Guide to Quatretondeta & Els Frares

OH Our holiday

Qu Quatretondeta & Els Frares

WA Walking

OW Our walks and photos

EP Extra photos - Hotel Els Frares, Quatretondeta and roundabout

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

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Our holiday

Our holiday was booked direct with mountainWALKS who organise walking holidays, and other activity holidays, from their hotel Els Frares in Quatretondeta in the Alicante Region of Spain. Our holiday price included transfers between Alicante airport and the hotel, 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 and their son Tom run the hotel, with Jem and Donal leading the walks. Brian, over the years, put together an excellent programme of some 100 walks in the area so there is potential for repeat visits. Donal and Jem, were both very experienced and knowledgeable leaders.

The walks briefing took place after the evening meal - Jem would describe 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, Jem needed a good idea who was doing 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 the hotel. 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 the bar with a tapas lunch and wine - a good start to the holiday!

Brian, Pat and Tom are happy to accommodate walking groups and tailor holidays to their wishes - there are 15 rooms in the hotel and so they can accomodate groups of various sizes.

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 & Els Frares

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.

Els Frares is a very comfortable hotel situated in the village. It has 15 double/twin bedrooms all ensuite. We had Room 101, a large double room with a long west facing balcony. All the rooms have central heating and air conditioning, so they are comfortable at all times of the year. Brian and Pat have invested in solar panels and these provide both central heating and hot water. Its a complex system involving computers and Brian will be happy to explain the ins and outs.

At ground level there is a very pleasant bar and four lounges plus an outside patio area. There is a lovely restaurant with a terrace, and excellent views westwards. We tended to use the lounge adjacent to the bar which had an open fire. The food at the hotel is very good indeed. There is a breakfast buffet with cereals, fresh fruit, croissants, bread, ham, cheese, preserves, yoghurts and tortilla plus a choice of fruit juice, tea (herbal and normal) and coffee. The evening meals were three courses with the first course tending to alternate between soup and tapas. The main courses had a choice of meat, fish and vegetarian dish of the day, followed a choice of a couple of puddings.

You could get a drink from the bar at any time with wine being sold by the glass. Following Alison's lead Jackie discovered El Gaitero a sparkling cider from the north of Spain.

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.