Spain · Costa Blanca
Alicante
A medieval castle on a sea rock, with a real Spanish city and the Costa Blanca's best tapas streets at its feet.
Alicante is a working Mediterranean port city with a fortress on a rock in the middle of it: Castillo de Santa Bárbara sits on the bare crag of Mount Benacantil, straight above the city beach and a tangle of painted old-town lanes. Below the rock run the wave-tiled marble of the Explanada de España, a marina, a dense grid of tapas streets and a tram out to kilometres of sand. It is the Costa Blanca's capital and its transport hub, and far more everyday Spanish city than resort.
Suggested stay
2–4 days
Language
Spanish
Currency
EUR
Timezone
UTC+2
Why you'll love Alicante
The castle Santa Bárbara crowns a bare rock above the sand, reached by a lift bored through the hill, with the whole coast laid out from its walls
The old town El Barrio's painted houses climb towards the fortress and fill after dark with wine, tapas counters and student noise
Two beaches Postiguet at the foot of the city, and San Juan's long stretch of sand a short tram ride up the coast
Rice country this is arroz a banda and arroz al horno territory, cooked at lunchtime and taken seriously by everyone here
Best time to visit
all year
17-31° days
38.344° N, 0.488° W
UTC+2 · Europe/Madrid
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Weather & when to go to Alicante
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best all year
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Alicante
No bad season here - the city stays mild and usable right through the year, which is why northern Europeans winter on this coast. August is the crowded month, when Spain takes its holiday and the beaches, the old town and the coast road all fill. In winter the sea is too cold for most people to swim and the beach strips go quiet.
Top things to do in Alicante
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Castillo de Santa Bárbara - the fortress on Benacantil
history 👍 PopularOne of the largest medieval fortresses in Spain, spread over three levels of a limestone crag right above the sea. A lift runs up inside the rock from a doorway opposite Postiguet beach, or you can climb through the old town. The grounds are open and mostly free to wander; the views over port, beaches and the dry plain behind are the point.
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Explanada de España - the wave-tiled seafront promenade
culture arts 👍 PopularA palm-lined esplanade paved in millions of small marble tiles laid in red, cream and black waves, running between the port and the marina. It is the city's evening walk: buskers and stalls under the palms, harbour on one side, tall shuttered facades on the other.
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Barrio de Santa Cruz - the painted lanes below the walls
history ⭐ Highly recommendedThe oldest quarter of the city, a stack of whitewashed houses in blue and ochre trim climbing the hill under the fortress, hung with flowerpots and threaded by tiled stairways and small miradors. Go up in the late afternoon light, then drop back into the bar streets for the evening.
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MARQ - the provincial archaeology museum
history culture artsAlicante's archaeology collection in a converted hospital, staged from prehistory through the Iberians and Romans to the Middle Ages with reconstructed dig sites rather than rows of glass cases. It holds finds from Roman Lucentum and the Iberian settlements of the province, and it is the wet-day answer in a beach city.
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Playa de San Juan - the long tram-line beach
nature wildlife 👍 PopularKilometres of wide golden sand a few stops north on the tram, backed by apartment blocks, beach bars and a promenade. This is where the city actually spends its summer, and the water shelves gently enough that families settle in for whole days.
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Playa del Postiguet - the beach under the castle
nature wildlifeThe city beach, at the end of the old town, with the castle rock rising straight behind it. Small and packed in summer, but you can swim and be back at a tapas bar within five minutes, which makes it better for a morning dip than a whole day.
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Basílica de Santa María and the Concatedral de San Nicolás
historyThe city's two old churches, a few minutes apart. Santa María is Gothic behind a florid baroque doorway and stands on the site of the main mosque; San Nicolás is a severe Renaissance-era co-cathedral with a blue dome and a quiet cloister off the nave.
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Mercado Central - the produce market on the Rambla
foodA stone market hall on the Rambla selling fish, jamón, salted tuna and mojama, tinned seafood and produce from the huerta. The bars around it run the standard mid-morning almuerzo, and an hour here is the quickest lesson in what this province eats.
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Tapas in El Barrio - the old-town bar streets
food nightlife music ⭐ Highly recommendedThe lanes around Calle Labradores and the streets behind the town hall are lined with tapas counters and wine bars that only get going around nine at night. Look for salazones, rice dishes at lunch rather than dinner, and the soft almond turrón made up the road at Jijona.
Best areas to stay in Alicante
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Centro
First-time visitors $$Grand streets, shops, steps from the sea
Explore hotels in Centro →
Casco Antiguo (El Barrio)
Night owls $$Painted lanes, tapas counters, late nights
Explore hotels in Casco Antiguo (El Barrio) →
Playa de San Juan
Beach and families $$Wide sand, apartment blocks, resort calm
Explore hotels in Playa de San Juan →
Albufereta and Cabo de las Huertas
Quiet coves $$$Rocky coves, villas, residential quiet
Explore hotels in Albufereta and Cabo de las Huertas →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Alicante
Getting to & around Alicante
Getting there
Fly into Alicante-Elche (ALC), then about twenty minutes by airport bus or taxi into the centre.
Flight
Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)
About 11 km southwest of the city, towards Elche. The airport bus runs to the centre and the bus station in roughly 20-25 minutes; a taxi takes about 15-20 minutes.
Train
Alicante Terminal station
High-speed trains from Madrid in about two and a half hours, plus regional services down the coast.
