Christmas 2012

The team in Camping Rubina Resort wishes you a happy Christmas and a nice 2013, best wishes!!

Plans for 2013 - 1st part

2013 will not be like 2010 when we launched the new swimming pool, but nonetheless we plan some pretty important novelties. There will be at least one big zone that will be affected and this post is about it: the triangular zone delimited by the apartments, mobilhomes, the old Bar Amberes and the river that crosses the campsite.

First, the mobilhomes are already gone and they will be replaced by more parking places and 4 new bungalows for 5 persons Plus, in the sector C. Second the old swimming pool has already been demolished, and a big area is now free. That area will be used to prepare a garden area for the apartments on the ground floor, and to build a new playground for children. Details about this playground are still to be decided, but it will be bigger that the one in front of the restaurant.

Then there is the building that once contained the Bar Amberes. A part of that building has been demolished, as you have been following in the blog. The demolished area enables a street that should be useful in the next years. In the rest of the building the toilets will remain, of course. But there is also the new workshop for the gardeners as well as the new miniclub. More about the new miniclub in the next weeks, it should enable much better the activities.

There is a second zone that will be affected for 2013, development plans are still at an early stage, in the next months it will be also announced here as we know more.

Beginning the garden for the apartments

The apartments on the ground level are going to have a nice garden in front of them. The gardeners are beginning to prepare the ground around. Now it looks bad but in the next weeks it is going to change a lot.

Preparing area for new bungalows

A set of 4 new bungalows is going to be put in the place of the old mobilhomes. Here you can see the builders preparing a small concrete basement in order to stabilise the ground.

Details before starting new playground area

Before really starting to build the new playground area, some trees and bushes need to be moved, concrete pieces on the road have to be removed, etc...

Fixing the road next to old Bar Amberes

There is still something to do with that demolition, like connecting again water and electricity, and arranging the road beside it.

Old pool now demolished

Finally the old pool has been demolished. The area looks very big, the apartments building is prominent and now comes the detailed planning of what we are going to do there. More about that in the next days.

More on Bar Amberes demolition

The demolition of the once Bar Amberes is progressing, new walls are being built, still there are some details to finish, and then the new portion of road will be addressed.

Bar Amberes progressing well

The portion of the building to be demolished is dissappearing. One more week and it should be finished. As said before, most of the work is ensuring that the rest of the building has solid new walls to the exterior.

Bar Amberes demolition also in progress

Meanwhile the other team is progressing in preparing the demolition of a part of the old Bar Amberes. Because it is just part of the building, there is a lot of work in building the new walls to the exterior, and cutting the roof.

Progress in old pool demolition

Demolition of the old pool is progressing well, in about one week in should be finished. There are some difficulties with electrical cables but by now we will have to cut them and later reconnect with another path.

Rubina Resort in the press

An article about us in the spanish magazine 'Bungalows Park' of November 2012. It describes the campsite in general and the bungalows in detail.

A call for ideas

In the place of the old mobilhomes we are going to put 4 new bungalows of the type 'Bungalow 5 persons Plus', the rest of that place is for parking places.
The ground-level apartments are going to have a small garden in front of them.
The area occupied by the old swimming pool is not clear what we are going to do. We started by a picnic area, then after a playground area for children, then a beach volley-ball, and now we are going back to ...
a picnic area, basically a green area where we will plant some palms and other trees, with seats, picnic tables, some shadow...
What do you think about it? Ideas will be very much welcomed. The place should be quiet, because the apartments and bungalows are just there, very near.

Old pool being demolished, very fast

Finally, the demolition of the old swimming pool has started. It should be finished in two weeks, and then the apartments building will be much more visible in the center of the campsite.
What we are going to do in that place... it is still risky to tell, since we are changing from week to week, trying to find the solution that best adapts to that area.

Demolition in slow progress

A team of builders is right now demolishing a small part of the building that once was the Bar Amberes. Another part will be demolished at the middle of December.

Corrections on the meals

In order to make it easier to the families with children, we now have a cheaper boarding price -breakfast and/or dinner- for the children. And to make it better we put the limit age at 16 years, most other places put the limit at 12 years.

Preparing the demolition of the old swimming pool

In a few weeks we are going to demolish the old swimming pool. We have been emptying everything inside and around it: the signs of the parking, the gardener's workshop, two garages, three storages, the miniclub, the machine room...

