Alicante has been named as one of the leading destinations for British holidaymakers this weekend.

According to the Independent, millions of people are set to travel abroad during the bank holiday period in order to get some “guaranteed sun”.

The newspaper said that many are hoping to find this in established European destinations such as Spain, in particular Alicante.

A spokesperson for BAA told the publication that London-based airports are set to be particularly busy, with 187,000 flying out from Heathrow today.

More than a million people are set to pass through the terminals of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted this weekend, she added.

This comes after low-cost airline easyJet revealed that its flights to Alicante have been in high demand.

The carrier stated that about 450,000 are set to board its flights during the bank holiday break weekend.

British Airways (BA) has confirmed that it is to begin operating new flights between the UK and Spain.

The carrier will roll out services to places such as Alicante and Palma from Gatwick Airport ahead of this year’s peak summer holiday season.

Routes to other Spanish destinations including Ibiza and Malaga will also be added to its timetables.

Meanwhile, BA is also planning to add extra flights to Spain from other London-based airports.

Consumers will soon be able to travel on an extra route between Heathrow and Malaga, as well as flights from London City Airport to Barcelona.

The number of extra services reflects the continued interest in Spain and demand for convenient travel links with the country.

BA’s new services could directly contribute to an increase in visitor numbers to places such as Alicante and Malaga, thereby boosting their appeal to British property investors.

A Place in the Sun recently revealed that Spain is the number one location for buyers of foreign property from the UK.

The Spanish region of Valencia has recently been enjoying hot and sunny weather conditions, it has been reported.

According to the Typically Spanish website, last month’s rainfall in the province was 85 per cent lower than the March average.

Citing figures from the Valencia Meteorological Office, the online portal added that temperatures in eastern Spain were more than a degree higher than they usually are at this time of year.

The heatwave will have been a timely development for foreign leisure travellers who visited resorts such as Alicante last month, in particular people from the UK.

According to the Association of British Travel Agents, Spain was the “outright favourite” for Britons who chose to head abroad during the recent Easter season.

This year’s timing of the festival - Easter Sunday fell on March 23rd - was the earliest it had been in almost 100 years.

La Sella Golf de Denia in Alicante will host the Valencian Community Investments European Ladies Golf Cup this week.

Having beaten the Algarve in its bid to host the competition, the venue will attract some of the best female golfers in the world between Thursday April 3rd and Sunday April 6th.

Comunitat Valenciana, the tourism website for the Region of Valencia, reports that players Trish Johnson and Ibenn Tinning chose to be present in this tournament despite lucrative offers to play in a conflicting event in the US.

The portal states that they were attracted to the Spanish golf course due to “the very specific nature of the La Sella competition”.

The pre-selection for the event means spectators will be able “to enjoy an unprecedented display of golf in Denia”, the site adds. Furthermore, the US and Australia will be competing in two types of matchplay over the four days, which will offer yet more excitement.

Major sporting events attract crowds of people, which is a factor property investors may consider when choosing a location. The city of Valencia recently hosted a world indoor athletics championship, proving the Region of Valencia is a credible sporting venue.

Music lovers are advised to head to the Costa Azahar this week, as the sixth Hondarribia-Peniscola International Guitar Festival is set to begin on Thursday evening.

Running from March 20th to 23rd, the event will feature a series of concerts in the “incomparable setting” of the Salon Gotico at Papa Luna’s Castle, Communitat Valenciana reports.

Guitar players from all over the world will travel to Peniscola to demonstrate their mastery of an instrument which plays a major role in the musical and cultural heritage of Spain.

In addition, a series of guided walks around the pretty coastal town have been organised to coincide with the festival, meaning that newcomers to the area can explore “every delightful corner” of Peniscola between musical interludes.

The guitar festival and guided tours should provide both holidaymakers and local property owners with the perfect opportunity to get to know one of Castellon province’s most picturesque towns a little better.

Peniscola’s dramatic seafront fortifications mean that it is often referred to as the Gibraltar of Valencia.

