Road Trip

[Gilbo]

My wife and I are planning a road trip to eastern mainland Spain (starting in Barcelona and travelling down to Alicante) in October to scout out possible marinas in which to berth a future 55ft motorboat purchase. Sant Carles and Denia are obviously on the list. Other recommendations would be gratefully received along with any advice or experiences. Thanks in advance !

 

[petem]

My wife and I are planning a road trip to eastern mainland Spain (starting in Barcelona and travelling down to Alicante) in October to scout out possible marinas in which to berth a future 55ft motorboat purchase. Sant Carles and Denia are obviously on the list. Other recommendations would be gratefully received along with any advice or experiences. Thanks in advance !

Valencia?

 

[jrudge]

My wife and I are planning a road trip to eastern mainland Spain (starting in Barcelona and travelling down to Alicante) in October to scout out possible marinas in which to berth a future 55ft motorboat purchase. Sant Carles and Denia are obviously on the list. Other recommendations would be gratefully received along with any advice or experiences. Thanks in advance !

I would base your hunting on the type of boating you do.

If you are employed and hence visit for short breaks / weekends then proximity to an airport is key. Ideally 15 min by cab if you can ( Palma fits this description).

Bear in mind that the flight is say 2 hours. Getting off the plane and through customs is 30 mins ( Spanish customs is now SLOW), more if you have a bag. Then hire a car - 30 mins. Then drive ... for an hour .. Suddenly it is looking like an epic trip after work on a friday and you arrive at 1am. You tend to only do it once!

If you are a person of leisure and visit for long periods then the airport proximity matters less.

Consider the type of cruising you want to do. The mainland is relatively featureless. Turn left, turn right. Down towards Malaga you have the additional option of Morocco and cheap fuel at Gibraltar. Google earth can help give you an idea of what to expect as you cruise around.

The better cruising is the Islands - Mallorca etc, but the marinas are circa 3 times the price.

Denia , St Carles are circa 100 miles from an Island which can provide a simple option to get to Mallorca / Ibiza etc without the marina fees.

Other will have specifics, but how you want to use the boat, and how frequently you arrive make a huge difference to happy boating or frustrated boating !

 

[NGM]

I would base your hunting on the type of boating you do.

If you are employed and hence visit for short breaks / weekends then proximity to an airport is key. Ideally 15 min by cab if you can ( Palma fits this description).

Bear in mind that the flight is say 2 hours. Getting off the plane and through customs is 30 mins ( Spanish customs is now SLOW), more if you have a bag. Then hire a car - 30 mins. Then drive ... for an hour .. Suddenly it is looking like an epic trip after work on a friday and you arrive at 1am. You tend to only do it once!

If you are a person of leisure and visit for long periods then the airport proximity matters less.

Consider the type of cruising you want to do. The mainland is relatively featureless. Turn left, turn right. Down towards Malaga you have the additional option of Morocco and cheap fuel at Gibraltar. Google earth can help give you an idea of what to expect as you cruise around.

The better cruising is the Islands - Mallorca etc, but the marinas are circa 3 times the price.

Denia , St Carles are circa 100 miles from an Island which can provide a simple option to get to Mallorca / Ibiza etc without the marina fees.

Other will have specifics, but how you want to use the boat, and how frequently you arrive make a huge difference to happy boating or frustrated boating !

+1 to all the above

I would also say that proximity to a proper year round town/city is a bonus rather than a summer only resort. This will give you the incentive to visit and enjoy the winters - most resort only towns become ghost towns Oct til April. With this in mind Alicante is a good option, huge number of year round flights, 10 mins from Airport, nice city and marina - which unusually for Spain has pontoon/finger berths. It's 80 miles to Ibiza.
The winter weather is meaningfully better (drier) on the SE coast (Cartegna - Valencia) than it is of the S coast (Gib to Malaga)

 

[longjohnsilver]

I would base your hunting on the type of boating you do.

If you are employed and hence visit for short breaks / weekends then proximity to an airport is key. Ideally 15 min by cab if you can ( Palma fits this description).

Bear in mind that the flight is say 2 hours. Getting off the plane and through customs is 30 mins ( Spanish customs is now SLOW), more if you have a bag. Then hire a car - 30 mins. Then drive ... for an hour .. Suddenly it is looking like an epic trip after work on a friday and you arrive at 1am. You tend to only do it once!

If you are a person of leisure and visit for long periods then the airport proximity matters less.

Consider the type of cruising you want to do. The mainland is relatively featureless. Turn left, turn right. Down towards Malaga you have the additional option of Morocco and cheap fuel at Gibraltar. Google earth can help give you an idea of what to expect as you cruise around.

The better cruising is the Islands - Mallorca etc, but the marinas are circa 3 times the price.

Denia , St Carles are circa 100 miles from an Island which can provide a simple option to get to Mallorca / Ibiza etc without the marina fees.

Other will have specifics, but how you want to use the boat, and how frequently you arrive make a huge difference to happy boating or frustrated boating !

+1 to all the above

I would also say that proximity to a proper year round town/city is a bonus rather than a summer only resort. This will give you the incentive to visit and enjoy the winters - most resort only towns become ghost towns Oct til April. With this in mind Alicante is a good option, huge number of year round flights, 10 mins from Airport, nice city and marina - which unusually for Spain has pontoon/finger berths. It's 80 miles to Ibiza.
The winter weather is meaningfully better (drier) on the SE coast (Cartegna - Valencia) than it is of the S coast (Gib to Malaga)

Good advice!

I spend much of the year in Altea (between Alicante and Denia) and whilst there are quite a few good marinas in towns that don’t shut for the winter, the local cruising grounds are pretty boring. If I had a bigger boat here I would be aiming to spend as much time as possible in the Balearics.