The view above is from the Europa Club apartments in La Cala De Finestrat near Benidorm. The picture should refresh automatically every 30 seconds.  The dilapidated building is the block above the old Amancio restaurant, the first phase of the  demolition is due to start on December 18th.  The building will be demolished manually to the 2nd floor and the rest will be demolished with heavy equipment.  The work is expected to take four months.  The building will be replaced with a garden and children's play area. When the work is complete we will alter the camera position to give a view all the way around the bay.  

La Cala de Finestrat is approx 3miles from Benidorm.  It was once a quiet bay with a few shops and restaurants but the builders moved in and created a mini city on what was wasteland.  Luckily, 99% of the apartments blocks and all the infrastructure was in place before the Spanish property market collapse.  Apart from the Amancio building mentioned earlier the only other major blight on the landscape is the huge Atrium beach hotel monstrosity which has been abandoned for the past four years.  Whether this will ever be completed or demolished remains to be seen but this is Spain so we aren't holding our breath.

Benidorm, is the most popular holiday resort in mainland Spain and we have just about finished our new Benidorm section which includes most of the hotels and apartments available.  You can visit the hotel section here. 

 Transfers From Alicante Airport To Benidorm / La Cala Hotel

After doing a lot of research into the most reliable and cheapest transfer options between Alicante airport and  hotels/apartments in Benidorm and La Cala de Finestrat , we opted for Resorthoppa. 

Before deciding which transfer method to recommend we wanted to try out some different options.  First we used the ALSA airport bus.  This runs every hour between the airport and the new Benidorm bus station.  It also goes to Avenida Europa in Benidorm town centre.  The price was good (9 euros each when we tried it).  It took 45 minutes non stop.  We got off at Benidorm bus station but then had to get a taxi to La Cala which cost another  9 euros.  You'd have to get a taxi to your hotel in Benidorm unless you got off at Avenida Europa and walked.  So the bus and a taxi ended up costing 27 euros for two people.

The next option we tried was a taxi.  There are loads of taxi's parked at the airport so there's no hanging around.  There were two of us and we asked to be dropped off at the roundabout in La Cala.  The taxi was very fast. When we got to the toll booth I didn't realise the taxi had a built in device which opened the barrier.  It didn't slow down on the approach to the barrier and I really thought we were going to hit it.  When we were  about 15 yards in front of the barrier it opened automatically.  We arrived in La Cala in 35 minutes which I reckon must be a record.  It cost us a whopping 65 euros, so unless you're traveling with four people, its probably too expensive.

Our final test was the Resorthoppa shuttle service which we pre booked online.  Resorthoppa have the advantage of hotel or apartment block drop off. Our plane was half an hour early which was 45 minutes before the  Resorthoppa coach was  due to leave.  The girl on the Resorthoppa reception desk was extremely friendly and told us that they would put us in a taxi to save us hanging around.  I asked how much I'd have to pay and she said it wouldn't cost any extra.  Within 15 minutes we were in the taxi with two other people and on our way. The total cost for two of was just £17 which is £10 less than the Alsa bus with taxi. We were very impressed with this service because they didn't have any obligation to put us in a taxi and could have made us wait for the coach.  Having spoken to other people who have been equally impressed with  Resorthoppa's  standard of service and price we decided to recommend them to our visitors.  You can book the Resorthoppa now by clicking here