You can also reserve some meals

In order to make your stay here more confortable, there is now the possibility to reserve also some meals, in a typical 'bed and breakfast' and 'half board' style. In that way you can pay for those meals in advance at the arrival to the campsite and from then on do not have to worry.

We have modified the web site to advertise this possibility, and also the reservation procedure so you can tell us if you wish some meals.

More demolitions in old Estrella area

At the beginning of this year we demolished a small building that once was the reception of the old Estrella campsite. Now we are just demolishing a part of the ancient, unused restaurant, the covered terrasse. This terasse was also unused, it did not look good at all, and now we finally destroy it in order to improve that area and have more available surface for future buildings. The ancient building will need some repairing and repainting.

Arrangement in parking bungalows 4/6 persons

Part of the parking area behind the bungalows for 4/6 persons had a roof made of metal, wood and upon which plants grew. Unfortunately, plants grew too much and the roof was slowly deforming and falling. After some years trying to reinforce the roof, we finally have given up and have cutted the roof completely. The roof was going to be a nuisance with the modifications that are needed in the next weeks in the wall.

Website updated, ready for 2013

Today we will be updating our website, and if all goes well at the end of the day you should view something like the picture above. Internet Explorer 6.0 is no more supported, and there can be problems with IE 7.0, but the rest of the browsers should be ok. In case you experience problems, please tell us to info@rubinaresort.com and we will try to arrange it.

The new design is much 'softer' in the colors, in fact uses similar colors to the ones that we use inside the campsite. It tries to present a realistic, more inmersive impression of what is to find here. For example, the big photo background and the transparency in the page. We are also using, much more, modern graphical elements such as image galleries, tabs and accordions.

Links to the blog and facebook are found both in the sidebar and the footer, in order to try to bring clients to visit those websites.

Cameras around the entrance

Continuing with the security, we have now installed several cameras around the entrance to the campsite and inside the reception. This should be helpful in order to prevent and review unauthorized access.

Ammeliorating the wall around the campsite

2013 will be the year of the security, in the next months we will be implementing several measures in that direction. First of all, the wall around the campsite needs to be improved, and we will do that in several phases that will extend for some weeks. In a first phase we will make the wall a little bit higher in some places. We are also putting some poles that will be used in another phase.

Preparing a new workshop

We are modifying the old Bar Amberes to be the new gardener's workshop. Here you see some masons preparing a new entrance in the north side. This workshop should be ready, with all the furniture and machines, in about one month. Then we will move all the contents from the old workshop to this new place.

Top position in the news

We appear in the local weekly newspaper 'Empordà' from 18 september, page 2, written in Catalan. It says that the National Statistics Institute from Spain has found that the most successful campings from Spain are, in that order, from Castelló d'Empúries (we are here!), Sant Pere Pescador and Torroella de Montgrí.
In Castelló d'Empúries there are 5 campings, one of them is us, the Camping Rubina Resort. We are proud that we, as a camping group, appear in the top position, as this surely means that our situation --beach, mountains, village..-- is very attractive for tourists.

Goodbye mobilhomes

This winter we are going to, at last, remove the mobilhomes. Both types of mobilhomes, 4/5 persons and 4/6 persons are very old and we have delayed the decision because each year there have been some reparations and also because of the need of deep changes in the surrounding area in order to really ammeliorate the campsite.
This is the first change for 2013. More to come in the next days.

Marking emergency doors

In the supermarket's emergency doors we first had a set of poles that impeded the vehicles to park nearby. But it was easy for the vehicles to hit these poles since they were not very big. Now Vadim simply puts some custom-made signs to mark the doors.
In a few days we will begin anouncing changes for 2013.

Fishing competition

Fishing in the campsite, in the small river that runs across it, has become a fundamental hobby between the children. Today there is a fishing competition, organised by Fibi and Gemma of the animation team. They usually get to fish crabs, more specifically crayfishes of american origin. These crabs are, since a lot of years here, quite abundant, and so children have a lot of fun because it is almost guaranteed that they will get many of them! After collecting a bucket, many children use to throw them back to the river.

For smokers

Vadim is right now putting a cigarette bin in the terrace of the lounge bar. We hope smokers will find it practical. As in Spain smoking is prohibited inside public buildings, smokers go frequently to the terrace or outside the building. Another cigarette bin has been put at the entrance of the supermarket.

