Orihuela Costa villa rental with a private pool, at Punta Prima

Where exactly on the Orihuela Costa

The villa is in Urbanización Horizonte at Punta Prima. The municipal line between Torrevieja and Orihuela runs through Punta Prima, which is why you will see the same beach listed under both towns. For you it means a quiet villa street with the beach on foot, Torrevieja's restaurants and marina twelve minutes one way, and the Orihuela Costa resorts and golf a few minutes the other.

The Orihuela Costa from here

• Playa Flamenca, 4 min drive or a 20-minute clifftop walk: Blue Flag beach, promenade bars, the big Saturday market.
• La Zenia Boulevard, 5 min: 150 shops, an Alcampo hypermarket, restaurants open until midnight, bowling and cinema. Our guide.
• La Zenia beach and Cala Capitán, 7 min: family sand next to the best snorkelling cove on this coast.
• Cabo Roig, 8 min: the marina, the strip of restaurants and bars, and the clifftop promenade. Guide.
• Campoamor and Mil Palmeras, 12 to 15 min: calmer, more Spanish beaches with pine shade.
• Golf: Villamartín 8 min, Las Ramblas 10, Campoamor 12, Las Colinas 15. The golf guide.

Why a villa here rather than an apartment on the beach

Orihuela Costa apartments share pools with the whole block and park on the street. Casa Fragata is a house behind a gate with a pool nobody else uses and nobody looks into. There is space to eat outside as eight, a barbecue, a cabana to escape the afternoon sun, and three bathrooms so the morning queue does not exist. The beach is still four minutes away.