The Albufera Lake - Valencia's Pride and Joy

Many years ago there was a TV programme which hit home with me and i found out it was based on a great book Cañas y Barro. The setting of the book is the Albufera lake in Valencia and the small town of El Palmar, hidden in the middle of the lake. I took a video there the other day which featured on one of my other sites www.houses-for-sale-in-spain.net and here I have also added a photo that I really like from the video. Enjoy.



Paella, of course is one of the iconic images of Spain and Valencia is where Paella comes from. It is nothing like the paella mixta served up in the tourist meccas though and real paella is what you can find there. El Palmar and the Albufera lake is just a ten minute drive out from Valencia and there are plenty of coaches that go there for Paella lunches too (It takes half an hour in the summer near to lunchtime).

The video shows the Albufera lake, the restaurants in El Palmar, the home of paella without actually showing paella itself I will leave that to your imagination, and incorporates a carcast talking about why you would want to go to such a lovely place to visit. Enjoy it.

Valencia City Beach Loses its Blue Flag

But why? Well it turns out that the beach and the water have excellent water quality and are brilliantly clean according to the organisation that allows blue flags. However it has lost the flag because it has too many non organised sporting events and too much publicity for those events which goes against the Coast Law apparently. Now if that isn't a shocking reason to lose a flag that gives great publicity to an area I don't know what is. (Apparently it is because there is an open fight between central government and the local Valencian governement about usage of the beach)

Now I thought that a beach was for relaxing on and doing activities. The non formal nature of the events that go on, volleyball tournaments, beach soccer etc... should actually be something to celebrate. Meanwhile have a look at my video about the beach and port area of Valencia and you will see why it is so good. And also take a look at this video of a flat for rent just down by the Port where you could enjoy the beach each and every day.

Meanwhile the Valencia region has 101 blue flag beaches on its 119km of coastline. Not a bad ratio.



You can rent this flat right now for short term or long term rentals.

Cheap Accommodation Competition

Now normally I would offer to find accommodation for our clients coming over, see our post at this link. But as I just cannot compete with this sort of promotion if your visit to Valencia coincides with the dates given here get yourself over to Hostel Bookers and try to get a bed for 5 cents.

Beds for 5cents - HostelBookers Birthday Giveaway

In celebration of its fifth birthday, HostelBookers is running an exciting deal – book a beach hostel for just 5 cents a night!

This discounted hostel holiday will be offered at five popular European destinations for travel between 6 and 10 July 2009, with the beds becoming available next week from 1 to 5 June.

50 beds will go on sale at the 5cents rate every day during this week at 2pm GMT, with a total of 250 beds at beach hostels in the Mediterranean on offer overall. There are no hidden costs or strings attached – travellers really will pay just 5 cents a night for their bed.

From the bustling city beaches of Barcelona and Valencia to the glitzy resort of Alghero, the discos of Corfu and laid-back Santorini, there’s a diverse range of great beach holidays available for this tiny price.

The five hostels participating in the birthday offer are Centric Point in Barcelona, Purple Nest in Valencia, Sunrock Backpackers Hostel in Corfu, Hostel D'Alguer in Alghero and Santorini Hostel in Santorini.

David Smith, Chief Operating Officer of HostelBookers, said, “We’ve had a phenomenal five years at HostelBookers, and experienced unprecedented growth. This is the first time we have run a promotion on this scale but our anniversary felt like the perfect time – it’s a way to say thank you to all our customers, and give a little something back, after all their help over the years.”

HostelBookers is also running a competition as part of the birthday celebrations – they’ll be giving away 20 ‘presents’ to customers, including £500 in cash, an ASUS 701SD Travel Laptop and a Canon Ixus 85 Digital Camera.

For further information please log on to HostelBookers.com

Valencia Property Getting Cheaper If You Have Pounds

As you will all know the price of property in Spain rose remarkably without the prices actually rising when the Pound dropped like a stone and almost hit parity with the Euro. Well the Euro is having a few problems in the last week or so and currently it stands at around 1.14 Euros to the pound if you are doing a currency transfer to Spain. This is obviously much better than you get on the high street.

Get in touch with us if you have any need to send pounds into a Euro account any time soon as you can fix the rate now if you want even though you will only make the transfer in a few months time. Our partner companies for FX transfer will get you the best rate going.

Meanwhile, it is such a nice day that i get the feeling that the pool is looking tempting for the first time, it always looks tempting but the temperature of the water needs to be bathlike for me.

If you want to win yourself a holiday in Spain or anywhere else for that matter click below and complete a quick survey.

Guest Blog From Chris Lee

A different post today which relates to Valencia. Chris Lee runs a website called Cycle Tour Spain and the site will give you all of the information you may need about planning a route and carrying out a cycle your in Spain. Enjoy Chris' blog and click through to his links.

I’m writing this from a roof terrace in the Valencia Community, marvelling at the dark blue sea in the distance that lies above the green muddle of the orange groves through which we wander to reach the beach. These are definitely the main plus points of living on the Costa Azahar, south of Valencia city.

I’ve blogged before on the best and worst aspects of living in Spain, but what I love most about the Valencia Community is the shear randomness of it all. If there’s one thing they like here it’s making a noise, be it the annual Fallas (mid-March) festival, regular mascletàs (short daytime firework set-offs) to celebrate saint’s days or 8am wake-up calls by blunderbuss on a Sunday morning. You never know what will happen in Valencia.

One thing that is guaranteed is the quality and value of local produce – oranges, cherries, strawberries, tiger nuts (xufas) and almond-based breads and sweets – all of which tantalise the tongue and make a trip to the local market a very pleasant and cost-effective experience.

I run a website dedicated to getting on your bike and seeing off-the-beaten-track Spain on two wheels called CycleTourSpain.com, and – once you venture inland got away from the costas here, which can be busy, ugly and run-down in places – you get a real sense of freedom. Small towns of Arabic origin, shear mountains and dramatic off-road hiking and cycling routes, such as the Racó del Duc offer incredible variety in scenery, plus a sporting challenge (coupled with quiet roads) that one simply cannot enjoy in the more congested, flatter confines of most of the UK.

Whatever you’re into, the chances are you’ll find it in Valencia.