“La Vila Joiosa” — the Joyful Town — where fishermen painted their houses in bright colours so they could find their way home from the sea.
Villajoyosa — La Vila Joiosa, “the Joyful Town” — is a fishing port of around 34,000 people, instantly recognisable for the rainbow of brightly painted houses lining its harbour. The colours weren’t decorative in origin: fishermen painted their homes vividly so they could spot them from far out at sea. The town is also home to Valor, one of the oldest continuously operating chocolate factories in the world, making chocolate here since 1881. It’s about 30 minutes from Alicante airport, and 15 minutes from Benidorm.
The colours are the first thing anyone notices — but they’re functional, not just pretty. Villajoyosa’s fishermen painted their harbourside houses in bold, distinct hues so they could recognise their own home from far out at sea, long before satellite navigation existed. The result, along the River Amadorio and the old town walls, is one of the most photographed stretches of coast on the Costa Blanca, and it’s still a genuinely working fishing town behind the colour.
Villajoyosa is also, by most accounts, the cradle of Spanish chocolate. Valeriano López — nicknamed “Valor” — started making chocolate here in 1881, and the factory his name still carries is one of the oldest continuously operating chocolate producers in the world. Free tours run through the museum and factory, ending, unsurprisingly, in a shop with samples and hot chocolate. The old town itself centres on the Gothic-Catalan Church of the Assumption, and each July the Moros y Cristianos festival reenacts the town’s medieval battles between Moors and Christians.
Warm enough to swim, with the old town and chocolate factory tour far more comfortable before peak heat.
Peak season, and late July brings the Moros y Cristianos festival — book ahead if you want to see it.
Sea stays warm, crowds thin out, and the harbour is at its most photogenic without the summer rush.
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