That’s not to say inside the arena is perfect for getting your daily feed, again some of them are a bit dodgy, however during the 2009 festival the line of tents between the Jack Daniels promo van and the main stage were simply divine, ok so you wouldn’t want to eat at any of them on a regular basis outside of the festival, but in comparison to the other grub they won on consistency and size (a full pizza, not a scrappy little slice that’s been sat on the side for a day and a half).  There was also a lovely little hog roast place right at the very back of where the crowd stood for the main stage – the guys on here were also handing out free teasers to the queuing punters. Alas Benicassim 2009 is done and dusted, no doubt many of the same vendors will be back for 2010, but who’s to say where they’ll be pitched up!?  For this reason we’re not going to delve into any more detail here, but feel free to add your thoughts on the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to food in the festival arena.  Alternatively you could read our guide to Benicassim restaurants.

Price
You can get a main meal in Benicassim for between 8-16EUR depending on the type of place you visit. By way of comparison most food in the festival arena ranges from 8-10EUR (Pizza 8.50, Burger 8.50, Noodles 8.50 – all very nice).

The main street is strewn with cafes, bars and restaurants, so you’ll never be short of choice. However, If you don’t check your bill properly, you may find yourself short of change. We ate in several places and in most of them we found ourselves billed incorrectly for one thing or another. Not that we’d suggest for one minute that the Restaurateurs of Beni-land would be trying to take advantage of us “less-than-awake” festival goers, but we would suggest you check the bill before coughing up your hard-earned.

Service
We can’t think of one place that serviced us quickly and when we say quick, we don’t mean fast food quick, we just mean take our order within 20 minutes of sitting down. Ok, ok, some places were on the ball and got you attended to, but the vast majority seemed to employ waiters that moved in slow motion. When we did get eventually get attended to the service was generally polite but far from exceptional (however do you need or even expect exceptional service in a festival environment, me thinks not).

Food Quality
Unfortunately for the most part the quality of food doesn’t make up for the poor service or below par billing accuracy. The food was generally of a mediocre standard, edible but nothing to write home about. That said we did eat in two or three places that would fall into the category of “we’d go there again”. Here are the details:

1) La Manduca
Web: www.lamanduca.net
Address: Calle Dolors, 12560, Benicasim
Providing what can only be described as the definition of “slow service” even when only partially full La Manduca does make up for this by the quality of food provided! Amongst our favourites were the Salmon pizza – proper meaty chunks of salmon and the Paella – which was big enough to feed a small family. Prices were reasonable too and to be fair once your order was eventually taken then the food came quick enough, it’s just actually getting hold of somebody to take our order that proved problematic.

2) Breakfast place (sorry we’ve lost the name)
Address: Carrer Dels Dolors, 12560, Benicasim
This place is on the left hand side of the road as you’re walking through Benicassim through the festival site. It has a selection of orange furniture outside and the inside is nicely decorated. Serving up what is probably the best “Festival Breakfast” in Benicassim for around 8 EUR. It does come with the statutory “dodgy sausages” (available from all restaurants in Benicassim), however despite not being “cheap” it hit the spot much better than some of the more pricey alternatives that we sampled.

Ok, so we’re running a bit low on restaurant recommendations. If any of you have any places that you would recommend then please feel free to leave a comment using the form below. If you can leave enough detail we’ll get any decent recommendations added to our list. Thank you!

1) Tent

We found the ASDA £10 “2 man” tent to be perfect for sleeping one grown man, if you want to comfortably fit in 2 people then go for a “3 man” tent. Just remember it’s scorching hot out there so it’s probably not a good idea to cram loads of people into the same tent, all that body heat just isn’t good when the outside temp is 30C+. Remember if you’re flying out to Beni you’ll have to make sure this doesn’t send you over your baggage allowance (especially if you’re flying with Ryanair or another budget airline that is stingy with their baggage allowance). The ASDA 2 man tent only weighs about 3kg so it’s ideal!
 

Asda 2 Person Tent - small but big enough for one

2) Camping mat

The ground on all the Beni campsites that we saw is rock solid, some of it has small stones and rocks protruding out, definitely not the best surface for a comfortable nights sleep! However, you can fix this minor issue by using a camping mat, we found the Vango self-inflating mat to be the perfect combination of comfort whilst being small and lightweight enough to fit in your backpack.

