Located on the Orihuela Costa coastline some 20 kilometers away from the town of Orihuela itself you will find two wonderful seaside resorts which are very popular with holidaymakers visiting this part of south-eastern Spain. These fine resorts are known as Playa Flamenca and Punta Prima.
The lovely town of Punta Prima is recognizable mostly by the tall water tower located on the N-332 coast road. Also, it is here that 3 rival car boot sales (rastros) are held every Sunday attracting people from all along the coast.
Punta Prima has a fine beach and this is backed by an attractive row of huge palm trees, one of the famous landmarks for this part of the coast. Just a short drive from Punta Prima you can find the busy town of Torrevieja with its famous water park (Aquopolis) and its fantastic marina and promenade.
A little south of Punta Prima the resort known as Playa Flamenca was, up until the 1970's, just a stretch of bare but attractive coastline with no development whatsoever. Situated just south of the busy town of Torrevieja, it attracted the attention of a number of Flemish property investors in around 1972 and they thought that it would have a great deal of potential as a holiday resort. It was from this time onwards that the resort began to grow and develop into the popular destination that it is today.
Playa Flamenca has become very popular with foreign buyers looking to buy holiday property in Spain and those who invested back in the 1980's have made a good return on their investment. The resort now has a good range of facilities and a wonderful sandy beach where holidaymakers can enjoy the 300 days of sunshine which the town boasts every year.
For evening entertainment, most will head for the Flamenca beach commercial centre where they will find countless shops, bars and restaurants with plenty of live entertainment, bingo, quiz nights, karaoke etc. On Saturdays, a large number of people head for the busy street market in Playa Flamenca where hundreds of stalls sell a wide variety of local goods, fruit and vegetables and high quality leather goods.
To the south of Playa Flamenca and Punta Prima you will find several other excellent resorts including La Zenia, Cabo Roig and Campaomor, and further south still the towns of Pilar de la Horadada and San Pedro del Pinatar.
Pilar de la Horadada was built around an ancient watchtower that stood there since the 14th Century. Pilar de la Horadada ('The Drilled One') is the southernmost coastal resort of the Costa Blanca. To the south lies the Mar Menor ('Lesser Sea') and the Costa Calida ('Warm Coast').
The watchtower, similar to many others along the coast, was built to warn of attacks from Berber pirates who sailed this coastline many centuries ago. Today a popular seaside town with fine sandy beaches, Pilar de la Horadada is also a great area for nature lovers and the nearby Rio Seco ('Dry River'), boasts a wide variety of flora and fauna including some species of wild orchid and some endangered species of dwarf palms.
San Pedro del Pinatar (St Peter of the Pinewoods) also has a history going back to the Arab occupation and has some fine sandy beaches.