Alicante travel guide: how to get there, the beaches, and where to eat

Alicante is the Spanish Mediterranean city most international travelers do not think about, partly because it is hard to fly to direct and partly because Barcelona and Valencia absorb the headlines. It is worth more than that. The city sits among the sunniest in continental Europe at roughly 2,900 hours a year, with a swimmable beach inside the city itself, a castle on the hill, and an underrated food scene that runs from one-euro tapas to a proper steakhouse dinner.

On this page

• How to get there
• Festivals and big annual events
• Where to stay
• The beaches by type
• Castell de Santa Bàrbara and the Roman sites
• Where to eat
• Day trips up the Costa Blanca

How to get there

Alicante airport (ALC) is Spain's fifth-busiest by volume (18M+ passengers a year, behind Madrid, Barcelona, Palma, and Málaga), which is the surprise. The catch is that almost all the traffic is low-cost carriers: Ryanair, easyJet, Vueling. From Europe or the UK that is cheap and frequent. From North America there are few direct options. The practical play is to connect through Madrid or Barcelona and finish the trip on a train or a domestic flight.

The train from Madrid is the cleaner finish. Three operators run Madrid Atocha to Alicante:

Operator	Approx fare	Trip time	Why pick it
Renfe	€40 to €70	2h 30m	The Spanish national operator. Reliable. First class is often 20 to 30 percent more than coach and the cars are quieter
Ouigo	€10 to €30 if booked ahead	2h 30m	SNCF's Spanish operation. Double-decker TGV stock. Cheapest if you book early. Food on board is limited
Iryo	€30 to €60	2h 30m	The newest open-access carrier. Nicer interiors than Ouigo, often cheaper than Renfe

Three things to know about Spanish high-speed trains:

1. Airport-style security. Build in 15 to 20 minutes at the station. No knives or weapons. If you bought a knife set in Madrid you will need to ship it to yourself from the post office. The platform stays closed until the train is boarding.
2. Dynamic pricing. Like flights, fares rise as the train fills. Book the moment your dates are firm. Ouigo opens roughly eight months out. Renfe and Iryo are closer in.
3. Assigned seats. The system seats you with strangers by default. Book a group together if you want adjacent seats.

A 5-hour train run from Barcelona is the other long-distance option. AVE-class Renfe is the move there. Ouigo also runs the route.

Festivals and big annual events

Alicante runs one of the bigger fire-based festivals in Spain (Hogueras de San Juan), which is the trip-shaping window in late June. Plus the standard Spanish national-calendar events.

Event	When	What it changes
Hogueras de San Juan (Fogueres de Sant Joan)	June 20 to 24, five days plus warm-up week	Alicante's headline festival, a UNESCO-listed event. Massive papier-mâché sculptures (hogueras, up to 20 meters tall) built across the city's plazas and burned in coordinated fires on the night of June 24 (the Cremà). Plus daily mascletà (gunpowder concerts) at noon in Plaza de los Luceros, the bullfights, the parades, the firework displays over Postiguet beach. Hotels triple in price, book months ahead. The single biggest week of the Alicante year
Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians)	Variable, usually April, May, or July depending on town	The historic re-enactment festivals across the Alicante province towns: Villajoyosa in late July, Alcoy in April, Elche in October. Costumed parades commemorating the Reconquista. Worth knowing about for day-trip-from-Alicante planning, less so for the city itself
Carnival	The week before Lent (February or March)	Smaller than Sitges or Tenerife but a real Costa Blanca local-feel weekend. Free, photogenic
Festes de la Mare de Déu del Remei	Around August 5, several days	The smaller Alicante summer festival in the Santa Cruz neighborhood. Free, local, smaller than Hogueras
Semana Santa (Holy Week)	The week before Easter (March or April)	Real procession tradition in Alicante, smaller than Málaga or Sevilla. The Tarsicio Castro Tronos and the Procession of the Encounter on Holy Wednesday are the photogenic moments
Three Kings Day (Reyes)	January 5 evening, January 6 holiday	The Cabalgata parade through the center on the evening of January 5. Most museums and many shops close January 6
Volvo Ocean Race (when held in Alicante)	Variable, every 3 to 4 years	The around-the-world sailing race has historically started in Alicante. Hotels along the Marina fill
Christmas Lights and Belén	Late November to January 6	Free large-scale nativity displays at the Town Hall (Ayuntamiento) and citywide light installations. The Belén Monumental is the photo. Smaller hotel pressure than the summer events

The trip-shaping window is Hogueras de San Juan from June 20 to 24. If a fire-and-firework spectacle is the trip, book a hotel three to six months ahead. The Cremà on the night of June 24 is one of the more dramatic single evenings on the European festival calendar.

Where to stay

The city center is compact and most central hotels put you in walking distance of the Mercat, the Castell, and Postiguet beach. If you want extra space or want to base further out on the tram line, the L1 toward El Campello has apartment options at similar prices to a city hotel.

Tips that change the trip:

• Walking distance to the Mercat and Postiguet beats everything else. The tourist anchors are clustered tightly.
• The tram is the bus that works. L1 runs the coast north toward El Campello, Coveta Fuma, and onward to Benidorm. A coastal apartment one stop out can be cheaper than a central hotel and the commute is a 15-minute tram ride.
• For a party-driven trip, base in Benidorm. Alicante's bars close earlier than the resort-town strip 40 minutes up the coast.

The beaches by type

The Costa Blanca name (white coast) is literal: the city's beaches are white sand, and there are several types depending on what you want from the day.

