The southern Costa Blanca, Spain

Flying into the International airport of Alicante, places you right in the centre of the Costa Blanca holiday region. To the south, the costal plane is fairly flat with long sandy beaches, many of them blue flag, ideal of your Costa Blanca vacation.

The region of Murcia has many golf courses to choose from, La Manga is probably the most famous, right at the southern most point of the Costa Blanca coast and next to the Mar Menor, an inland sea famed for its healing properties. The costal town of Torrevieja, with its port and new marina, is an ideal location for golfers to stay. Nearby are the golf resorts of Villamartin, Campoamor, Las Ramblas and Ciudad Quesada. Many people have visited this area from abroad, fallen in love with it and bought a home, either to settle down here or use as holiday accommodation or an investment.

To the south of Torrevieja is the rocky headland of Cabo Roig, often referred to as the jewel of the southern Costa Blanca with its hidden bays and blue flag beaches. Between Cabo Roig and Torrevieja are the resorts of La Zenia and Playa Flamenca with their family safe sandy beaches. Inland from Torrevieja are the salt lakes which have been mined for salt for centuries. The lakes are an ideal location for bird spotters as Flamingos can be seen here.

To the north of Torrevieja the sandy beach stretches some 17 km to Santa Pola and the resort village of La Marina. Both these vacation resorts are about 20 to 25 minutes from the airport at Alicante. La Marina and Santa Pola are near to the La Marquesa golf course at Rojales 8 km inland. The area is known as the market garden because of the numerous olive, orange, lemon groves.

Alicante is much more than just a setting for the airport. The town is steeped in history and has a beautiful promenade and excellent shopping district amongst the historic buildings. You can also catch a boat from here to the nature resort on the islands of Tabarca.

Warren Ward runs the vacation owner rental website of www.ChooseSpain.com which advertises hundreds of holiday villas and apartments throughout Spain.