It's Spain, but not as we know it - expunge all thoughts of the tacky Costa del Sol from your mind. Murcia, the latest hot spot in the Med, has learnt from the past mistakes and vows to be different.
The province of Murcia is the Cinderella of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. To the north, the Costa Blanca has big, brash Benidorm and the seemingly unstoppable development of cheap holiday homes of Torrevieja. Further south, the Costa del Sol beckons, from Torremolinos to Marbella and Estepona. But scan the map of Murcia's own Costa Calida and you will find none of those familiar names, as evocative now to a generation of Brits as Blackpool, Bridlington and Bournemouth were to their parents and grandparents.
Of major interest is the Mediterranean coast, the Costa Calida (the warm coast), with beaches of fine sand. The salt water lagoon Mar Menor and La Manga del Mar Menor offer great possibilities for water sports. The sea water is warm, and very pleasant for bathing. It is unique in that there is a peninsula, which runs parallel to the coastline thus forming the Mar Menor (small sea). The Mar Menor is Europe's largest salt water lagoon - over 170 square kilometres of shallow water. There are also many magnificent mountains and virgin beaches where access is difficult from the mainland. The new A-37 motorway has improved travel connections and the area is now quickly and easily reached from both Murcia and Alicante airports. This will be further enhanced with the building of the new Murcia airport. The area has long attracted Spanish holidaymakers.
Yet the region was not always overlooked. The port of Cartagena was Hannibal's Iberian stronghold (named after his home city of Carthage) and the landing place for his expeditionary elephants, and he was followed by the Romans and the Moors, whose legacy can be seen in the winding narrow streets in the old centre of Murcia, the laid-back regional capital.
Now there are plans afoot to raise the region's profile and turn it into another magnet for British home-buyers looking to bask in 300 days of sunshine a year. Licences have been finalised for a new airport near Corvera that will operate 24/7 - unlike Murcia's San Javier, which, although it hosts scheduled airlines flights to the UK, is primarily a military base.
The Murcian vision is for a future of "sustainable tourism" with two huge projects for marinas at Aquilas, a pleasant seaside town popular with holiday-makers from Madrid, and further north seven sea-front golf courses are planned - kept green by recycled water - and 25,000 more hotel beds, doubling present capacity. But this will be low- rise, low-density building, and Francisco Luis Valdes-Albistur Hellin, general secretary of the Murcia region, is sure that this will attract more Brits. "We have 150km of virgin coast, but we will learn from the mistakes of others. We want to respect the environment, and not be a second Costa del Sol," he says. "I'm glad if people choose this region, but at the moment we cannot offer them many facilities."
What about the hinterland between the sea and the town of Murcia? it's an undramatic landscape of market gardens, growing everything from oranges to cotton. But near the small country town of Fuente Alamo, a grand vision is being realised. On a 600 hectare expanse of gently sloping brown earth, whose most distinguishing features are a few old aljibes (small domed water stores of Moorish design), the earthmovers are reshaping the land to accommodate two 18-hole golf courses and more than 2,800 homes. The 200 two and three bedroom town houses and detached villas of phase one have already sold, and phase two is selling briskly. Guarantees underwritten by the Spanish bank Caixa Catalunya, which is backing the project to the tune of 600m euros (£380m), offer money back with interest should completion dates not be met.
And that large investment of euros is perhaps the strongest sign yet that Murcia is Spain's new hot spot - and the bank is expecting its investment to flourish amid the market gardens.
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