Tourist Pages

Xàbia (Spanish Jávea) is a municipality centred on a small and ancient township on the Costa Blanca and Costa del Azahar. It is part of the province of Alicante, in Valencia (autonomous community). Situated behind a wide fine beach and sheltered between two large rocky headlands, the town has become a very popular small seaside resort and market town. A mile or so from the public beach there is a working fishing port and a new harbour. Flat agricultural land stretches for miles behind the town, cut by small streams and used primarily for growing citrus & olive trees.

Xàbia is protected from bad weather on the landward side by a mountainous ridge called the Montgó, and the town is said by the World Health Organisation to have one of the best climates in the world.

Since the 1980s Jávea / Xàbia has become a popular place for affluent northern European expatriates to purchase retirement villas and the town has a very active and contentious property industry, around 12,000 British people now live in the area, as well as many Germans and some Dutch. The British have brought with them their traditional zeal for voluntary & charitable work, and they run or support many local charitable causes. In 2003 a British man was elected to the local council. The town's population is now around 20,000; but this is greatly swelled by the annual influx of summer tourists, with Spanish tourists predominating at the height of August.