Motorists in Alicante province could soon be enjoying shorter journey times if proposals for a larger inland carriageway are given the go-ahead.

According to Typically Spanish, the infrastructure department at the Generalitat de Valencia has put forward a draft proposal for a new wider road to run inland from Vinalopo and ease congestion on the Alicante-Madrid motorway.

Under the road scheme, over 26 kilometres of the existing CV-83 road will be converted into a dual carriageway and a new connection with the neighbouring province of Murcia will be established.

Local officials in the towns close to the road, including Novelda, Monovar and Pinoso, are currently considering the proposals.

A second ring road around Alicante city was opened in December 2007 to improve access to the airport and other amenities on the Costa Blanca. The new road is divided into four toll sections and was constructed at a cost of €1 billion, Typically Spanish reported.

Valencia has opened a unique 80,000 sqm modern zoo at the Parque de Cabecera.

More than 4,000 different animals coming from around 250 different species live at the zoo.

Some of the zoo’s inhabitants have come from Valencia Zoo, while a number of others have been donated by different zoos around Europe, including donations from France, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

 
The famous Valencia Zoo, set in the Viveros gardens has been open since 1965, and as well as housing large mammals and birds, it also has a collection of more than 50 species of fish.

Dubbed Bioparc Valencia, the zoo is an ‘immersion zoo’ in which the animals’ natural habits are reproduced in detail in respect of their inhabitants.

Habitats include recreations of Equatorial Africa, the Americas and dry savannahs.

It is hoped that visitors to the zoo will enjoy an educational visit and understand the need and importance of animal preservation.

The zoo is open daily between 10:00 and 18:00 or 21:00 local time, depending on the season.

Thousands of tourists are expected to flock to the Spanish city of Valencia next month to witness the spectacular Las Fallas festival and take part in the celebrations.

Each year hundreds of papier-mache figures mounted over wooden frames are burnt as part of a pagan ritual that pays tribute to the coming of the spring solstice.

 As well as bonfires and exciting pyrotechnics, the event will also feature colourful parades and lively regional music, with an impressive fireworks display over the Turia River rounding off the festivities.

The atmosphere of the festival is designed to symbolise flowering gardens and the arrival of spring, which signals a change in the weather and brings locals and tourists alike out into the streets.

Those with rental properties in Spain will be looking to benefit from an increase in visitor numbers when the festival, which continues to grow in popularity each year, takes place between March 15th and 19th.

Some of the best athletes in the world will descend on Valencia next month for the 12th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Indoor Championships.

The competition begins on March 7th and will last for three days, with international athletes competing in events such as the 60 metres, 1,500 metres, high jump, pole vault and shot put.

With the Olympic games taking place in Beijing later this year, athletes have an extra incentive to perform well at the Palau Velodromo Luis Puig and the event is sure to be a thrilling spectacle.

IAAF president Lamine Diack said that he expects the championships to be “an athletics fiesta for our sport to savour”, helped by the fact that Valencia is “very much a sports city”.

Valencia certainly has plenty to offer sports fans - it provided the home port for last year’s America’s Cup sailing competition and is set to do so again in 2009, while the first Formula One Grand Prix on the city streets will take place later this year. The Valencia football team is also one of the top sides in Spain and has been successful in Europe.

Property owners and holidaymakers on the Costa Blanca are in for a treat next week, when Spanish dancer Nacho Duato brings his new stage show to Alicante.

Described as “one of the best Spanish ballet dancers of all time” by Communitat Valenciana, Duato has been artistic director of the Spanish National Dance Company since 1990 and is renowned for his choreography skills throughout the dance world.

He will perform his Duato x3 show, consisting of three different dances from various stages of his career, at the Teatro Principal de Alicante on February 6th.

“Duato’s choreographies are a reflection of our times, concentrating in themes related to our everyday realities while remaining committed to important social issues,” Communitat Valenciana states.

Born in Valencia, Duato perfected his art at some of the most famous dance schools in the world, including the Rambert School in London and Maurice Bejart’s Mudra School in Brussels.