Week 4. 20th April – 26th April 2026. Mar Menor to Benidorm, Spain – 90 miles.
Last week, we skimmed along the south coast, where we got lots of cycling in and visited old stomping grounds before turning north. We also had a temporary pet! This week, we have continued north, where some of this week was spent in Benidorm, a lively place that we have visited before. Del went to Benidorm with an old school friend when he was 19, that was 1981…! Blimey.
Monday 20th April 2026 (Mar Menor – Day 2)
This morning, we can hear small planes taking off at the military airport next door; there’s a constant flow of quite a few turboprop aircraft taking off, and we think that this is Spain’s new aerial display team to replace their Patrulas Aguilas team, which finished last year after 40 years. Some people here hate the planes and give bad reviews for the campsite, but we quite like it.
There are a few good, long cycle trips in the surrounding area, but it’s very hot today, so we opt for the shorter one across a boardwalk that cuts through the nature reserve to the nearest town of Los Alcazares. We’re shocked to find that, since we were here just over a year ago, the wooden boardwalk has been destroyed, burnt, and partially removed.
It starts ok then just disappears, and we find ourselves lifting the bikes over missing parts of the walkway and onto the next bit. We’ve come this far, so we might as well carry on, we think, but it gets worse, and we end up cycling through thick foliage. We persevere and make it to the promenade, only to find that it, too, is dug up for works. It’s not going that well. We manage to divert into the town, cut out the disruption and end up having a pleasant cycle along the front and return through town. Despite the broken walkway, we managed a 13km bike ride… Not bad.
Dinner is turkey steaks, fries and salad outside, which starts to be a very pleasant evening, but it’s not long before mosquitoes start biting us, not just one or two, but a few. H has already been bitten badly, so we retire inside soon after.
Tuesday 21st April 2026 (Mar Menor – Day 3)
It was a bad night last night. We both got bitten a few times. They are quite aggressive here at the moment, and there have been complaints about it on reviews for this campsite, so it’s a known thing. We just couldn’t settle; you could hear them buzzing past over your head, loud and fast.
We have a light breakfast as we are going to Kinita, again, for their set lunch today. This Kinita restaurant thing is H’s “favourite restaurant in Spain”. The food is excellent, nice menu and very nice restaurant right on the beach, plus you get the planes at the military airport next door whizzing about, and today they are very busy.
Before lunch, H sets off on her bike and stands at the end of the runway watching them come in low overhead. It’s a great view and a bit disconcerting seeing them coming for you straight on.
Lunch at KINITA is on the beach and is very civilised, 3 courses plus an amuse bouche, a drink, coffee and bread for €25. An absolute bargain! The sun is shining, and the palm trees are wafting in the breeze. Lovely.
We leave satisfied and relaxed, doing the short walk back to the van. Del does some work, and H maps out the days we have left. We have no campsites booked after the end of April, so it’s good to get an idea of the distances involved to get home. We’re praying for a good sleep tonight as we are both very tired. We’ve been careful with the mosquito nets that all the windows on the van have fitted, and hope that none have got in. They do, though. They can get in through the tiniest of gaps. Buggers…
Wednesday 22nd April 2026 (Mar Menor – Day 4)
It was another terrible night of no sleep again. Del is not happy and is talking about moving on. It is very bad, and we are not in the summer season yet. Several mosquitoes were in the van and were just feeding on us all night. This area here is noted for bad mosquitoes that are small and aggressive; we’ve never suffered here before in the past, as we normally come in the colder months. This calls for a proper solution, so after breakfast, we hop on the bikes and set off for the town to go to a fantastic hardware store here that we know. Nobody does hardware stores better than the Spanish; they stock absolutely everything. Rarely have we been disappointed. We are looking for a plug-in Mozzy killer and a Spanish to UK plug adapter, as all our sockets in Jess are, of course, UK. We get everything we need; hopefully, this will cure a very bad problem. Maybe tonight we will get a good, mozzy-free night…
H decides that since the local restaurant, Kinita, is so good and does a cheap set lunch/dinner menu, we would have an early dinner there, so at 5 pm, Del is dragged off to eat, where we sit inside with a lovely late afternoon sea view.
