Benicàssim

The main reason for going straight to Benicàssim from Girona is that there’s a Euromaster in the next town where we could get the van’s front brakes and tyres changed. We found a campsite with great reviews on CamperContact and had reserved a pitch for a week, giving us enough time to get the van sorted.

Benicàssim is 400 km drive along the AP7, so the journey took up most of the day. It’s a toll road most of the way, so there wasn’t much in the way of traffic and we could just cruise along listening to podcasts. The ring road around Barcelona though isn’t a toll road, and the traffic was horrendous with hundreds of lorries clogging up the road – a taste of what it’ll be like in Dover if Brexit doesn’t go well. We drove directly to Euromaster to order the brakes and tyres, and once the van was booked in to have them fitted we drove the short distance to Benicàssim. After a quick shop at Lidl, we checked ourselves into the campsite.

The site is as good as it said in the reviews, with decent sized pitches and great facilities, and it didn’t take long to make ourselves at home. Most of the vans here are British, and the site is starting to fill up with snowbirds arriving for the winter (we are by far the youngest people here!). With daytime temperatures in the high teens and low 20’s, it’s not difficult to see why so many people overwinter here.

A Mercadona opposite the site entrance meant that there would be no need to drive anywhere besides Euromaster. Having originally booked ourselves in for a week at the campsite, we quickly extended that to 10 days.

When we first went for a walk along the seafront we soon realised that we’d visited the town last year, on a day trip from Valencia to walk along the disused railway path, though we hadn’t explored the town itself.

The weather here has been warm and sunny most of the time, though we’ve had some rain too. Besides getting the van’s brakes and tyres changed we’ve been into the town centre a couple of times (market day on a Thursday), and I’ve even been for a couple of bike rides. We also discovered an excellent restaurant tucked away down a side street not far from the campsite, which we’ll be returning to for dinner tonight. We’ve been for drinks with some of the neighbours, and took part in the quiz night, and the van’s also had a long overdue wash. Whilst it’s nice here, God knows how all these snowbirds manage to keep themselves amused for the whole winter!

We paid extra for fast WiFi, so we’ve been able to download some TV programmes to watch in the evening. Sunday was the Remembrance Day marking the centenary of the end of the First World War, and we watched the coverage on TV. We also saw the excellent film ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’, where Peter Jackson did an amazing job enhancing so much original WWI footage. We’ve also been watching the farcical events in Westminster over Brexit… the less said, the better!

Tomorrow we shall be moving on to Valencia for a couple of weeks. Both of our daughters will be coming out to see us, so we’re really looking forward to it.

Mike

The promenade
This would be rammed in the summer!
Town sign
Mosaic street sculpture
One of the many seafront villas
Ernest Hemingway stayed in this villa during the Spanish Civil War
Chopping the trees back on the campsite
Paella time
New tyres and brakes being fitted
Market day – great if you like buying second-hand clothes!
The main church
Vending machine shop
The beach at the next town Oropesa del Mar
Oropesa has closed for the season and was like a ghost town
The ‘Vía Verde’ disused railway track, now a cycle path
Benicàssim from the Via Verde
Stage 5 of the Vuelta a España cycle race passed through Benicàssim in 2017
‘Brexit shows that irresponsibility can have consequences’ – one of the views on Spanish TV

2 thoughts on “Benicàssim”

  1. We’re near Benicàssim @ Castellón.
    Was going on the Aire at Benicasim but after a walk round found it a dead hole and moved on. Been back since for another walk round and found it the same.
    Was it cheaper to get your tyres and brakes done here ?

    • The southern end of Benicàssim had closed down for winter, but the northern end was much busier.

      We went to the Euromaster at Castellón for convenience more than anything, but the work cost less than it would have done at the Euromaster in France.

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