Help is At Hand (When Genuinely Needed)
The Foreign and Commonwealth Offices provide excellent informaiton for travellers at their website www.fco.gov.uk. They are also responsible for overseeing the network of consulate offices overseas. The nearest consulate to Javea is in Alicante (Plaza Calvo Sotelo 1. Tel. 96 521 60 22).
The consular services provide both information and support to British residents living on the Costa Blanca and to British tourists. They can get pretty busy during the peak season, as travellers lose passports, or fall into difficulty, either through accidents or mishaps.
The consulate also helps in the promotion of good relations with Spanish governmental and representative departments. However, much of their work ends up being down to poor planning by holiday makers. Many fail to take out travel insurance, or to restrain their spending. The British also have the repuation for drinking too much in the big resorts further down the Costa Blanca coastline and when these fall ill, break the law or get into drunken brawls, it is usually the consulate that is called in to try and help.
Fortunately Javea is a long way away from the problem areas, but it is good to bear in mind that the consulate is there to help in liaising with Spanish authorities and cannot make promises about getting those who run out of money home, or getting you out of jail if you break the law. The team at the consulate work ever so hard to help those who genuinely are in distress to no fault of their own, but it is still wise to take adequate precautions before you travel.
For those Brits who are resident in Javea the Consulate will lobby for fair treatment in diplomatic circles, but again it is there as a last resort and should not be used as a first port of call when dealing with ordinary mundain issues when living in Spain.