Benicassim

We had a chat last night and decided we would head to a nice campsite today ... and have a holiday within a holiday, if you know what I mean?!

Last year we stayed at a nice site in Benicassim and as it was only a 45 minute drive away we decided to head there.

And here we are at Bonterra Park campsite.  It is in the ACSI book but it the most expensive at 18 euro a night (£13.14 / $28.56 AUD).

The place is rammed!  We have found the Poms, Germans, French and of course loads of Dutch, they are all here, we haven't seen any Spaniards apart from the guards staff.

We were only going to stay for a couple of days but the check in girl said that this weekend is a big Spanish holiday with days off on Friday and Monday, so we decided to stay for 7 nights and have a good relax!! 

It is a quality campsite but is reminiscent of a retirement village!  We are probably the youngest here.  The pool is lovely though, as are all the facilities. Talking to a few of the retirees most of them stay here for months and have mega setups including massive satellite dishes so they can still watch Corrie.

 There is a supermarket across the road accessed by a zebra crossing, so there is little chance of getting squashed by the Spanish drivers. This is about as far as most of them venture as it is a bit scary outside the confines of the village.  If they do get squashed there is a in-house funeral director and crematorium.

 There was a turn playing in the bar this arvo, who were described as a folk band....they were absolutely woeful.  Thankfully they finished at 18.00, which is way past bedtime in the village!  A few of the oldies died of boredom during the performance.  I contemplated suicide but after a couple of San Miguels I changed my mind and decided we should escape the village and check out the town.  After filling out numerous forms and promising to be back before sun down we were allowed to leave.

The beach and prom were lovely and, of course, deserted  because up the road 2000 old biddies were safely ensconced in the village. 

The photos don't really show how lovely some of the beach side villas are.  Most of them were built in the late 1800s ...

Prom walk ...

We stopped at a beach bar on the way back for a couple of beers, they then chuck the tapas at you and before we knew it we decided to stay for dinner ...

It was a very nice restaurant.  Don't be put off by the shutter behind me, it just wasn't the best seat in the house!  The food was lovely though.  We had all sorts of tapas a few beers, fish for Elaine, steak for me and finished up with some champagne (gratis).  We were guessing it would be reasonable at about 60 euros, but when we got the bill it was 28 euro (£20.44 / $44.43AUD).

Oh and it was dog friendly ...

It was well after dark by the time we got back to the camp so rather than answer a million questions on why we ate outside of the camp, we bribed a hearse driver to give us a lift into the complex ... he was on his way to pick up another load!