Beach	Type	Why go	Notes
Platja del Postiguet	City sand	The main city beach. Chairs to rent, bars, restaurants across the road	Body-to-body in July and August. Arrive early. Most restaurants directly on the sand are mediocre
Albufereta	Suburban sand	Same idea as Postiguet, smaller crowd	Reach by tram L1 to La Isleta
Playa San Juan	Long sand strip	Bigger than the central beaches, continuous stretch toward El Campello	Tram L1. Rental apartments cluster nearby
Isla Tabarca	Island	20-minute ferry from Santa Pola (or 1 hour from Alicante port). Beaches, snorkeling, fortified old town	Restaurants on the island are pricier than the mainland. Bring snacks. Eat back in town
Cala Cantalar	Rocky cove	Cliffs and coves north of the city	Best with a rental car. The rocky beaches up the coast are the photogenic version

A separate sub-category: rocky beaches with views. The most striking of these is Cala del Moraig, about an hour up the coast from the city center. You need a car to get there, and Record Go has been consistently the cheapest rental I have used. The day works well as a Cala del Moraig morning, lunch in Jávea, a stop at one of the smaller coves on the way back.

Three things to know about cycling and beach rules:

• No headphones while cycling. Spanish law. €200 ticket.
• Helmets are required outside city limits. Same €200 ticket if caught without.
• Some boardwalks ban bicycles. Signs are clear if you read them. The fines if you do not are not.

Castell de Santa Bàrbara and the Roman sites

Castell de Santa Bàrbara is the castle on the hill above the old town. You cannot miss it: it sits at 166 meters on Mount Benacantil and is visible from every corner of the city. Entry is free if you walk up. The elevator is around €3. The view from the top covers the city, the port, Postiguet, and the rocky coves north toward Albufereta. Allow about 90 minutes for the walk-up plus exploration.

The Roman ruins are the less-trafficked piece of Alicante history. Lucentum, at Tossal de Manises, was the Roman settlement that became modern Alicante. Houses, streets, a forum, and thermal baths sit on a low rise near the Albufereta neighborhood. About a 20-minute tram ride from the center. Budget two hours including the small site museum.

Along the coast between Albufereta and Cabo de las Huertas, a Roman fish factory is cut into the rocks at sea level. The pools are partially submerged at high tide. Many people swim in them in summer.

Where to eat

Alicante's eating runs from one-euro tapas with a beer to a 30-euro steak dinner. Five picks across the range:

Spot	Best for	Notes
The Mercat	Local culture, late-afternoon deals	Two floors, fish below, terrestrial meat above. After 17:00 the stalls discount fresh fish heavily. Closed Sunday and mostly Monday
Ukiyō Raw bar y cositas	Stall lunch inside the Mercat	The best stall in the building. Chef's choice plates are the move
Bodeguita 1999	Sit-down dinner, steak	Narrow, intimate. Reserve ahead. Entrecote or gambas a la plancha. €30 to €50 per person depending on drinks
Tapa-Caña (D'Tablas)	Walk-around tapas with beer	Order a caña (small) or pinta (large). A waiter circulates with a plate of tapas. Take what looks good and pay at the end by plate count
100 Montaditos	Cheap fast bites	Spanish chain. €1 per small sandwich, €1 large beers on Sunday. Locations near Playa San Juan and next to the Melià at Postiguet
Salt in Cake	Cinnamon rolls and cheesecake	Pricey by Alicante standards but worth it. If you grab one to go later, heat it in the oven for a few minutes before eating

A note on chocolate: Xocolateria Valor does the traditional Spanish thick chocolate-and-churros and is the right closing move on a cool evening.

Local specialties worth ordering once

Three dishes carry the Alicante identity and are worth seeking out by name rather than ordering whatever the menu suggests:

• Arroz a banda. Rice cooked in fish broth, traditionally served in two courses (the broth and rice together, then the fish on its own afterwards). Lighter than paella, more about the rice and the broth. Most Alicante seafood restaurants do a version. Ask for the local style rather than paella when you see both on the menu.
• Gazpacho alicantino. Not the cold tomato soup of Andalucía. This is a meat-and-flatbread game stew (rabbit, chicken, or both) ladled over thin torta gazpachera bread, slow-cooked into a savoury bowl. Lunch dish, hearty, weather-dependent. Order it in autumn or winter.
• Turrón. The almond-and-honey nougat with its Denominación de Origen Protegida centred in Jijona, a town an hour inland. Available year-round at the Mercat and the Christmas-market kiosks in December. The hard Alicante variety (turrón duro) and the soft Jijona variety (turrón blando) are the two classic forms. The rest are modern variations.

Museums worth a break from the beach

Two urban museums are worth a stop on a beach-resting day or if a summer afternoon needs an air-conditioned middle:

• MARQ (the Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Alicante). The provincial archaeology museum, well-curated, with Iberian, Roman, and Islamic-era collections from the surrounding region. A natural follow-up if you have already walked through Lucentum and want the wider context.
• MACA (the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante). Smaller, contemporary art focused, sits in a quiet square in the old town. Free entry. About an hour does it.

Day trips up the Costa Blanca

Three options that work as a half- or full-day from Alicante:

• El Campello is 20 minutes north on the L1 tram. Smaller, less touristy version of the same beach idea. Worth lunch.
• Jávea (Xàbia) is 90 minutes by car. The headline old town and the rocky coves at Cala del Moraig and Cala Granadella nearby.
• Benidorm is 40 minutes up the coast. The party-town version of the Costa Blanca. Useful if you want a louder evening than Alicante offers.

For a quieter alternative: take a local Cercanías train south to Santa Pola and the salt flats. Pink flamingos most of the year, and the ferry to Tabarca leaves from the same harbor.