Gandía Beach

Let's continue with Gandía...

On this occasion, I am going to talk about Gandía Beach. Of course, this is not going to be an objective opinion seeing as I am from here but, despite this, it is a fact that if anywhere in city of Gandía doubles (or triples) in popularity during the summer, it is because of this beach.

How to get here:

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To arrive at Gandía beach you must take the bus route that runs from the Marina which I have already spoken about in other blog posts about Gandía. The ticket price has recently been increased in the last couple of years, costing about €1, 50 now, which is super expensive for the 3 or 4km that it takes to get here.

Because of this, last time I rode my own bicycle here, or you can use the Saforbici which is the public bicycle service in Gandía. I don't remember the exact price but I think it has a yearly cost of €10 or €15 which basically allows you to use a bicycle for an hour, getting on it at one station and leaving it at another afterwards.

The problem in the summer is that there are times when certain bicycle stations are full, and so you would need to go a couple of km more to the next one.

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We also have the bus service called the Urbanet which links the town to the Venecia beaches and those in Marenys de Rafalcaid.

The train also arrives at the beach station and the Grao de Gandía, but it only runs about 2 or 3 times throughout the whole day.

And of course, to arrive at Gandía beach from other cities you would normally take the Avanza Bus between Gandía and Madrid. I guess that other lines will be similar and they will cost around €30.

A bit of history...

One of the things I hate the most is when people ask me for the "town of Gandía" when this "town" has almost 80, 000 inhabitants and is the 3rd municipality in the province, after Valencia and Torrent.

There is a "Gandía town" that does exist, because the city is not located next to the sea, but it is hardly ever the one that people are talking about.

Gandía beach is not a very populated area, only in the little village of Grao de Gandía, the rest of the beach has lots of old orange trees on it, some of which are of great quality as next to them you can find the Gandía swamp.

It was like this until the decade of the '70s. Although the main example is Benidorm, other municipalities throughout the Mediterranean coastline have also begun to be more attracted to this area with its beach and sunshine.

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Originally, the Gandía beach recieved the name the beach of "los alcoyanos" - the people from Alcoy, but nowadays with the passing of time it has gotten the name the beach of "los madrileños", thanks to the tourism from Madrid which is the main tourism to this beach.

Gandía beach: general information

Although I am referring to the Gandía beach in general, there are various beaches within it. The least touristy ones include the ones in Venecia and Marenys de Rafalcaid which are small beaches that are less popular due to the water quality being less good.

Although, I'm not saying that if you go in the sea there something bad will happen to you, they just don't have the same blue flag as the other beaches in the area of Gandía have.

On the other side of the port, we have the beach of the same name that is divided into two parts. One part is totally urban, which is typical for tourists and other people around the beach. Meanwhile, on the other side there is what's called the North Beach of Gandía.

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This one is different to the previous one, in the way that it doesn't have a seafront promenade but instead a type of wooden platform for cyclists or walkers. A couple of months ago they added some information points here about the swamps and other places nearby Gandía.

Normally I'd go here, there are sand dunes here that have been preserved, as you can see in certain photographs of this article. Its final part is less crowded, perfect in summer to sit on the beach front.

There is also the Ahuir Beach (or l'Auir/l'Ahuir in Valenciano), which can be found basically where the Gandía swamps start. In its day it attempted to urbanise itself but the successive governements stopped it from doing so, except the last government of the Partido Popular. At the moment they haven't built anything and I personally do not think they are going to do anything, thanks to the fun bureaucratic red tape.

Traditionally, the Ahuir Beach was a nudist beach, but in the last year a part of this beach has been sectioned to make a bit called the "Can" Beach. On this part of the beach, you can bring your dogs into the water with you.

Walking along the beaches

The most normal thing to do would be to spend the day bathing in the sea and sunbathing. I think that you would need to allow for the whole day to do this, or the afternoon at least.

For this you have two options, to go by bicycle or by foot, or even adding the option of skates if you can manage on the wooden end part.

The walk is simple, as it is all in a straight line. If we go by foot, we will have a wide sidewalk. If by bicycle, there is a bicycle lane that links the beach of Gandía with the city of Gandía and with the Ullal del Duc, another very much recommended area.

On the beachfront that has the name of the Maritime Walk, we will go by our bike lane without difficulty. The terrain is flat and even, so there won't be a problem, that being said, in the summer the beach is full of people, and so there might be uncivilised people walking on the bicycle path.

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You need to pay attention to the pedestrians and not go too fast so that there will be no accidents!

In the North Beach part, we will be going a little in a zig-zag direction as there is no bycicle lane but cycling is not prohibited. And zig-zagged because the wooden platform is a little raised. There are some steps and a small incline for disabled people or for our bicycles.

For me, the ideal thing is to start at the city of Gandía and go towards the building that is the old TeleGandía, either by the Serpis path, of which I have already spoken about in another article, or by another, different way. From here we will follow the bicycle lane until we arrive at the Grao de Gandía.

We will get off for a moment so that we can cross a zebra crossing and then we can return to our bikes. We will follow the bike path until we arrive at Gandía beach and then from here we can do our described walk.

You can also go by the Ullal del Duc, and after that you will arrive at the Grao and the Grandía beach.

Finally, what can be said about this beach is that if it is so busy in summer, it is thanks to the quality of the water, because it is beautiful and it has bars and restaurants everywhere, also hotels and at night, a lot of pubs. I would totally recommend you to go to this beach and it is a mandatory stop if you visit Gandía over summer.

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