It’s March, you can hear the fireworks and the gorillas are few, compared to the many that you see in summer, in the parking lots located in front of the Malva-rosa beach in València. There are walkers by the sea, some playing volleyball and a caravan, with a Danish license plate, borders José Ballester Gozalvo street to look for a parking space. It won’t be easy because there is little space on the lot located on the front line.
Two days ago a Dutch couple arrived in their caravan and like them, there are British, Belgian or German travelers. “I usually spend time here and I’m even surprised at how many people there are these days,” explains one of the tourists, a Londoner living in Serra and living a nomadic life between Alicante, Valencia and Barcelona.
“I came to see the Fallas,” says another Belgian traveler of Latin origin. In perfect Spanish he says that he has come to see the festival and while he greets his neighbor, a compatriot who insists that those who travel in a caravan do so “because it is the way to enjoy it, not because they lack resources.”
They have been parked in this lot for several days and claim that they previously looked at several mobile applications to locate the space. It is not a service area for caravans, in fact there are no spaces of this type in the city, the closest is in Turís or Segorbe. “I was surprised by this place, to be honest, but no one has come to bother us or tell us anything.”
The only visible restriction is the sign located a few meters away, which reads that parking for vehicles longer than five meters is prohibited. The caravan owners staying here know this, and they say they respect it. Also, they cannot take out camping chairs or tables, nor deploy the awning. “They could tell us something there, but we don’t do it,” he explains. They wash their clothes in the many laundromats in the Cabanyal neighborhood, located just behind the lot.
However, in front there is another caravan that does take out the clothesline with wet clothes to the door. Its owners are not traveling, they are three young Italians who have come to Valencia to make a living and who, they point out, live here regularly. Two of them already have jobs and the third with whom this newspaper speaks explains that she has been looking for a job in the city for days. They confirm that no one has caught their attention in the time they have been there, “the lot is private and no one has told us anything,” the young woman argues.
Both the mobility ordinance of Valencia and the mobility regulations for the municipalities of the metropolitan area of ??Valencia (AMV) prohibit the parking of caravans and motorhomes, or similar, that are intended to be used as a habitable place “with a certain vocation for permanence”, understanding as such that the caravan has been separated from the towing vehicle, or, where applicable, there is an extended awning, the vehicle is supported on support chocks or similar situations.
A few months ago this medium already published the alert that existed in Tourism due to the boom in motorhomes as an alternative to tourist accommodation. The Minister of Tourism, Nuria Montes, observed with “great concern” the evolution of the tourist rental market and explained from her department that it is a phenomenon that occurs in many parts of the Valencian Community, as Enrique Bolland explained this week in Alicante, although especially in the city of Valencia.
Given this, the Valencian Motorhome Cultural Association explains that it has asked the Valencia City Council for a meeting to request the creation of rest areas in the city for these vehicles. Its president, Francisco Nieto, explains to La Vanguardia that “the number of people who come is crazy. Next year we will bring 200 motorhomes just for the Fallas festivals,” he explains.
If by then there is no space in the city, they will look for nearby alternatives such as parking in Albalat dels Sorells, for example, well connected to Valencia. “València needs spaces because more and more people are coming, cities like Burgos or León have them and in Madrid, there are close to the capital, in Pinto for example, to have good access.”
While the music playing in the caravan of a young German woman who prepares the food is heard very loudly. She explains that she has been in Valencia for “three or four days,” that she is passing through. Three vehicles away, a Dutch retired couple has just opened the door to start their day. They will take the electric bicycle to go around the city, they explain.
“It’s our way of tourism. We are retired and we spend a good part of the year traveling around Europe,” he explains, while showing the list of cities registered in the meteorology application. “You see, in my city it always rains… It’s better here,” he says. Before arriving in València they passed through Cullera and this week they will get to know the city and, along the way and without looking for it, also its Fallas festivals. “You can take photos, but don’t take the license plate,” they ask.