Seeing more of the world

Gemma and I love travelling – its definitely our favorite thing to do! Our latest trip was to the coast of Alicante in Spain, and as per our other holidays i figured i would do a little report and recommend the place we went and services we used.

We normally fly with EasyJet, but recently they have gone shit and stopped flying from the airports near me – so this time we opted for RyanAir and despite the planes being scruffy (they didn’t clean the floors between flights) it was exactly what you expect – cheap and cheerful!

They did a good job of getting us there and back in one piece, and on time too – the cabin crew (or “salesmen” as i like to cal them) were great but you get a bit sick of them CONSTANTLY trying to sell you shit from the second you take off to the second you land. I’m gonna pretend I’m asleep next time! 🙂

In regards flights tho, you get what you pay for – i didn’t expect anything more than what we got! Had a wing isle on the way back which meant lots of legroom and as the flight was only about 2 hours it seemed to be over quickly enough 🙂

Once we landed we were taken to a car hire depot where our car was waiting for us – a 1.2 brand new Nissan Micra in black. the company was called Drivalia Car Rental, and they were literally 5 ins from alicante airport. The lady was lovely, the car was brand new and awesome (and upgraded from the bottom class to the next one up as they had run out of group A cars! :)) – we do think they put on an extra insurance charge as we Had bought something when we signed up for it – but it was still cost effective, full tank of juice and a spanking clean car so we let it slide!

It was my first experience driving a left hand drive car, on the wrong side of the road! At first it was a SPIN OUT, but after a few hours i was used to it (well, apart from pedestrian crossings!) and the only real part of driving abroad (well in Spain anyway) is the mopeds! There is always 2 people on then, helmets but shorts and tshirts – and they squeeze through any gap they can find!

The hotel was very easy to find, it was one of the first left hand turns off the main road to alicante, once the main road was running along side the coast. We got settled in to our (freely upgraded to a family sized room from a double) room quickly and headed out to get some food and drinks for the apartment.

We stayed at Alicante Hills Apartments, and they were bang on – our room was massive, we had 2 bathrooms and could have slept 6 people in it if we wanted! It had a pool, jacuzzis, a restaurant (which was VERY reasonably priced!) and you had air con and a TV in the rooms etc – everything you need.

My onyl gripe with the apartment was there was a spot of crap splattered on the wall when we got there, and the cleaners missed it all week and it was still there when we left – i think the place was clean, but mainly because its so new – if they are not careful they will star slipping if the cleaners are not more concise. Also above the oven was a drawer, that got VERY hot when using the oven – badly planned out kitchen methinks!

Apart from that, the apartment served its purpose, we even went back to the hotel towards the end of the last day, after we had checked out and driven down to Santa Pola and Torrevieja and back again – just so i could have a swim and a shower! 🙂

Alicante itself is a nice place, but we did notice a lot of closed down and derelict buildings – the recession is obvious! It was more obvious the further out of central alicante, lots of random derelict buildings and villas along the N-332 – a shame really as many of the buildings that were screwed looked like they were beautiful at one point.

We will visit spain again, but we’re not bothered about staying in alicante again.

• Flights 7/10
• Car Hire 8/10
• Apartments 8/10
• Value for Money 10/10

We’re off to Gran Canaria next i think – cant wait woo!