Pre congress tour to Murcia and Andalucía.

Nov 11 to 18

Cost: 875 € per delegate (double shared room) 1.100 € per delegate (double room single use) In the first case the two delegates sharing room should register simultaneously.

Accommodation with breakfast from November 11th to November 17th IS INCLUDED, as well as snacks,lunches (except on November 12th and 17th), some dinners, bus transport, entrance and guided visits to each city’s main monuments (the Cathedral in Murcia, the Alhambra in Granada, the Real Alcázar of Sevilla, and the Mezquita in Córdoba)

This 7-days tour combines technical visits to citrus nurseries, orchards and processing plants with cultural and tourist visits to Murcia, Granada, Córdoba and Sevilla. Although it involves traveling about 1,900 Km, most of the route will be done by rapid freeways and using modern comfortable buses. Buses will depart each day at 08.00 a.m., except otherwise indicated.

For logistic reasons the tour will be for a maximum of 80 delegates. Bookings for this tour will be based on the payment date

Night of Sunday, November 11th
As departure will be on November 12th, at exactly 07.30hrs, from the hotel “Novotel Valencia Palacio de Congresos”, the night of November the 11th you will be accommodated in this hotel.

Day 1: Valencia-Murcia (about 320 Km)

Buses will depart from the Hotel “Novotel Palacio de Congresos” (www.novotel.com) in Valencia at 7:30 a.m. to Alhama de Murcia (about 285 Km) where we will visit the orchard “El Cañarico”, with 160 ha on a hill side mainly planted with Fino lemon (70 ha), Nadorcott mandarine (73 ha) and Navelate sweet orange (19 ha), all propagated on Citrus macrophylla rootstock.
Then we will travel to the hotel “NH Amistad” (www.nh-hoteles.es/NH-Amistad-Murcia) in Murcia (about 35 Km). Free time for lunch and walking. A guided visit to the Cathedral will be organized in the afternoon, and in the evening, a dinner and a visit to the old “Casino de Labradores”.

Day 2: Murcia-Puerto Lumbreras-Granada (about 330 Km)

During the first part of the trip we will travel in buses to Puerto Lumbreras (88 Km) and then we’ll move in small vans to Almendricos and Pulpí (about 25 Km) to visit the citrus nursery “Viveros Citroplant” (http://www.servicitrus.com/citroplant/) and two citrus orchards, (“Almendricos” and “El Turbinto”) of the Montecitrus group (http://www.montecitrus.com) that manages a total of 1000 ha of citrus. The orchards “Almendricos” (200 ha) and “El Turbinto” (150 ha) grow different sweet orange (Navelate, Lanelate, Powell and Chislett), mandarin (Iwasaki, Nadorcott, Murcott, Nova and Clemenrubí) and lemon (Fino) varieties propagated on Citrus macrophylla and Cleopatra rootstocks with an underlying philosophy of resource optimization and sustainability. For this purpose they have an advanced automatic fertilizing and irrigation system based on capacitance probes at different depths, solar panels for electricity supply and they produce certified plants in a 60 ha nursery using hydroponics and recycling the substrate and the waste irrigation water by desalinization.
We will go back to Puerto Lumbreras and, after having lunch, buses will continue towards the hotel “Melia Granada” (www.es.solmelia.com/Melia_Granada) in Granada (190 Km), where we plan to arrive at about 6:30 p.m.

Day 3: Granada-Sevilla (about 250 Km)

This will be an easy day. We will leave the hotel at 9:30 a.m. for a cultural visit to the Alhambra palaces (www.alhambradegranada.org/). After lunch in a restaurant in Granada, buses will depart towards Sevilla. Lodging will be at the hotel “NH Plaza de Armas” (www.nh-hoteles.es/NH-Plaza-de-Armas), close to bars and downtown restaurants.

Day 4: Field visits in the Sevilla area (about 75 Km)

Our first stop will be at Cantillana to visit the orchard “El Taraje” that has about 185 ha planted with different mandarin (Clemenrubí, Clemenules, Nova, Ortanique, Ellendale and Gold Nugget) and sweet orange (Navelina, Salustiana, Navelate and Valencia Late) varieties propagated on conventional (Poncirus trifoliata, Carrizo and Troyer citranges, Swingle citrumelo and Volkamer lemon) and new (Forner Alcaide-5, Forner Alcaide-418, Forner Alcaide-517) rootstocks.
After, we will visit the orchard “Majaloba”, at La Rinconada, that has a unique 8 ha sour orange seedling planting over 100 years old. Fresh fruit is exported to the United Kingdom for home-made elaborated marmalade.
Buses will return to the hotel at lunch time. A tourist tour to the city and an evening visit to the Real Alcázar (www.patronato-alcazarsevilla.es/) have been organized.
Accommodation at the same hotel as the previous day.

Day 5: Technical visits in the Huelva area (about 265 Km round trip)

We will drive towards Villanueva de los Castillejos (136 km) to visit the orchard “La Dehesilla” belonging to the García Carrión group, with 1500 ha of citrus planted on ridges of slate soil (http://www.garciacarrion.es/es/donsimon/planta-detalle/planta-degarcia-carrion-de-huelva). In addition to conventional sweet orange varieties (Valencia and Lane late, Salustiana and blood oranges), local cultivars from the IVIA germplasm bank are being compared for juice quality and yield on different rootstocks. Plants are still 5 years old or younger. All the production is processed in a large and high technology citrus processing plant, with capacity for 2,000 tons per day, which is located in the same orchard. About 200,000 tons of fruit per year are processed, producing high quality fresh juice. They have a storage capacity of 48 million liters of juice at 4ºC. They also count with five aseptic filling units that may produce 24,000 bottles of juice per hour and a robotized storage room with capacity for 14,000 pallets.
After lunch in a close scenery restaurant buses will drive to Gibraleón (34 Km) for the next two visits: the orchards “La Calvilla” and “Mazorrales” property of the Agrimarba group that is dedicated to production and exportation of citrus fresh fruit. These orchards have 221 ha (La Calvilla) and 262 ha (Mazorrales) of drip-irrigated citrus planted on ridges following level lines. “La Calvilla” has Satsuma Owari, Nova, Orri and Nadorcott mandarins, and Navelina and Powell navel oranges, propagated on Carrizo citrange and citrumelo, and “Mazorrales” is planted with Clemenrubi, Nova and Nadorcott mandarins and Barnfield, Powell, Barberina and Midknight sweet oranges propagated on the same rootstocks.
We will return to Sevilla (95 Km) to stay one more night at “NH Plaza de Armas” hotel.

Day 6: Sevilla-Córdoba (145 Km)

We will drive to Córdoba for a cultural visit to the Mezquita (www.mezquitadecordoba.org/) and the Alcázar (www.spain.info/es/…/cordoba/alcazar_de_los_reyes_cristianos.html). We’ll stay at the hotel “Hesperia Córdoba” (www.hesperia.com) and the afternoon and the evening will be free for shopping and walking the historic district.

Day 7: Córdoba-Valencia (521 Km)

During the trip a brief stop for coffee will be made at Almuradiel (160 Km). Lunch might be at the winery “Bodegas Pago de la Zaraba” in Villarobledo (300 Km from Córdoba). Then buses will drive to Valencia (223 Km), with a brief stop for coffee at Minglanilla, to arrive at the hotel at about 6:30 p.m. on time to attend the welcome reception of the Congress.