My brother Steve recently booked a holiday for us to go to Spain for 5 days. Spain hasn't been on my hit list of places to go to. I'm not sure why, but it hasn't. Spain has surprised me in a few ways. I'll come to this in a second.

 

We stayed in a Marriott hotel near a town called Denia. We travelled with Ryanair to Valencia and got a hire car and travelled south down the coast for about 120 Km.

 

This hotel is the best 5 star hotel I've ever been to! There are so many nice things to say about it, but suffice to say, if you stayed there, it would be special. The location is quite good although taxi's are expensive. I gather that there might be a shuttle service to nearby towns in the summer which would be great!

 

There are 2 towns nearby. Javea and Denia. Javea is the best all round place to go to. There are bars, resturants and small cheaper places to eat. The nightlife is quite good with out being too crowded. Denia has resturants that want to rip you off and we didn't experience any good quality food there. Bars and nightlife seem to be hidden and it seems not as festive as Javea.

 

My experience in Spain is that it is very expensive. It might be the places we were at, but the resturants and bars are very expensive. Brian got the first round of drinks in Javea, 2 beers and JD & Coke. This cost 20 Euro's! However, we did find that if you stick with beers, you'll probably be okay and pay between 3 - 4 Euro's a pint. The resturants will charge for anything they bring to the table. So if they offer to pour you some water, you will be paying for this. If they put some bread and any other items on the table, you will be paying for them. So beware! Simply tell them, No thanks!

 

The weather is great! It's like being in Africa without being in Africa. If you like sunshine, Spain is a good choice.

 

Don't hire with Hertz! We had very bad service. First, they didn't have the car they confirmed on the booking. The replacement car was bashed in and absolutly awfull. We changed this to another car that was okay, but we had to pay more. During all this time, waiting for service is very painful. And we found out this morning that other car companies offer much better prices and I'm sure the service would be better. My brother phoned them up this morning, and Hertz were not interested in hearing our story. So, DO NOT GET CAR HIRE WITH HERTZ!

 

I like Spain. I would travel there again and especially in the busy season.

 

Here are some pics of us: