Javea has many activities, clubs and societies that cater for all tastes. Obviously the summer season has more in the way of outdoor activities. For the sporting type, there is a football team, a rugby team, a netball team and various tennis tournaments. For the water sport lovers you can snorkel, scuba, windsurf, jet-ski or take out a boat for a fishing trip. For the less active there are bridge clubs, computer clubs, sewing and craft clubs and most of the bars have pool and darts teams if you prefer a pint with your chosen sport! In the summer there are volleyball and football tournaments on the beach and a weekly outdoor cinema.

The town is mainly divided into three sections, Old Town, Port and Arenal. The Old Town is the older section of the town, which is situated a little away from the coast, as inhabitants lived in constant fear of attacks by pirates. The main waterfront has the port of Aduanas de Mar along with the marina. The coastline itself is marked with several restaurants, bars and cafés. The Arenal beach here is the main attraction and is abuzz with many activities all year long.

Although it is one of the popular places to buy property on the coast, with the Spanish as well as other Europeans it has still been affected by the downturn in the Spanish property market.

Everyone who has traveled to Spain equates Spain’s Costa Blanca with fun in the sun. This beautiful stretch of sandy white beaches on the Mediterranean is situated in the Alicante province. Costa Blanca stretches form Denia to Pilar de la Horadada and Torrevieja. All of the towns in between are considered to be in the Community of Valencia. It is easy to understand why this area is called Costa Blanca, which means “white coast” in English. These beautiful and popular white sand beaches are the specialty of the coastal towns in the area such as Javea, Moraira, Altea, Benidorm, Guardamar and Torrevieja. They are all wonderful spots for a holiday, so let’s look more closely at one of them.

For the rest of Northern Europeans it is the Dutch and Belgians predominantly with a few of the Nordic countries who are coming down. Those from the Benelux countries are looking for a lifestyle change and tend to be younger families or those not quite ready for retirement who want to earn a small living. They tend to look for large villas with a good sized plot, but prefer to stick close to the beach. Others are looking for larger premises to run as a hotel.

I had an opportunity to meet Karla last year on one of my trips to Spain. My interview preview will give you a

bit of background on our meeting. Karla is a fascinating individual, a painter, writer and overall creative

person, but also an entrepreneur with a bit of an alternative flair. Here is what she has to say about her

experience as a North American expatriate living in Spain.
 Tell us a bit about your background. Where did you grow up, what is your educational background and what did

you do before you moved to Spain

The UK market is very slow and UK buyers are thin on the ground, but as these represent only 5% of the actual market it shouldn’t affect the market too much. Those that are looking are bargain hunting. They are looking for something generally below 150,000. Why this figure -I can only assume but I believe that many of the buyers from the UK are people who made their mind up to move to Spain a while ago.