Fifteen numbered viewpoints line the entire coast of Jávea, from the lighthouse at Cap de Sant Antoni in the north to the small fort of Castell de la Granadella in the south. Each point has its own sign and its own story, from centuries old windmills to a bay you may look at but never enter. This guide lists them all, from north to south, with where to park, which short stretch to walk, and what to combine along the way.
What exactly is the miradors route?
The fifteen miradors form part of the official Ruta dels Miradors de Xàbia, also known as the Ruta de los Miradores de Xàbia, laid out by the town council. Each point has its own numbered sign along the road and its own page on the council's tourism website, numbered from north to south, one to fifteen.
Anyone hoping for one continuous walking trail linking all fifteen will be disappointed: the council's only official route leaflet describes a 27.2 kilometre cycling route from the car park at the Arenal, taking in thirteen of the fifteen points. The miradors themselves are mostly individually signposted spots along the coast road, usually with their own small parking area, and are most easily combined by car. At a handful of points you do walk a short stretch, and that is exactly what makes this route worthwhile.
Which miradors lie between Cap de Sant Antoni and Cala Blanca?
Right at the northern end, the route starts at Cap de Sant Antoni, on cliffs around 170 metres high. The lighthouse dates from 1855, but the site has a longer history: a fourteenth century hermitage and a watchtower against pirates once stood here, and the area now holds two plant micro-reserves. Anyone arriving by car is best off parking around three hundred metres before the lighthouse and walking the last stretch.
A little further on lies El Molins, where eleven surviving windmills stand in Les Planes, within the Montgó natural park. They were built between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries to grind grain using the llebeig, the southwesterly wind that often blows here, and can be reached on foot via a variant of the PR-CV 355 walking trail. Punta del Arenal and Séquia de la Nòria follow next, before the route reaches Cala Blanca, with its two quiet little coves.
Which miradors lie between Caletes and Cap Negre?
At Caletes, the sixth point, you can already spot Cap Prim in the distance, a headland that is not itself one of the fifteen official miradors but is visible from here all the same. The next point, Creu del Portitxol, is notable because two officially registered walking trails start here, one to Cap Prim and one to Cala Barraca: more on those further in this article.
After Creu del Portitxol come L'illa and La Falzia, two shorter stops on the way to the tenth point, Cap Negre. Here cliffs and pine woods shelter peregrine falcons, with fishermen's paths running along the rocks to caves once used for tobacco smuggling and mining.
What can you see at Cap de la Nau and Granadella?
Cap de la Nau is the eleventh point and also the easternmost tip of the entire Valencian coast, roughly 85 kilometres from Ibiza: on a clear day the island is sometimes visible in the distance. The octagonal lighthouse stands 20 metres tall at around 122 metres above sea level, and has been in service since 26 May 1928. At the foot of the headland lies the Cova dels Orguens cave, and here too a stretch of coast is protected as a plant micro-reserve. Travel writers often single out Cap de la Nau as one of the finest of the fifteen miradors, and the view makes that easy to believe.
The twelfth point is Granadella, high above the nature area of the same name, more than six hundred hectares of it. You look out over wooded ravines running down towards the cove, in a landscape full of endemic plants where, with a little luck, birds of prey circle above the pines.
What is there to see at Les Pesqueres, Ambolo and the Granadella castle?
Les Pesqueres, the thirteenth point, lies further along the same coast road, just before Ambolo, the fourteenth point. At Ambolo there is one thing worth knowing: the viewpoint itself is freely accessible, but the beach below, Cala Ambolo, is officially closed due to a serious risk of rockfall. The Xàbia town council has kept access closed for some time now and steps in whenever visitors ignore the barrier regardless. So look down from the mirador as much as you like, but do not make your way down to the beach itself.
The route ends at the fifteenth and final point, Castell de la Granadella, a small horseshoe shaped fortification from 1739, built over an older, fifteenth century tower. The fort was once manned by three soldiers with two bronze cannons, defending the bay below.
How do you walk from Creu del Portitxol to Cap Prim and Cala Sardinera?
Anyone who leaves the car at Creu del Portitxol finds the starting point of two officially registered walking trails there. SL-CV 98 covers about a kilometre to Cap Prim in roughly twenty minutes, the headland already visible from Caletes but not itself one of the fifteen miradors. Along the way a side path branches off to Cala Sardinera, a small, unspoilt pebble beach some two hundred metres long, its name recalling the sardine fishing once carried out here.
From the same point also starts SL-CV 97, a quarter of an hour's walk over 0.75 kilometres to Cala Barraca. Two short trails from the same car park, then: a good break between two stretches by car, and the only place on the whole route where you truly get down to the coast without your own transport.
How do you plan a visit to the miradors of Jávea?
At Granadella, during the summer season from early June into September, around a hundred and thirty paid parking spaces are available, about nine euros a day, payable at the meter or through the ELPARKING app. Portitxol and Cala Barraca run the same system, with fifty nine spaces. Anyone who would rather not hunt for a space can take the tourist road train that runs from the La Guardia Park car park to Granadella in July and August, into September, for six euros per adult and four euros per child.
For most of the fifteen points, having your own car is by far the easiest option, if only because the miradors are spread across the entire coastline. Anyone travelling without a car of their own can compare prices in advance through DiscoverCars, which lines up rates from different rental companies side by side.
For anyone who does not want to squeeze all fifteen into a single day, splitting the route in two works best: a morning for the northern half, from Cap de Sant Antoni to Cala Blanca, with the windmills of El Molins as a stop along the way, and an afternoon for the south, from Cap de la Nau to Castell de la Granadella, with the short walk to Cap Prim and Cala Sardinera as a break along the route. Anyone who keeps driving south after that last point ends up near El Portet, the bay just over the municipal boundary at Moraira.