Overseas Meet – Costa Blanca, Spain
Costa Blanca’s dramatic topography of blue seas, white beaches and terraced fruit groves set against panoramic mountains, is home to Spain’s most exciting rock climbing. This October we’ll be off to the sunny shores of Costa Blanca for a week of world-class climbing in the sun.
Venue
It’s all there and all very accessible. The limestone cliffs in Costa Blanca offer everything from quaint single pitch venues to dramatic 15 pitch, 400m adventures. All of the crags and routes are well logged in the Costa Blanca Rockfax book. The single pitch routes are generally all sport / bolted routes. The longer routes all generally have bolted belays and mostly bolted in-between, with the occasional need for a nut.
Suitability
Accommodation & In-Country Transport
Most of the price you pay to SCC is to cover your accommodation and in-country transport.
In-Country Travel – we will be hiring a few vans and cars to provide transfers in Spain, this will also be used to transport us all to the various crags each day. We will be putting a call out for members willing to drive slightly nearer the time.
Accommodation – We have a number of bungalows at Bungalows Canuta Baja booked already with space for up to 24 people. We will be confirming this once we have deposits in from those wishing to come along. Make sure you put down a deposit sooner rather than later to secure a space.
These bungalows are just outside Calpe within sight of the impressive Peñón de Ifach (ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/penon_de_ifach-1697/) and stones throw from the sun-drenched Sierra de Toix (https://www.ukclimbing.com/log…/crags/sierra_de_toix-1695/). There are kitchen facilities in each of the bungalows and communal space outside for us all to hang out in the evening. There’s a couple of restaurants nearby and many more in Calpe itself as well as supermarkets.
Price & Payment
Exact pricing will be finalised once we have deposits in, but we expect the cost per-person (excluding flights & food) to be less than £250 per person. This will include:
- 7 nights’ accommodation with a pool
- All in-location transport
- 1 night out at a local Spanish restaurant with food and drink
- All arranged for you, just pay and relax
In addition to this we will all need to individually purchase our flights. The flight prices may vary between £90 to £more, depending when they are purchased, where you fly from, and what gear you’re bringing with you. We advise buying your flights asap to benefit from the lowest possible air-fares.
Each bungalow will be responsible for their own food. The supermarket is a 10 min drive from the accommodation. It’s up to you on how to organise this in your groups but from experience it works well if everyone puts cash (say about 30€) each in a pot and then the person going shopping takes that pot to the shop. Then you all just add more as the week goes on if needed and then split the change at the end.
Within your cost for the holiday we are aiming to have at least one night out as a group. The night(s) for this will be announced at the beginning of the trip.
Your deposit must be received by Sunday 14th August at which time we will confirm the accommodation. After this date there may be limited spaces available to book but no guarantees.
How to Reserve Your Space
Step 1. Pay your deposit
Book onto this event to pay your £50 deposit. This will notify us you’re coming and we can allocate you accommodation and in-country transport space. Your deposit must be received by Sunday 14th August.
Step 2. Book your flights
I recommend booking the following flights from London Gatwick to Alicante:
- Outbound: EZY8673 – 09:35 (LGW) – 13:05 (ALC)
- Inbound: EZY8666 – 16:30 (ALC) – 18:05 (LGW)
Other flights are available, and we will try to accommodate people but will be arranging hire cars and general plans based around these flight times. Please contact us if you have any queries on this.
Step 3. Final Balance
The final balance will be due no later than Sunday 4th September. We will provide details on how to pay this balance nearer the time.
Step 4. Get psyched!!!
🎉🏝🍹🧗♂️☀️
Other Stuff
Insurance
Everyone will also need their own travel insurance to cover their holiday. Be aware that any existing travel insurance you have may not cover rock climbing so you might need to take out specific cover for this trip. Some suggestions include: SportsCover Direct, Snow Card or The BMC
UK Transfers
In the run up to the trip we will discuss car shares for the journey to the airport to try and minimise the number of cars we need to take.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the trip, please post in the Facebook event , especially if it’s something that might help other people to understand. If you have a more individual question, feel free to contact the committee