Located at the mouth of the River Segura, Guardamar del Segura is another tourist honey pot. Guardamar was originally situated further inland but after it was destroyed by the 1829 earthquake, the town was rebuilt closer to the coast. The Dunas de Guardamar is a woodland park by the coast that was created at the end of the last century when rows of pine trees were planted to prevent the advancing sands from the beach encroaching on the town. The park is a lovely place to walk through, its fauna includes red squirrels and black swans. Guardamar has plenty of beautiful, sandy beaches, backed by large stretches of sand dunes; the most popular are the Centro and Roqueta beaches whilst those next to the mouth of the river tend to be quieter. The town is well developed and the beaches are backed by modern hotels and apartments, though the centre of the old town retains its original Spanish charm. Guardamar’s population of 10,000 includes a large number of British expatriates.
La Marquesa Golf Club is just 6km from Guardamar.
Easily reached from Alicante, Guardamar is 23km from the airport, or 35km from Murcia’s San Javier airport, linked by the main N332 coast road.
Guardamar has a mixture of international restaurants and typical Spanish bars as well as plenty of supermarkets supplying local produce and imported products from other European countries.
On Wednesday afternoons, the streets are transformed by the hustle and bustle of the weekly market and on Sundays the “rastra”, the flea market, takes place.