Guide to Quatretondeta

OH Our holiday

Qu Quatretondeta

WA Walking

OW Our walks and photos

EP Extra photos - Quatretondeta and roundabout

If you have any questions, or suggestions to improve information given, please e-mail D and J.

Our holiday

Our holiday was booked direct with mountainWALKS who organise walking holidays, and other activity holidays, based in Quatretondeta in the Alicante Region of Spain. Our holiday price included transfers between Alicante airport and the Quatretondeta, 7 nights half board accommodation, and 6 days walking with a choice of two guided walks each day. Transport to and from the walks was also included.

Brian and Pat run the holidays. Brian, over the years, put together an excellent programme of some 100 walks in the area so there is potential for repeat visits.

The walks briefing took place after the evening meal - with descriptions of both the Grade 2 (gentle/moderate with up to 500m of ascent) and Grade 3 (more challenging, up to 1,000m of ascent) options in detail. Sometimes, because of arranging transport, we needed to choose which walk after the briefing - most days the decision could be left till the morning. There are no shops in the village so you either bring your own food with you for lunches or buy a packed lunch from Brian and Pat. The packed lunch includes a filled roll (good choice of fillings - meat, fish and vegetarian), a piece of cake or cereal bar, fruit, a carton of fruit juice and a 0.5l bottle of mineral water.

If you book direct with mountainWALKS, then you arrange your own flights. This is not difficult as Alicante is available from many regional airports in the UK. We flew from Manchester with Monarch as this enabled us to use the early transfers. By 2pm on day of arrival we were settled in with a tapas lunch and wine - a good start to the holiday!

Brian, Pat and Tom are happy to accommodate individuals and groups and tailor holidays to their wishes.

There were 13 people on our holiday, and we all got on very well. This was an excellent walking holiday, and we were very lucky with the weather - walking in short sleeves and shorts, so don't forget the sun cream even in November!

Quatretondeta

Quatretondeta is a small village of the El Comtat district in the Costa Blanca area of Alicante. Alicante is a province in the community of Valencia. Although small Quatretondeta is a pleasant village to wander around and explore. There are no shops although there is a local bar tucked away somewhere. And more importantly three donkeys to befriend.

Our holiday was based in the Els Frares hotel, but as of 2009 Brian and Pat are providing accomodation in in a number of recently restored and well appointed cottages.

Walking

Quatretondeta is situated in an excellent area for walking being surrounded by limestone mountains. As the highest mountain is only 1500m, there is great scope for peak bagging, ridge walking and scrambling all in a day's hike. This mountain area is sometimes called the Costa Blanca mountains, or the Valls de la Marina, but the official name is the Alicante mountains.

There is a good overview of the region on the mountainWALKS website. Also see the Valencian council brochure on the paths of Alicante and the website of the Costa Blanca Mountain Friends clubs. As well there is also a book from Cicerone Press describing walks in the area.

Maps of the area are published on behalf of the IGN of Spain by CNIG. They produce maps at 1:50000 and 1:25000, but for navigation the latter is recommended. The maps are very hard to get hold of as they only seem to have a limited print run. This page from the Map Shop website shows the maps covering the Alicante region. Most of the walking is in the Alcoy region which is covered by map 821 at 1:50000, and maps 821-I, 821-II, 821-III and 821-IV at 1:25000.

Although it would be possible to organise a walking holiday yourself, there is limited public transport so you would need use of a car to get you to the start of the walks. It is a lot easier to go with mountainWALKs as they provide transport and guides, and not all walks have to be circular walks. The hotel Els Frares is a very comfortable and friendly place to be based in. If you don't like walking in a group you can book into the hotel and they will provide you with lots of information including routes on GPS.