What you can see on the Benicàssim webcams
One camera sits on a pine-covered height and looks west across the bay: the curve of the beach in the foreground, the palms and tower blocks of the seafront in the middle and the bare mountains behind. It shows the setting of the town better than any other picture and is published as a 24-hour time-lapse. A second camera, on the hotel at Voramar beach, looks south along the sand with its straw parasols and over the bay to the port of Castellón on the horizon. It is a still image refreshed every few minutes, also with its time-lapse.
Voramar beach from the hotel, last 24 hours
This camera belongs to the Hotel Voramar, which stands right on the sand at the beach of the same name in Benicàssim. It looks south along the shore: rows of straw parasols and sunbeds on the right, the bay curving away in front, and on clear days the cranes of the port of Castellón on the far horizon.
Its strength is the sea. You can see the waves wrapping round the bay and breaking over the shallows, and whether the water is flat enough for a swim. The parasols and sunbeds show how the season is going: they fill up in summer and stand almost empty on autumn mornings. Here it runs as a 24-hour time-lapse, so you can scroll back through the day and see how busy the sand was and when the wind got up.
Benicàssim bay panorama
From a pine-covered height above the bay, this camera looks west and takes in most of Benicàssim at once: the curve of the beach and a rock breakwater in the foreground, the palms and the tower blocks of the seafront in the middle, and behind them the bare ridges of the Desert de les Palmes, the mountains that rise straight up behind the town.
The view is published as a time-lapse of the last 24 hours, which makes it good for seeing how the day has gone: whether cloud built up over the mountains in the afternoon, how far the sun reached across the sand and how the beach filled and emptied. It is the best single picture of the setting of the town.
Villas, a hospital and a festival
Benicàssim has about 4 miles (6 km) of beaches, joined by a promenade. Along Voramar stand the summer villas built by wealthy families from the late nineteenth century, which made this one of the earliest seaside resorts on the coast. The Hotel Voramar opened on the beach in 1933, and during the Civil War it served as a hospital for wounded members of the International Brigades. Since 1995 the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim has drawn a large British crowd every summer.
When to watch Benicàssim
The coast faces east and south-east, so mornings are bright and the light is soft on the mountains in the late afternoon. Mainland Spain is one hour ahead of the UK. On hot afternoons cloud can gather over the Desert de les Palmes, and the panorama shows it building. Festival week in July is when the beach is fullest.
Around Benicàssim
The Desert de les Palmes natural park rises to 729 metres at Mount Bartolo, with walking trails and the Carmelite monastery among the pines. The Via Verde, a 3½-mile (5.5 km) path on an old railway line, follows the cliffs to Oropesa del Mar.
Visiting Benicàssim
Benicàssim is about 8 miles (13 km) north of Castellón de la Plana, with a station on the Valencia to Barcelona line. Valencia airport is about an hour away by road. The promenade is flat and easy for walking and cycling.
