My Walk on Castellón Coast and El Grao

Hello everyone. Today I would like to share with you a walk I took in El Grao, the coastal area of Castellón de la Plana. The first thing I saw was a planetarium and its price is very reasonable. I had heard before that the children around me came here on a school trip.

Buses connecting to central Castellón keep passing by. They run very frequently. As I walked a bit further, I started to see the promenade beach road. I decided to head over there, towards the sea.

You can play tennis here. Various sports complexes are available. Overall the number of people running and cycling is quite high, so you could say the area is very suitable for sports.

In the distance the neighboring area of Benicàssim is visible. That place is a full fledged holiday resort. I think it is a wonderful place. That is why walking along the coast, among the beaches and palm trees, is a complete joy. Whether you go on foot, by car or by bicycle, whichever way you like.

I continued on my way and reached the beach section right near the port. Further ahead is Almassora. There is an oil filling terminal and what I believe is an active chemical port facility located there. However, when you move from here towards Benicàssim, a pristine and ecological zone begins. On that side, there are places like Oropesa del Mar, Torreblanca and Alcocebre. So those parts form a clean strip, far away from factories and similar things.

There were quite a few people on the beach. This is the best thing about Castellón beaches. They never get packed to the brim. Whenever I recall Valencia central beach, my heart hurts. People were standing almost on top of each other, laying their towels side by side. Not a pleasant situation. Here on the other hand, the beaches are wide and stretch for kilometers. So by local standards, you could say there are quite a lot of people right now, but no one is on top of anyone else.

By the way on El Grao beach, there are showers and foot or hand washing taps. There are sports areas and there is also a large area reserved in the park for cooking meat grilling. So if anyone happens to visit here, they can easily carry out this plan.

Then I walked a bit towards the residential area of El Grao. Here there are adjoining detached houses townhouses. Further ahead is a Mercadona supermarket. The population of El Grao is around 15.500 people, which means it can be considered quite crowded.

If someone asked me Would you like to live here, I think my answer would be no rather than yes. Transportation from the city to here is 4 kilometers. On foot, by car or by bus, it is accessible in every way. However, in the city center, amenities and services are right at your fingertips. Everything necessary is available there. From there, reaching the sea is certainly not difficult either.

But then there is also the issue of storms. In winter there are severe storms around here. Right now it is sunny, everything is very nice, but winter especially this winter passed quite stormy. Rains, precipitation, wild waves. Bad weather conditions affect coastal areas much more harshly. It was not without reason that in the Middle Ages people did not settle right on the seashore due to pirates and natural disasters. That is why, rather than settling here, I would prefer to just come and go.

Of course, there are diferent housing options here. Villas and so on are available, but unmaintained or shady buildings are also encountered. One needs to be careful about this. If you look at the Idealista website, you will see occupied squatted apartments and villas. Unfortunately, this situation exists here as well.

In short it is great for visiting, strolling around, looking at flowers, going into the sea and going for a walk. The styles and prices of the houses vary. You can check current prices on Idealista. However, as I said, you may also encounter squatted buildings, old structures or houses that require complete renovation.

Some buildings are quite old structures. Probably left over from the 60s of the last century. Considering things like the obligation to obtain an energy efficiency certificate nowadays, personally I would not consider such an option. Of course, everyone's taste, means and expectations are different, but this is my opinion on the matter.

Overall I looked at the market. As I just mentioned, there are old buildings. As of now, the price of apartments that you can move into immediately starts from 75.000 Euros. You cannot move into ones cheaper than this. Because they are either squatted or rented out and the tenants will not leave. This is a general problem and it happens here too. So places you can directly move into start from around 75.000 Euros.

The housing stock is quite diverse, from old to new. To make a general assessment, El Grao is like a quiet little town on its own. It stays a bit separate from Castellón, but access on foot or by vehicle is very easy. Pedestrian and bicycle paths exist. It has its own schools, health center, markets and cafes.

The coastline of Castellón is like this. I had visited this place before as well, but a lot of time had passed since then. We updated the information. We walked together, we saw it. I hope you found it interesting.

I say goodbye for now. Take very good care of yourselves, see you in new posts.