Beach as usual

Here is how the beach looks just now, the fresh wind coming from the sea is raising and it helps with today's high temperatures. From today on we expect that the beach will be less and less crowded as less families have holidays, until the end of this season.

Swimming pool as usual

These last 2 days have been very warm, and the swimming pool provides a good refreshment. The shadow of the trees is greatly appreciated. The high season is progressing well, right now we have a 100% occupation.

Kitchen in the Internet Cafe

The kitchen between the Internet Cafe and the supermarket was completely rebuilded this winter, and since April is operating normally. Here you see 2 cooks at work.

Lounge bar during the night

These last nights the new lounge bar is getting more and more visitors, billiard tables are often busy. There are still some details to add or change but it is already quite nice. Free WiFi is already working and smartphone users already know it.

New signs in the children's playground

Children's playgrounds have to be kept from dogs and rubbish, so here is Vadim fixing one of the new two signs in the area in front of the restaurant, at the campsite's entrance.

Animation team dancing with the wolves

The high season is already in full throttle, and the animation team, here Fibi and Georgina, are almost every afternoon dancing with the children. There is also Celia who is, just at the same time, involved with fitness and aquagym sessions.

Lounge Bar opening day

At last, yesterday we opened the new lounge bar, free drinks were offered and a lot of clients came to visit it. In the next days the opening time will be from 16:00 to 24:00 and maybe later until 1:00. The closing time in the night will be revised depending on the noise level in the campingplots and bungalows. The priority here is to guarantee that the campsite is quiet after 24:00.

Lounge Bar getting ready

Last touches before the opening this afternoon. Here Vadim applies adhesives to the big windows, for safety purposes and also to avoid that birds crash against the glasses.

New bathrooms ready to use

The new bathrooms in the lounge bar are already ready to use. Some details will be added or modified along the summer, but the overall look is finished. We will be posting more pictures in the next days. Sunday 1 July continues as the opening day for the lounge bar.

Painting the wooden floor

Inside, the wooden floor is almost finished and the painters are now applying the first layer of fireproof varnish. Next week will be the last one before the opening, planned on sunday 1st July.

Now the ramp to the terrace

The ramp to the terrace will be finished tomorrow morning (at least the carpenters' part). This ramp should enable access to wheelchairs and baby strollers.

Starting now with the pergola

The terrace will have a pergola similar to the one in the ground floor. Here are the carpenters cutting big pieces of pine wood. The rest of the terrace is almost finished.

More on the terrace

Once the railing finished, now it is the turn to put a separator wall between the terrace and other buildings.

Progress in the terrace

The terrace floor, walls and railings are progressing well, if the weather continues like now, sunny and dry, it could be finished in one week. After that there will still remain some details near the windows. It all takes longer but the general aspect is beautiful.

Door to the bathroom

Here the smiths are preparing one of the bathroom's doors. It looks shiny and it will be, we are trying to put a touch of modern design.

Lamps in the stairs

The stairs leading up to the new lounge bar are being finished, now installing two big lamps. A special provisional structure is needed because of height and safety considerations. Lastly we are now realizing that the cables of the lamps will need a rigid support because there is sometimes a stream of air that otherwise moves them.

Improvements on the entrance signs

In the process of changing the camping's name we also needed to change the sign in front of the bridge. Here is the new sign, we have also repainted the sliding maintenance door, and somewhat repainted and improved the fence. This new look should last for the next few years.

Terrace already shows some floor

As the carpenters put more and more pieces, the terrace is beginning to show the floor in its final shape. Still, the work in the terrace will last probably two more weeks, because of the walls and the long railing. There are now 3 carpenters in the project.

Still another door, now to the terrace

The main door to the terrace is going to be rather wide and open automatically. Here there is a carpenter looking that the wood floor adjusts to the door. You can also see that there is the base of a ramp that leads from inside to that door. This will allow wheelchair users to go to the terrace.

One more door of too many

Amazing how the new lounge bar needs a huge quantity of doors: fire-resistant, emergency doors... here you see two builders fixing a door in the correct place. At the right side of that door there is a cabinet that contains all the electrical switches for the lights and air-conditioning. You can also see that there is some wood floor around it, so this has also progressed a little bit.

Starting the floor inside

Also the wood floor inside is beginning to appear. Here a carpenter puts a natural pine wood, with just a darker color. Afterwards it will all need an special paint againt fire.