Coach
Alicante bus station
Long-distance coaches from Valencia, Murcia and Madrid, and frequent buses along the coast road.
Cruise
Port of Alicante
Ships berth beside the Explanada, a few minutes on foot from the old town.
Getting around
Walking
Old town, market, Explanada and Postiguet all sit inside a fifteen-minute walk.
TBC
Tram
Light rail from Luceros north to San Juan and El Campello, and on towards Benidorm and Dénia.
TBC
City bus
Covers the beaches and outer barrios that the tram misses, with night services at weekends.
TBC
Castle lift
A lift bored into Benacantil climbs from the Postiguet seafront to the fortress in under a minute.
TBC
Taxi
Plentiful and metered; most useful late at night back from the beach barrios.
TBC
Day trips from Alicante
Tabarca
Full dayMarine-reserve island
Spain's smallest inhabited island and its oldest marine reserve: a walled eighteenth-century village, clear water over seagrass, two small beaches and a lot of day boats. Go early, swim, eat the local caldero rice, and remember the last boat sets the length of your day.
Getting there
ferry
About an hour each way by boat from the port
Elche
Half dayUNESCO palm grove
Europe's largest palm grove, planted under Muslim rule and still watered by its old channels, wraps a working shoe-making city. Walk the Huerto del Cura, see the Iberian Lady of Elche in replica at the archaeology museum, then leave before the afternoon heat.
Getting there
train | bus
About 25-30 minutes by local train or bus
Guadalest
Full dayMountain castle village
A tiny village wedged on a rock above a turquoise reservoir, its castle reached through a tunnel cut in the stone. This valley is the Costa Blanca's postcard interior, and it fills with coaches by mid-morning, so go early or go late.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1 hr 15 by car, or by coach tour
Altea and Calpe
Full dayWhitewashed coast towns
Altea stacks white houses and a blue-domed church above a pebble bay; Calpe sits under the Peñón de Ifach, a limestone tooth rising straight out of the sea with a path to the summit through a tunnel. Both are stops on the coastal tram.
Getting there
train | car
About an hour up the coast by tram or car
Benidorm
Half dayHigh-rise resort strip
The most concentrated skyline in Spain, two big curved beaches and a small old town wedged between them. Worth seeing once for the sheer spectacle, and a useful contrast with everything else on this stretch of coast.
Getting there
bus | train
About 45 minutes by bus, longer by tram
A little history of Alicante
People have used the rock of Benacantil since prehistory, but the city's first famous name is Roman: Lucentum, the city of light, on the headland north of today's centre. Muslim rule from the eighth century fortified the crag and left the name Laqant, which became Alicante; Castilian and then Aragonese kings took the town in the thirteenth century, and it spent the centuries after as a fought-over fortified port.
Its money came from the sea and from what a dry hinterland could still produce: wine, almonds, salt, and later the shoe factories around Elche. The port was bombed in the Civil War and the city was among the last Republican holdouts. From the 1960s package flights filled the sand north of town with apartment blocks and turned this coast into northern Europe's winter garden, while the old centre came through largely intact.
Carthaginians found Akra Leuke, the white summit, traditionally placed on this bay.
Roman Lucentum grows on the Albufereta headland; its ruins are still walkable.
The pact of Theodemir hands the region to Muslim rule; the crag is fortified as Laqant.
Castilian forces under the future Alfonso X take the town.
James II brings Alicante into the Crown of Aragon, where it stays.
A mine under Santa Bárbara castle is fired at its British garrison, killing the governor.
The railway from Madrid reaches Alicante, giving the port a fast link inland.
Bombers hit the central market in one of the deadliest air raids of the Civil War.
Package flights and a new airport turn the Costa Blanca into a mass beach destination.
Know before you go
Payment
Cards everywhere
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+34
Mobile network & SIM card
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FAQs about Alicante
▸ When is the best time to visit Alicante?
Almost any month works, which is why northern Europeans winter here. May, June and September give warm sea without August's crowds; August is the hottest and busiest; midwinter is good for walking and eating, though the sea is too cold for most people to swim.
▸ How many days do you need in Alicante?
Two full days covers the castle, the old town, the Explanada and a beach afternoon. Give it three or four to use the city as a Costa Blanca base, with Tabarca, Elche and the Guadalest valley as day trips.
▸ Is Alicante just a resort town?
No. It is a provincial capital and a working port with a university, a market and a Gothic quarter, lived in year-round by Spaniards. The resort strips are up the coast at San Juan and Benidorm, which is part of why the city feels cheaper and more ordinary than the Costa Blanca's reputation.
▸ Do you need a car in Alicante?
Not for the city, which walks end to end, and the tram reaches the northern beaches and the coast towns. A car earns its keep for the interior: Guadalest, the Jalón valley wineries and the mountain villages, which buses reach slowly or not at all.
▸ Is Alicante good for families?
Yes. San Juan's long shallow beach, a castle with a lift up to it, short distances and a tram along the coast all suit children, and late Spanish dinner hours mean nobody minds them being out. The old-town bar streets are the one part to sleep away from.
▸ Alicante or Valencia?
Valencia is the bigger city, with the stronger museums, architecture and food scene. Alicante is smaller, sunnier and has a proper beach at the end of its main street. For a city break go to Valencia; for beach with a real city attached, come here.
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