection of fruit and vegetables and Mercadona was fine for fish. That week we wanted to relax and walk on the beach, cook and eat our own food and it was an ideal destination for that. I chose Torrevieja for the sea view apartment. Otherwise, if your to-see list is of Murcia, Elche, Mar Menor, Cartagena and Calblanque you’d be better off basing further south in the San Pedro del Pinatar area. Having said that, the La Mata beach is splendid for strolling. From la Mata you can continue north towards Guardamar all on a superbly walkable beach with the dunes behind (although a few skyscrapers in the distance are inevitable). The weather was good – there was a chilly wind the first couple of days, so I needed a scarf and maybe a hat on the beach but after that it was very pleasant indeed, warm enough for sitting in the sun and sunbathing in a sheltered position.
Torrevieja is not a pretty place like Peniscola or Estepona or Nerja but in February it was clean and quiet and pleasant. The area around the lagoons which we explored on Monday was nothing special, perhaps because the pink one wasn’t pink when we were there. The San Pedro del Pinatar area is much more interesting and we saw more birds there. The best things about our stay were the long long walkable beach for strolling and the excellent availability of cheap plentiful and tasty fruit and vegetables and fish, ideal for a relaxing and healthy self-catering holiday in the winter.
