IT’S always a contest in my family to be the first to spot El Elefante, the elephant-shaped mountain of Costa Blanca town Javea. Its proper name is Montgo but it’s rarely called that. I’ve been visiting this part of Spain for years, and Javea, around 90km from Alicante and 100km from Valencia , is a favourite.
A far cry from Benidorm, just 50km to the south, the coastal town is also popular with Spanish holidaymakers — and a break here feels wonderfully healthy because it is recognised by the World Health Organisation as having one of the best climates in the world — sunny and mild year-round, and with low humidity. Javea is divided into three areas — the port, Playa Arenal (the main beach), and the old town full of medieval alleyways. In the old town, tourists can visit its centrepiece, the 15th-century gothic gem of San Bartolome Church, which is riddled with bullet holes dating from the Spanish Civil War .
It is also where you will find authentic tapas bars — for warm charm you can’t beat La Taberna de Javea. The blue-flag beach of Arenal is vast and golden, and is all you need to keep the family happy. There’s kayaks, paddleboards and pedalos to hire, plus volleyball nets, playgrounds for the kids and an inflatable, floating obstacle course.
Javea’s port is a bustling place where locally caught fish including sea bass and bream are auctioned early in the morning, to be served up later in many of the town’s restaurants. Lunch, including roasted octopu.