The food is delicious as usual. Back at Jess, we sit outside and enjoy an early sunset with a drink or two…
We have been watching a Netflix series called Radioactive Emergency. We have one left, so tonight we finish off the last of the series. It has been a very good watch, a true story. It’s a horrific story of carelessness, total denial and corruption from people that are supposed to be responsible, but never are…
Time for bed, so we plug our deadly mosquito-killing device in. Let’s see how we get on tonight.
Thursday 23rd April 2026 (Mar Menor to Santa Pola – 48 miles)
Well, that was better… There were no mosquitoes overnight, and we get a good solid 5 hours’ sleep until we hear the awning flogging outside in the wind. It’s tethered down but still makes us nervous that it will be damaged, and it’s noisy, so we get up at 4am to put it away as quietly as we can. This wind is stronger than predicted, so we didn’t expect this. Back in bed, we get a few more hours of sleep.
We are a bit late setting off this morning, but we are only going an 1 hour north of here to Santa Pola. We do a shop at a Lidl nearby and fill up with diesel, it’s relatively cheap here at €1.64 a litre, we’ve heard that it’s averaging €2.28 a litre in France and only getting worse. The Spanish government has reduced the tax on fuel at the pump to help out. No doubt when this is all over, it will be doubled. time to check the tyres also today…
The drive to Santa Pola is quite interesting as we pass through multicoloured, huge salt pans with lots of wild flamingoes. On the way, we pass one of those Osborne bulls that you see when driving up and down Spain. It’s a large black silhouette of a typical Spanish Bull that was part of a nationwide advertising campaign by Osborne Brandy and this one is actually accessible instead of being behind a fence.
It has been a rather windy day today, so we are glad to be at the Santa Pola campsite, where we get a nice space and tuck ourselves away as best we can from the now quite fierce wind.
We had hoped to cycle to the salt pans and visit their local Osbourne bull, but it will be too much of a slog into the wind to come back. We will walk into town instead and do the salt pans in Jess tomorrow.
This is another place where we once stopped 22 years ago on our boat, and we liked the town. It sure is windy; it takes us 15 minutes to walk into town. The marina is very large and still busy, with many new bars, restaurants, and shops.
We can only spot one UK red ensign flag on a boat. That’s changed a lot since our day, but it’s much harder, if not impossible, to sail here and back in the 3 months allotted time for non-EU countries. We count ourselves lucky that we did it at the best time.
The town is not too bad, with a large castle smack in the centre. We have a little look around and then head back. Neither of us is that hungry tonight, so we just have a snack on Jess before turning in.
Friday 24th April 2026 (Santa Pola to Benidorm – 44 miles)
For breakfast, we have our first proper bacon sandwiches of the trip! We managed to find some proper back bacon in Palomares. It was where we camped on the beach for a free night. There are a lot of English people living there. Spanish bacon is the streaky American type, and much too fatty for us; the shops manage to supply what the English like in those parts.
Our priority today is to visit the Osbourne bull nearby. It’s very rare to be able to get up close to one; they are normally on hills and fenced off, but this one is right there and accessible on the roadside. We take some pictures together with this Spanish icon and then head towards Benidorm.
Our coffee stop on the way has a jet wash with a gantry for cleaning the roof, so we take advantage of it. The roof is orange from the sandy rains and the dirt from the early part of the trip.
We finally arrive at the campsite in Benidorm, which is huge, with over 500 spaces. This campsite was one of the locations for the hit Channel 5 series called Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun. If you have never seen it, then it is an interesting watch, for one episode at least.
Our pitch is the biggest we have been in at 10m wide and 8m long. The public areas here are very beautiful, a huge green lawn with a bar, 2 pools and another bar and restaurant.
All the connected pathways around the site have colourful flowerbeds. It’s very impressive, and you can understand why people make it their “home”. It’s nice now as it’s not too busy, but it’s probably chaos in summer with potentially over 1000 people staying here. They have a big laundry room, so we get everything washed and dried just before the rain comes. It’s still warm, though, so we sit outside with a drink under our awning and play an UNLOCK escape game.
The rain stops for dinner, so H cooks a fideua outside, which is another winner.
Saturday 25th April 2026 (Benidorm – Day 2)
We are going into Benidorm’s old town today, which is either a 40-minute walk or a 10-minute cycle. H is having trouble with comfy walking shoes at the moment, so the bikes it is. When we last came a few years ago in January, it was pretty quiet despite being pleasantly warm; today, though, it’s madness.
