Alicante
Overview
Slip into Alicante's laid-back pace. Bar-hop around the balconied old town, join the jet-set in sea-view Marina restaurants or laze on Blue Flag beaches. Make time on your next trip to linger by waterfalls in Palmeras Park. Soak up Spanish art in gorgeously housed museums, from 16th-century religious iconography at the MUBAG museum of fine art to Cubism and other contemporary art at the Asegurada museum-gallery.
Background
Meander from lively bars to tranquil Baroque squares and culture-vulture museums in Alicante's old quarter, El Barrio, which clings to Mount Benacantil's bare slopes. Peer down from sprawling hilltop Santa Bárbara Castle to see restaurants tumble out onto the white-sanded town beach Playa Postiguet. Head north to Playa San Juan beach or south to 19th-century seafront promenade Explanada de España, extravagantly tiled like Mediterranean waves. After seafood feasts in the sleek El Puerto marina complex, dally in chocolate-box ice-cream parlours along the main Rambla thoroughfare.
First-time visit
Climb through Ereta Park's olive groves for bird's-eye views of Alicante's glistening bay from Santa Bárbara Castle. Sink your hot toes into Playa San Juan's powdery-soft sand, a short tram ride up the coast. Sip regional horchata, made from almonds or tiger nuts, in thronged, hole-in-the-wall El Barrio drinking dens, then join the evening paseo stroll with the locals beneath the beachfront boulevard's skyscraper palms. Enjoy moonlit wanderings past yachts and chichi restaurants at Alicante's glitzy Marina.
Return visit
Fill your bags with fresh fruit from the surrounding huerta, Alicante's fertile hinterland at the Rambla's twin-towered Art Nouveau Central Market. Visit the 18th-century Ayuntamiento town hall to find the plaque denoting sea level, by which all points in Spain are measured. Stone lions guard the entrances to tranquil Canalejas Park opposite the port – rest under the giant rubber plants, some of which are 100s of years old. Admire fine arts at the MUBAG museum's galleries, lurking elegantly in an austere 18th-century palace.
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