Costa Azahar Travel Guide
2026 Edition

Costa Azahar — the Orange Blossom Coast — is what the Mediterranean coast looked like before package tourism arrived. The Castellón province sits between the gloss of Costa Dorada to the north and the cosmopolitan pull of Valencia to the south, and the result is a coast that most international visitors drive through rather than stop in. That is their loss. The towns are genuinely Valencian, the food is exceptional, and the beaches are long, clean and unfashionably quiet.

Peñíscola is the most dramatic town on the entire eastern coast of Spain. A medieval walled city and Templar castle sit on a rocky peninsula connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, the whole thing surrounded on three sides by the sea. Pope Luna — the Antipope Benedict XIII — governed his schismatic papacy from here in the early 15th century; seven hundred years later, the same narrow streets and same castle provided the setting for Game of Thrones' Meereen sequences. The new town outside the walls is a standard Spanish beach resort; the old town inside them is extraordinary.

Benicàssim, 30km south, is the coast's most tourist-facing town — four kilometres of beach lined with Victorian-era villas built by wealthy Valencian families as summer retreats, and home to the FIB (Festival Internacional de Benicàssim), one of Europe's oldest and most respected music festivals, held each July. The Desert de les Palmes natural park rises immediately behind the town, offering hiking trails with panoramic views of the coast. Between the two is Oropesa del Mar — quieter, less visited, and arguably the best compromise between character and beach quality on the entire costa.