Moraira (pronunciation: mo'rajra|va) is a small, upmarket Spanish coastal town, part of Teulada (also known as Teulada-Moraira) municipality, in the Marina Alta comarca, 80 km north of Alicante and 100 km south of Valencia. It is a tourist resort on the Costa Blanca strip, with 8 km of coastline backed by mountains and vineyards.

The permanent population of Moraira in the northern Costa Blanca, Spain is around 10,000, although this rises to 36,000 in summer. There is a high proportion of expatriates living here permanently, and the area is very popular with affluent retirees, especially British. The majority of visitors to Moraira are Spanish, British, German, Dutch, and French.

Moraira's historic roots as a fishing village are still in evidence; its fish market is one of the most popular in the Costa Blanca region and the port has five fishing boats in operation. The Moraira region is also famous for the growing of Muscatel grapes for wine-making.

However, the economy of Moraira is now built around tourism and Spanish property sales that have transformed the coastline over the past 30 years. Strict planning regulations have prevented over development and high rise buildings, making it a highly desirable destination. Little remains of the fishing cottages that once made up the little port that serviced the town of Teulada that stands at the head of the valley. To preserve the heritage of the area, the Teulada council passed laws protecting the abundant pine trees and limited the height of buildings. It has a privately owned marina built in 1985, operated by Club Nautico Moraira. Moraira is also seen as a culinary destination, with many restaurants. Moraira has three sandy beaches popular with families, and many rocky coves and inlets frequented by snorkelers and scuba divers.

Yacht club Moraira The yacht club, "Club Nautico" has 620 embarkation points. It includes an association club which is provided with restaurants and shops. Also in summer they have sailing courses and regattas. The championship of the district for open sea yachts is held at Easter, the regatta "Moraira Santa Eulalia" takes place at the end of September.

Climate in Moraira Moraira boasts a very stable Mediterranean climate with approximately 300 sunny days a year. Surrounded by mountains it keeps away strong winds and also protects the village from heat waves. The summers are hot, the winters mild. The sea temperature during the summer months is up to 25 degrees. It hardly rains during the months July-August.

Beaches

The main beach in Moraira (L'Ampolla) is sandy but nothing like as good as other beaches in Costa Blanca such as Benidorm, Javea, Denia or Calpe. The list could go on and on - ok it's nice but nothing special!

L'Ampolla beach

Having said that there is a hidden gem just round the corner. It's a little known beach area called El Portet.

Its almost like a Caribbean bay, the water is turquoise, the road to it is winding, the hills are alive with pine trees. the waters are very calm and safe for children.

Do also check out Moraira's other sandy beaches of L'Ampolla and Plagetes, and also the tiny rocky coves with clear blue water (L'Andrago, Punta Estrella and La Cala).

The Moraira valley is stunning. It is full of whitewashed villas, it's very green with lots of pine trees.