We walked part of Spain’s GR 330 in the Costa Blanca mountains via Finestrat, Sella, Abdet, Castell de Castells, Parcent, Gata de Gorgos and Denia.
Our plan was to walk the first 4 stages of Spain’s GR 330 route, but in reverse. So most people start in Denia but we decided to start in Sella and walk to Denia – we liked the idea of walking to the sea, and this would also allow us a quick bus connection up to Valencia for a few nights before going home. We were aiming for around 130km and a set route, but it wasn’t quite meant to be. We still totalled around 110km, but we couldn’t do all of the route we wanted to, and had to replan quite a bit.
But in the Costa Blanca mountains this is really easy, so long as you’re prepared to shell out for a taxi if you need to. We had to book all of our accommodation in advance because most pueblos only have 1 or 2 places to stay, and we didn’t want to risk a no room at the inn situation. We carried our stuff with us but we didn’t have a tent, so sticking to our reservations was essential. It was also really useful to be able to speak some Spanish – we did a lot more stringing sentences together (and getting away with it) than we thought we’d be able to. We reckon the locals probably spoke more English than they let on, but they were very happy we were trying.
Getting to the start line
We flew into Alicante airport, arriving late on Friday night and got a taxi for 25 euros from the airport to Hotel La City Mercado. The next-day plan was to take a bus from Alicante to Relleu and then do a warm-up 6km walk to Sella where we would start on the GR 330 the next day.
But when we woke up we realised the bus time we were aiming for (9.30am) was in the other direction, from Relleu to Alicante, and there wasn’t a bus going the way we wanted until the evening. Oops. So over breakfast we replanned and decided to take an hour ride on Tram 1 (2.50 euros/person) from Alicante-Luceros (which was right by the hotel) to Crucera. Then we would see if there was a bus leaving from there. Aa trip to the tourist info, pretending we could follow an entire conversation in Spanish, and the nice lady phoning various people concluded in a ‘no, buses don’t seem to run on weekends’. So our best bet was to get a taxi to Finestrat which cost us 15 euros. In Finestrat we bought a couple of bananas, ate huge sandwiches in a cafe, and then set off on our first walk to Sella.
From Finestrat to Sella
We were also pretty happy to do more walking on our first full day because the weather was due to be really bad the next day. Hard to believe given the completely blue skies. From 2km away we liked the look of Sella and this was confirmed when we arrived to find the whole of the main street closed off for a jolly regional ‘pilota’ tournament. We had no idea how the game worked (still don’t), but we were happy to pull up a plastic chair with the friendly locals and watch. When it was the pilotese for ‘full time’ we guzzled some nicely chilled beers at El Casino and stayed at Isa i Toni apartments (owned by the same smart entrepreneur who’d incidentally lived in Belgium for a while).
From Sella to Abdet (Confrides)
Well, there wasn’t much walking involved today. We woke up to pouring rain and over breakfast back at El Casino concluded that it wasn’t going to magically shift and we’d be stupid to start an 8-hour walk of 26km. Toni knew a taxi driver who (on his day off) would be willing to drive us to Abdet for 40 euros. This was pretty much our only option as no buses were running (still the weekend), and taxis could only really be called up from the coast, which would mean double the price. So after many coffee cortados and a lunchtime paella we were driven the 50-minute trip to Abdet.
We weren’t massive fans of Abdet. It’s a very small village, and feels like it has a bit of a chip on its shoulder for losing out to nearby Confrides as a GR village. We’re pretty sure a lady decided to blame us for some trampled plants outside her door. And the one place to eat in the village wasn’t going to win any awards any time soon.
