Sunny Days in Costa Blanca

Our original plan after Albarracín was to get south and to climb in the Andalucia area. Only with a few quick stops on the way. The day before leaving, we changed our mind and decided to spend a couple of weeks climbing in Costa Blanca. Without regrets, we could have stayed for much longer! We found a campsite in the charming little place, Villajoyosa, just outside Benidorm, 30 minutes drive to Sella, one of our new favorite crags.

Dick, Chris & Vanessa

Just randomly on a small way to Sella, we met a green van (Vanessa) with Dick and Chris smiling behind the wheel. We know Chris from our climbing gym back in Norway and knew that they are also traveling around, currently in Spain, but not in Sella. So funny to suddenly meet on the road. We climbed in their company both in Gandia and Sella, and are planning to meet them in Malaga and El Chorro.

The green van is Vanessa, parked near the crag Gandia

Chris and Dick + Miriam and Smula at Gandia

Climbing in Costa Blanca

There are lots of climbing in Costa Blanca, both sport climbing, multi-pitch, and trad. It’s not very easy for us to climb multi-pitch with Smula, so it was only sport climbing for us, which was more than enough. So many routes to climb in this area. We spent most of our time in Gandia and Sella.

We met a really nice Norwegian couple, Elin and Anders, who strongly recommended us to go to Hidden Valley, a sector in Sella. Wish we had gone there earlier, but this is a sector we’ll definitely come back to many times. In Hidden Valley we also met some other Norwegian climbers from our gym in Oslo.

Gandia

Gandia

The Elephant (left), two classics on each side of it. 7a and 7a+

Sella

Sector Ojo De odra. The routes next to the cave was nice

Smula loves the Landcruiser – We do to, so grateful to have this car on the dirt roads in Sella

Sector Hidden Valley – Wild Side

Vall De Guadar (Echo Valley)

Benidorm and El Castell de Guadalest

We didn’t do much sightseeing during our stay here, as we were climbing almost daily. Sometimes it’s good to just chill on our rest days, without too many plans. Nevertheless, we had one day in Benidorm and we visited El Castell de Guadalest, strongly recommended by Christoffer’s grandma.

Benidorm was very busy, especially with people over 60. It’s their season now, and the beach was packed with old people enjoying life. Very charming though, and it feels so good to see. In the high season, we’ve heard that Benidorm is known for its nightlife, and it’s called Little Manhattan for a reason.

Benidorm

Castell De Guadalest

Villajoyosa

Our campsite was located just outside Benidorm, in a small town, Villajoyosa. The beach and the old fishing town with all the colorful houses were just wonderful. Peaceful and charming!

Camping Alicante Imperium

Lovely staff, they were so helpful and friendly.
Large pitches with gravel. Perfect for our caravan.
Wonderful sanitary facilities. Hot water in shower.
ACSI. Note that only 4kw is included in the electricity, and it gets really cold during night. We didn’t pay too much over, but we’re very conscious not to use too much electricity. This is one of the reasons why we didn’t stay longer.
Terrible connection and WIFI. Unfortunately. Another reason why we didn’t stay longer.

All in all this is a fantastic campsite which we strongly recommend.