GANDIA

'Gandia' (in Spanish: 'Gandía'), with population over 77,000, is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Eastern Spain on the Mediterranean. Gandia is located on the Costa del Azahar, 65 km south of Valencia and 96 km north of Alicante.
It was an important cultural and commercial centre during the 15th and 16th centuries. It once had a university (15th century). It has several important poets, Ausiàs March, writer Joanot Martorell but is perhaps better known for the Borgia, through their family title, Duke of Gandia.
Today, Gandia is one of the largest coastal towns and a thriving center of commerce and tourism in the Region. There are two main zones, Gandia City where all the historical monuments, commercial activity, shopping takes place and Gandía beach where are concentrated all the apartments and summer residences used during the summer season. Bars and nightclubs are concentrated in the Beach area. As is normal for Spain, nightlife does not take off until well after midnight. The beach and the town are actually some 2 km apart which succeeds in separating the summer tourism from day to day living.

Contents

Tourism

Sports

Politics

Tourism

With its long wide golden sandy beaches, it is one of the major tourist destinations in Spain. Traditionally Gandia's tourism has a domestic base, with the majority coming from Madrid, although in recent years, it has been an increasing destination for international tourists, mainly French and British.
It boasts a wide cultural offer: literary contests, the Summer University ( Universitat d'Estiu), the International Festival of Classical Music , art exhibitions, etc, along with a wide variety of sports offer: water, golf, tennis, hiking, etc.
There are some popular Spanish food restaurants around the beach, like the famous "La Gamba", which originated Fideuà, (paella, with noodles instead of rice), "Restaurante Emilio", "Cerveceria Grau" and "La Tarta Dorada".

Sports

Gandia, and the whole Safor comarca, is said to be the center of the Raspall variant of the Valencian pilota autoctonous sport. Nonetheless, Gandia holds the ''Trinquet El Zurdo'' courtfield.
One of the best and famous night club in gandia is Cocoloco.

Politics

As of 2006, the mayor of Gandia is Jose Manuel Orengo (PSOE).