From Abdet to Castell de Castells
The next morning we were itching to finally start walking the route (and get out of Abdet). The weather had improved a bit but we looked up to the mountain ridge where we were supposed to start and it was thick grey cloud. The (British) owner of the place we were staying in advised us that the route would be pretty slippery and not very pleasant. An alternative was to stay in the valley and head down a tarmacked road along the river to a reservoir. So that’s what we did. But we tweaked it because the Abdet cafe place wasn’t open for breakfast and we didn’t want to do a whole 6 or 7 hours on no breakfast or lunch. So we stopped at Beniarda to stock up before climbing up hairpin bends for hours until we reached the first bit of official GR. It was only when we got here that we saw that the GR path from Confrides to Castell de Castells had been closed off so it’s just as well we hadn’t tried to take that route. Finally onto the official route, we trotted down the mountainside and headed into our next pueblo where we stayed at Hotel Rural Serrella. When we were in Castell de Castells we discovered a fancy restaurant called Castell d’Ines, but they only opened if they had reservations so we never got to try it out. One for next time…
From Castell de Castells to Parcent
After a ‘rest day’ (where we somehow managed to stroll around for 15km looking for some arches that we never found) we woke to glorious blue skies and sunshine and left Castell de Castells with a spring in our step knowing that finally we were getting a good weather day and we’d be doing our first full stage of the GR. The packed lunch our hotel had given us weighed a ton so we tried to get rid of it as soon as possible. We found a fantastic panoramic-view lunch spot which helped with that.
The morning was swell, the afternoon was tough. This was our longest day of walking and by about 4pm it was starting to show. We were tired, and I’d developed a nasty cold plus woken up a 3-year-old ankle injury. When we reached only 3km from the end we were overjoyed, before realising the last 3km would be entirely downhill on a steep, curving, rocky path. By the time we arrived in Parcent we were aching pretty bad. Then we found out Wednesday is Parcent’s ‘closed day’. After some slight panic about whether we’d eat that night, we found one tapas bar that was indeed open, and full of British tourists/expats who seemed to agree with us that Wednesday dining is nice too. Most importantly, we’d completed our first full GR stage (without any hacks or shortcuts).
From Parcent to Gata de Gorgos
After a bad night’s coughing, we awoke to discover that my cold had developed into a nasty chest infection where every time I breathed in I rattled a bit. We looked at the GR route and thought that we could definitely do the first half of it as it was mainly flat and following a river. But the second half worried us – it was 5km uphill and I could barely get up the stairs in the guesthouse. So we decided to walk the first half, as far as Senija, stop for a proper lunch in a restaurant there, then take a detour to Bonaire (sadly, nothing Caribbean about the place) and get the tram to Gata de Gorgos. Up until lunchtime everything went splendidly – it was more populated (touristy) than previous days, but there were nice bits too. In Senija we had a great lunch and then we set off to get the tram where it all went horribly wrong.
We’d worked out there was only 1 tram an hour so we had a strategic coffee stop in dodgy-looking Benissa to fill the time, then walked the extra 2km (that’s a lot when you’ve already done 15 and you ache) to Bonaire tram stop to find the whole thing under construction. We managed to communicate with one of the builders who explained that the tram wasn’t running and that we should get a bus from Benissa instead – and the buses leave from guess where? Yes, exactly where we’d just had coffee. So, another 2km (ow, ow, ow) back up the hill to wait another hour for a bus. On the flipside, it was free. They don’t seem to charge for rail replacement bus services in Spain. So we had about 3 hours wasted traipsing around the least scenic towns you can think of and walked way more than we had planned to that day. We ended up feeling like we probably should have just done the climb up to Gata de Gorgos and stuck to the GR route. This was very much a case of ‘Pain, no gain’. A lovely meal at Arrels reminded us that we were on holiday after all.
From Gata de Gorgos to Denia
Well, we’d already veered off the GR route, and we were both knackered. So for the final day of the walk we decided to still walk the whole thing, but not to take the 19km up and down GR route at all, rather we picked another more direct route which was 11km instead and something we felt like we could manage without ruining ourselves. We arrived in Denia just in time for a great tapas menu del dia lunch then hobbled to a sunny square where we sat and had a couple of beers and finally decided to be on holiday. We really liked Denia – we thought it would be really touristy but it wasn’t. Admittedly we didn’t really get to the beach part (our legs gave up before we got there), but what we did see was a pleasant surprise, especially given we’d never heard of the place before planning this trip.
Yes, we’d do it again
All in all, it was a great trip. There were some tough moments and we’re a bit annoyed with ourselves that we couldn’t completely the whole thing. But when rain, sickness and injury all feature on your ‘holiday’, you gotta cut yourself some slack. We’d done no training and these routes meant long days and some technically difficult terrain in parts. Taking hiking sticks with us was probably the smartest move of the trip. I’d definitely do it again, but it would be nice to pick somewhere you don’t have to book accommodation in advance, to give yourself the flexibility of deciding when to stop for a rest day.
*When in Valencia, we discovered a fantastic tapas bar called La Otra Parte.