Mojácar and Turre: La Belle et le Bête.

Mojácar is the more beautiful of the two towns - there's no doubt about that. The one, with its narrow streets, its white flat roofs and its astonishing views - the other, a flat unattractive town a few miles inland. Whether Mojácar really is one of the most 'Beautiful Towns of Spain' is perhaps more down to marketing than to common sense. After all, and without going any further, where is Bédar on the list?
Mojácar has an energetic tourist board, a number of hotels (and thus, punters) and a swollen number of businesses that only cater for the visitors: souvenir shops in particular, but night clubs, camel rides and rent-a-bikes. Now with the 'season' over, the huge number of visitors reduced to an agreeable trickle, many of the shops, bars, restaurants and, above all, souvenir places are closed. One I saw in the village last night has a sign on the door that says: 'See you at Easter'. In a few weeks time, when I clamber up the hill for a beer, I'll be lucky to find anything open at all. Mojácar is for tourists. We've all heard that. That's where the money comes from and the residents are welcome as a second string to this fabulous business. Mojácar is like Disneyville: it closes tight at twelve midnight when the coach turns back into a pumpkin.
Turre on the other hand has as many people on the streets in November as it does in March and in August. It's a residential town, without a beach, any hotels, camels or tourists. You can see the difference just by going to the market. The shops and restaurants there pretty much stay open all year (except when they change ownership) and, you know, there are no souvenir shops at all. In Turre, where the large foreign population speaks no more Spanish than it does in Mojácar, there's a sense of participation: of camaraderie.
I love the Mojácar views, but I prefer the integration and timelessness of Turre.