After the Maratón de Castellón: Benicàssim

The Route: Castelló de la Plana → Benicàssim → Castelló de la Plana Logistics: Regional train north along the coast line, about 10 minutes. A short walk or local bus from Benicàssim station to the seafront, then the promenade on foot. Marathon Month: February Duration: Day trip

Castelló de la Plana ──(about 10 mins regional train)──> Benicàssim ──(about 10 mins)──> Castelló de la Plana

The Maratón de Castellón finishes in Parque Ribalta, a few hundred metres from Castelló's railway station, which makes the day after the race unusually easy to plan. Benicàssim is the next town up the coast, close enough that the journey takes less time than finding breakfast.

February in Benicàssim is out of season. The beach bars that run through summer are mostly shut, the town is quiet, and afternoons usually reach the mid-teens under a low winter sun. Swimming is for the determined only; the sea is at its coldest in late winter. What the town offers in February is space: several kilometres of level promenade with the Mediterranean on one side and very few people on it.

Regional trains on the line north towards Vinaròs stop at Benicàssim, roughly 10 minutes from Castelló. Tickets are sold at the station machines and fares are a few euros. Buses also run along the coast road between the two towns. Benicàssim station sits inland of the beach, so allow 20 minutes on foot to the sea, or take a taxi from the rank if the legs are complaining.

The Villas Promenade

Benicàssim became a summer retreat for well-off families from Valencia and Castelló in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and they built their holiday houses along the shore south of the town centre. The seafront walk past them, signposted as the Ruta de les Villes, is the reason to come. The houses are an odd mix of styles, from Italianate towers to modernista ironwork, each set in its own garden facing the sea.

The promenade is paved and level for its whole length, with benches at regular intervals and nothing that could be called a gradient. Walk it south to north and back, or as far as the legs agree. At post-marathon pace an hour covers a good stretch with stops.

The town and the hills

The town centre, a few streets back from the beach, is small and flat, with cafés around the church square. Behind it the land rises quickly into the Desert de les Palmes, a range of hills with a Carmelite monastery and walking trails. The views from the top are the best on this stretch of coast, but the road up is steep and winding, and the trails are no place for legs that ran 42 km the day before. Leave the hills for another visit.

Lunch and the return

Benicàssim's restaurants cluster in the town centre and along the seafront north of the villas, though fewer are open in February than in summer. Rice dishes and grilled fish are the local staples, and a long lunch is the natural end to the morning. Trains back to Castelló run through the afternoon and evening; check the return times at the station before sitting down.