The bars in town near us are already crammed at noon, blaring loud music, and the number of people here is staggering.
We park the bikes and chain them up in the old town, which is mainly busy with Spanish. It’s a lovely little area with narrow back streets and a viewpoint overlooking the bay on either side. It’s a shame it’s a bit grey and cool today.
There’s a tapas alley here which is heaving with people enjoying beautiful plates of food with a glass of wine. Quite a contrast to the noisy bars in the ‘vibrant’ part of town serving fish and chips and Guinness. There’s something here for everyone.
There’s a sketcher’s shop here, so H sorts herself out with some comfy shoes, puts them straight on and declares she can walk for miles. So we do. She also gets herself a pair of sporty sunglasses. Feeling a bit peckish by now, we decide that Benidorm will probably be a good place to find a good Indian restaurant. We find a nice-looking one with a set menu. It’s empty but gets very good reviews, so we go in. The food is delicious and just the right amount with friendly service, and now the place is filling up despite being 3:30pm. Sometimes restaurants just need the first person to sit down. Satisfied, we walk around some more and head back towards the van. We shall walk down the ‘strip’ on our way back.
Calle Gerona is the heart of the nightlife here, and despite it only being 4:30 pm, it’s in full swing. People are already visibly drunk, staggering around. One man in the Irish bar is naked apart from a nappy! Another 2 girls are dancing on a podium high up, giving everyone a view of … well, you get the drift.
We are causing a bit of chaos wheeling our bikes down here, pushing them on the pavement in the wrong direction, so it’s a relief to get back on the road.
Back at the van, we relax. Del actually beats H at chess. Finally…
Sunday 26th April 2026 (Benidorm – Day 3)
It’s a beautiful day today, and Del whips up a delicious breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, which we have outside in the warm morning sun.
Today we plan to walk around the newer, tourist area, having seen and spent some time in the old town yesterday. On the way, we discover a huge market selling everything from fruit and veg to clothing and bags. H needs some new socks to go with her new flashy shoes she got yesterday.
We get to the beach, which is busy, very busy. There is still enough capacity for many, many more people, though. You can see why it’s a popular place; the beaches here are beautiful, with fine white sand.
While myth suggests the sand was imported, the seven kilometres of fine sand are indigenous and actually sometimes exported to other local resorts around Spain. People from all over the world come here, and we have heard many different languages, but the most heard one is the British accent.
Benidorm started as a small fishing village of 3000 people; now the residents total over 77,000, but in the peak season, with visitors, it can reach 350,000 people. It’s clearly doing something right for a lot of people…
We have a small beer in a bar on the front and do some people watching, which is always a good sport here. It’s a sea of pink and red flesh everywhere… Having had enough of that, we walk back and have a late lunch/early dinner of a paella cooked on our stove, Beryl, in the sun.
We intend to go back into town to catch some of the nightlife, but first, there’s the karaoke in our campsite.
In the event the karaoke is a bit low-key, we walk into town again. Surprisingly, it’s quieter than 5pm yesterday. Either everyone’s worn out from yesterday, or we’ve hit a lull where people recover at their hotel before the evening session. To be fair, we are way too early; it’s only 7pm, but we really can’t be bothered to stay up late and do this. Some of the bars here shut at 4:30 am. That’s too much for us now, even for H, who used to go to all-night raves in the late 80s.
Back at the van, we have a drink. Del mixes up a Calimocho, a combination of red wine and Coke, which was originally a Basque region drink.
Guess what…? It’s not bad at all and tastes a little like Sangria. . A wine glass with ice and 50 -50 of any red wine (not an expensive one, of course) and Coke. Very nice. We play some chess as the sun is fading and the air is cooling before going in. How very civilised, we must be showing our age.
We have done three nights here in Benidorm. We’ve been here before, in January 2024, two years ago! This time it was a lot more lively and busy, so we can’t imagine what the summer will be like when all the schools in Europe are off. We like it here, it’s very chilled and relaxed, and has some nice places in the old town. There is something for everyone here, that’s for sure. There is a stigma attached to Benidorm, but it is really misplaced; you can have all sorts of different types of experience, from partying to chilling out.
Time to continue our journey north now, though. The next stop is a staggering 40 minutes away to the town of Calpe.
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