Vango Self Infalting Mat - A Back Saver

3) Clothing

We’d be shocked if you hadn’t planned on taking this already, but we felt we should emphasize the fact that the temperature is pretty constantly 30C + during the festival, so make sure you take shorts/skirts and plenty of short sleeved t-shirts, much of the time you’ll probably end up wearing very little but make sure you’ve got something thin and long-sleeved in case you get too much sun. Also when it comes to swimwear be careful about wearing board shorts – if you’re doing the daily 2 mile trek back from the beach in wet shorts we found that this can cause serious chaffing issues on the inner thigh area (especially with the longer variety of board shorts).

4) Footwear

Flip flops are an absolute essential otherwise you’ll be living in sweaty feet city. However, we’d also recommend taking 2 pairs of comfy trainers (or one really good pair) as it’s a 2 mile walk to the beach from the festival campsite (CampFIB, BeniCamp is a bit closer), I tried to get away with wearing flip flops and shredded my feet after the first couple of days, luckily I had one pair of old trainers with me but by the end of the week these had to be reinforced with superglue which is never a good luck! Also trainers are a must have when you’re in the festival arena otherwise your toes will suffer!

5) Plasters/Bandages/Disinfectant

You almost definitely will at some point need plasters during the festival. Most likely for blistered feet, but also as a result of cuts and bruises sustained during the solid partying you’ll be doing. You can get plasters for free from the first aid points scattered around the festival site, but for convenience we’d recommend taking at least one box of your own. You might even want to take some pain killers (paracetamol) with you to help tackle the inevitable hangover(s) – although you might find the intense heat helps you sweat out the booze so the hangover’s aren’t as severe as you’d get on a cold UK night out!

6) Travel Towel

This is a must have if you’re camping. You’ll end up having at least 2 shower’s a day, just because it’s so hot, you might even have more than this if you’ve been in the sea etc. The bonus on travel towels is that you don’t have to wait long for them to dry, in fact they’re designed to absorb a load of water then you can wring them out and dry again. They’re also really compact compared to your standard “home towels”. Also, make sure you take a bottle of shower gel for use in the showers, you really need something to soap yourself up with to clean away all the sweat and sand!

7) Euros

Definitely, definitely, definitely take some cash with you. Don’t rely on the cash machines in Benicassim – you’ll find that there’s big queue’s especially for the first few days. You don’t have to worry about taking you full spends with you up front (although I did) but just make sure you’ve got enough for the first day or so. You’ll find the cash point queue’s less severe if you walk along the main street for 500metres or so to the next cash machine (everybody seems to congregate at the very first cash machine they hit after the campsite).

8 ) Nerf ball

You’ll end up spending a lot of time on the beach during the day (especially if you’re camping – too hot in the tents after about 8.30am), having something to play with during the day can boost your enjoyment factor to limitless bounds, we’d recommend the Nerf Vortex Mega Howler.

The Nerf Vortex Howler - Great Fun on the beach!

9) Toilet roll

We should have put this further up the list really, but don’t be surprised if you go to the loo, drop the kids off in the pool then discover that there’s no paper to clean your little botty! The organisers seem way behind on the whole toilet hygiene thing, most of the toilets don’t have anything to clean your hands with (so a small travel bottle of that anti-bacterial stuff can also be a good buy). I took 1x toilet roll and round this to be sufficient for the week (I used the local bar/restaurant loo’s quite extensively during the day so didn’t have to rely on my own stash of loo roll very often).

Loo roll - take at least one

10) A battery operated fan

You know one of those little mini-ones, it’ll only set you back a few quid from your local supermarket (ASDA sell them) but they’re a god send when you’re in your scorcher of a tent trying to get some kip. It can also be a really good idea to take a length of string with you so you can fasten the fan to your tent’s ceiling (some tent’s, i.e. the ASDA cheapo one’s have a bit of material where you’ll be able to fasten this, with other’s you’ll have to thread the string through the tent’s mesh).

There’s probably a ton of other tips from regular Benicassim festival goers out there, so please feel free to add you comments below if you’ve got anything worth sharing. Until then, happy camping!