Guadalest or to give it its full title El Castell de Guadalest has to be one of the most photographed towns in all of Spain and no matter what time of year you visit there always seems to be some tourists about.

Many tourists visit Guadalest on a day trip from nearby popular holiday destination of Benidorm which is only twenty five kilometres away. It is one of the most beautiful locations in Spain and that is saying something because Spain has many picturesque villages.

The bell tower in the photograph below is for the village church and is accessed from the Orduña House. The Tower is perched high on the hill that is over the access tunnel into the old town. This Bell Tower is perhaps the landmark of Guadalest and it can be seen from a few kilometres away as you approach Guadalest

Guadalest overlooks a reservoir which really is as blue as it looks on the photograph.

Modern day Guadalest is split into two parts the lower village which houses most of two hundred inhabitants,

If you look at the photographs below you can see that most of the modern buildings are on the far side of the main road there are a few older buildings that form the beginning of the older part of Guadalest and they are easy to distinguish because of the red pan tiled roofs.

These old buildings in the lower village are a section of the tourist part of Guadalest as they have the nice red tiled roofs and white walls and are cafés, souvenir shops or exhibits of interest.

Entering the tourist section of Guadalest the first thing you will encounter is a café bar where many of the tourists like sit and enjoy the pleasant atmosphere watching the world go by while having a cool drink and something to eat. Like most Spanish café bars the food is excellent and not badly priced.

One of the several Museums that Guadalest has is the Belen Dolls house Museum which houses scale model houses and churches built with natural elements and into the rock face. The most interesting scale model is the one of a giant "Ciudad-Belen" from the beginning of this century.

The cost of admission into this museum is very reasonable and it is well worth paying the three euros for an adult. We purchased a family ticket which was cheaper than buying two adult's and two children’s ticket separately.

Before you get to the upper part of Guadalest there is the MagicGarden the entrance to this was free but there was someone at the entrance to give you an information sheet in your own language to help you appreciate the Garden and there was a donation box that you could put money into.

Leaving the Magic Garden there is a short walk up to the tunnel known as the ‘Portal de San José’ which is still the only way into the oldest portion of the town. The town of Guadalest is unique in that the old town centre is perched right on the top of a rock outcrop, and the only way to  access it is via the 15 meter long, man made, tunnel through solid rock.

This hub is proving to be much longer than I thought it would be so I am going to do it in two parts and this seems a good place to end part one at the ‘Portal de San José’ entrance to the old town. I hope you have enjoyed the photos.

Click on to the link in the blue box to the right where the links are to see part two of this hub where more photos of this fabulous place can be seen.

Take some time out and see some of the other places I have travelled to. My travelling is not just limited to Europe there are Hubs on places in USA also.

Thank you for your visit please take time out to leave your comments.