CLINT EASTWOOD AND WALT DISNEY (Mojacar)

Member Name: binnie

Product:	Mojacar
Date:	05/10/03 (1295 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: CAN HAVE A CHEAP HOLIDAY NOW, STILL CHEAP, WARM ALL YEAR ROUND

Disadvantages: I WANT TO BE THERE NOW

After many months of deciding where to go for our September holidays, we decided on Mojacar Costa Almeria. "Where"? said my workmates. Exactly, no-one there had heard of it and that's what we wanted, hardly any english people and plenty of sun, food and sangria.
I searched the internet and found a great many websites with agencies offering apartments at a reasonable rate. We wanted to go on the 6th of Sept this year for two weeks, and emailed that many people that I had forgotten who I had emailed. When I received a reply about a beautiful penthouse apartment availble for rent at a reasonable price of £210 a week, we snapped it up. There were no pictures, just a description and telephone number in Spain. The man was English so no problem with the communication. I rang him and he said he would accept 5% deposit and the rest payable on arrival. Apparently he had spotted my advert on a Mojacar forum site, and had wrote back.
A few days later, a couple of photos came through the post. We decided to book.

Mojacar is in Southern Spain, with the nearest airport being Almeria about 45 to 60 mins away. We decided on flying to Murcia about 90 mins away as the flights were cheaper. We flew with BMI Baby at £63 one way and £57 another. There's also Alicante airport but that's about 2 hours drive away.
Costa Almeria is an all year round resort with temperatures hardly dropping below 16 degrees. When we were there it was between 29 and 31 degrees. On first inspection of the resort, we were slightly disappointed, our flight had been delayed by 6 hours and were tired and had arrived on a Sunday morning at about 7.30 am. So everything was closed and everything looked barren.

Mojacar is split into two, theres Mojacar Playa which is about a 13Km stretch of sand, bars and restaurants, but because they are so spread out, you would need a car for some areas. Then theres Mojacar Pueblo which is a small town perched high upon a hillside.
We were staying in a small Urbanisation called Canada de Aguila which was a mixture of Spanish people and english. The apartment was very spacious, with an extra large balcony giving us great views towards the sea and surrounding area.
A 5 minute walk brought us out into an area with a few Pizzerias and a Fish restaurant. We went to Dani's about 5 times and made friends with a rather nice young spanish girl. She only spoke pigeon english, and we only could say Adios, gracias etc. By the end of the holiday we had learnt some new words. She was very sad when we left, and promised we would visit her in 2004.

Along Mojacar Playa are so many restaurants for everyones tastes. There are many, many pizza places, Chinese places,Indian, a Cowboy restaurant with great Burgers, an Aregentinian place and of course, plenty of english places. The english restaurants tend to be nearer to the Hotel Indalo which was the opposite end to where we were staying. Apparently an ex football player owns one called Beavers, I think he played for West Ham but don't quote me. You can buy anything from beans on Toast, to Rabbit, you won't be short of choice in most restaurants. There are some lovely ice cream parlours, where the one next to Solos bar is absolutely fantastic. We got a Kiwi Fruit and Ice Cream and Cream Sundae, which was massive, but it did cost about $5.00 , about £3.70 ish..

There are plenty of cheap supermarkets, with the best one being in the Parque Commercial shopping centre. We paid 10p for a 1.5 litre bottle of water. Most things were half price and below compared to England. There's even an english supermarket called Mr UK, he's a bit of a rip off. I paid £1.50 for a loaf of white bread, but only because he was the only one open on a Sunday at the time we visited. Mostly they are all open 6 days a week. There is a wide variety of goods for sale, with alcohol and cigerettes being almost half price or less. As for normal shops, there
weren't a wide variety, they were mostly the tacky souvenir shops where you could buy the english newspaper. The Parque Commerical wa sbetter,with a few nice shops and cafe bars. I would recommend Mojos which was run by an english couple. It was lovely food with massive portions, and the view from their terrace overlooked the sea and coastline.

Mojacar Pueblo is meant to be famous for where Walt Disney was born.He was born into a Spanish family with spanish parents, and had a spanish name. Then one day he went to the USA and became Walt Disney. The locals proudly display his picture and really believe it, I'm not so sure if it's true or not. What I do know is an Indianna Jones film was made there.
A visit to Mini Hollywood in Tabernas is worth visit I suppose. Based in Tabernas in the desert, it's a themed area for where they actually filmed Cowboy Films like Fistful of Dollars. There were a few stunt shows, and props based around a Cowboy theme. The best bit was the zoo area. It was quite large, and the animals were well kept. It cost us about £13 each to get in, but as always the food wasn't up to much.

To make the holiday more special we visited a few estate agents and went viewing some apartments out there. In the end we decided on buying a one bedroom property in a slightly inland from Mojacar town, called Turre. It will be ready next August and we can't wait. if you buy off plan then you get them cheaper. Apparently once they have been completed, the prices will rocket, so it's a good investment.
When we visited Turre we went into some Tapas bars, which we had never been in, in all our time visiting Spain. My husbands relatives live there and they took us round the local bars. Turre is more spanish than Mojacar, even though quite a few enlish people live there, it's still very spanish. We went in one tapas bar and got Tortilla, Croquettes, Pork in a Sandwich with garlic mayonnaise, and we all had three
alcoholic drinks. It came to £3.50 per head. What a bargain that was. They then took us into the pensioners bar, and it cost us 60p for an alcoholic drink plus one tapas. I could see us enjoying this. We were very nervous of sampling tapas, as we thought it was all fish and Olives etc. We really enjoyed it and felt as though we were fitting in.

Car Hire was cheap, but we always use www.carjet.com, we got a Renault Clio four door for £224 for two weeks. You definetly need a car to explore the many places. It is quite a barren place in parts, there's no greenery. A visit to Cabrera high up in the mountains is lovely. You can see for miles. There's only a couple of restaurants up there, and is mostly english people. I first thought that Costa Almeria was mostly spanish, but there are loads of english out there, and all I heard were Southerners, maybe us Northerners can't afford it, but I've shown them wrong.... Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against Southerners before you shout at me.

David was in his element as he's a very avid cyclist and took his bike. He met an older man out there who he went cycling with, and he was amazed at how quiet the roads were. I must admit, there is hardly any traffic on the motorways. Everything is signposted correctly, and he didn't feel unsafe at all. The roads are well maintained and most peole stopped at a zebra crossing which is a miracle in Spain.

TOP TIPS WHEN VISITING MOJACAR.

1 You must go to Mojacar Pueblo, you can see for miles.

2 Visit Mini Hollywood and see how the west was won.

3 Go to the many beach bars, they serve food and drink and some have live music.

4 Hire a car and see the natural beauty of Cabo de Gata.

5 Taste a delcious ice cream Sundae

6 Go to Bedar in the hills and choose the Leg of Lamb, it's enough for two people.

7 Try a tapas, it's not as bad as you might think

8 Try
speaking a little spanish, they love it when you try

9 A visit to Almeria itself is worth a trip, it's about 45 mins away.

10 You don't need as much spending money as Tenerife.


Hope you all enjoyed reading this, it's one of the best and relaxing holidays we have ever had.
There's something for all ages, without the noise of Bendidorm.

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