Alicante es una ciudad costera del Mediterráneo situada en el sureste de España. It is also the capital city of a province with the same name inside the Valencian Community. There is a population of 366,21 people as per 2025 data.
The area has been inhabited for more than 5,000 years, which helps explain Alicante’s rich cultural and historical heritage. Part of this heritage is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Alicante.
Alicante is also a famous tourist destination as it is the capital of Costa Blanca. The city offers miles of golden urban and semi-urban beaches, plus island beaches in Tabarca.
Furthermore, Alicante is a culturally rich city with pretty beaches, vivid nightlife, and a big international community that is not massified in proportion to the city’s population.
Alicante VS. Benidorm
Alicante y Benidorm son dos ciudades diferentes situadas en la misma provincia. Están a 40 km y están bien comunicadas por transporte público: Trenes TRAM y entrenadores. Ir de Alicante a Benidorm takes around 40 minutes by road, but double the time by TRAM.
Alicante has been a larger city than Benidorm for centuries. Benidorm has focused on the tourism industry in the last few decades, while Alicante has been more of a Spanish-working city all this time. Nowadays, Alicante has 366,221 (2025) inhabitants, while Benidorm has 67 558 (2022 data). In both cities, the population increases in summer, but Benidorm’s increment is of several sizes in its winter population due to tourism.
Both places have an old quarter, nice beaches and vivid nightlife, but with a different vibe. While Alicante keeps the Spanish feeling all around the city, Benidorm is a mix of international cultures sensed in its shops, restaurants, hotels and party places. While British culture is strong in Benidorm, it is far from being the only one represented around the town.
El tiempo es sorprendentemente bueno en ambas ciudades.
¿Por qué es famosa Alicante?
Alicante is a pretty city famous for its excellent beaches, gastronomy and restaurants, affordable prices, amazing weather, a child-friendly vibe and many cultural and leisure activities.
Qué hacer en Alicante
Alicante es rica en actividades culturales y de ocio, museos que visitar y playas de las que disfrutar. Aquí tienes algunos ejemplos de cosas que hacer en Alicante:
- Disfrute de sus playas
- Playa El Postiguet en el centro de la ciudad
- Playa de San Juan, una de las playas urbanas más largas de España
- Calas del Cabo de la Huerta. Calas rocosas semiurbanas
- Visite Castillo de Santa Bárbara
- Pasear por Explanada De España y Canalejas Park
- Paseo por el casco antiguo hasta Parque La Ereta a Santa Cruz
- Visite San Nicolás Catedral en el casco antiguo
- Paseo por el Mercado Central de Alicante
- Visite La regata oceánica Museo de la Regata
- Be in Alicante from the 10th-24th of June for the Hogueras de San Juan Festival
- Visite los museos de Alicante, como Museo MARQ
- Organice una excursión de un día a Isla de Tabarca
- Paseo junto al puerto deportivo de Alicante
- Pruebe todo lo que pueda de la gastronomía, la comida y los vinos de Alicante
- Disfrute del buen tiempo al aire libre o en sus playas
- Comer churros con chocolate caliente en Valor
- Enjoy the competitive prices
- Find your perfect accommodation among the large variety of hotels, hostels and others
- Siente la relajada calidad de vida de Alicante
- Visite el millennial archaeological site of Lucentum, El antiguo origen de Alicante
- Visite otros países utilizando su aeropuerto
- Disfrute de excursiones de un día a lugares como Terra Mítica, Calpe, Altea o Benidorm
- Realizar actividades de turismo activo y de aventura como kayak, visitas a la ciudad en bicicleta o patinete eléctrico, pateo, calas, parasailing, vela, kitesurf y muchas otras.
- Utiliza el Tren TRAM a Benidorm para disfrutar de las vistas desde el tren
- Visite Alicante durante las fiestas de pascua para ver los desfiles
Aeropuerto
Aeropuerto de Alicante (oficialmente Aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche) es el 5º aeropuerto más transitado de España por número de pasajeros al año, con more than 18 million passengers using Alicante Airport in 2022 (in Spanish).
El aeropuerto recibió en 2018, 2019 y 2022 (en español) el ACI award for “Best Airport in Europe” for its category -15m to 25m passengers per year-. Alicante airport is comfortable for travellers and has connections with most of the major cities in Spain, Europe and Morocco. Examples of cities with direct flights include Reykjavik, Oslo, London, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Marrakech, Budapest, Zurich, Brussels, Berlin, Kaunas and many more.
Some of the airlines flying from and to Alicante airport are Ryanair, Vueling, EasyJet, Jet2, Norwegian, Iberia, Icelandair, Swiss, British Airways and many others. Note that some of the airlines are low-cost, so flying to/from Alicante can be economical.
El aeropuerto is separated into two main areas, one for domestic and European flights with shops and restaurants such as Burger King, Budweiser, duty-free stores and Costa Coffee, among others. In this area, there is also a terrace for smokers in the Budweiser pub. The area reserved for non-EU international flights (to the UK, Morocco, etc) has a smaller restaurant and shop offer.
Security is usually fast, with several lines opening and closing depending on the passenger’s load. The Alicante Airport building is relatively new, opened in 2011, which makes it well-designed and prepared to transport millions of people per year comfortably.
The transport to the airport is only by road as there is no train station at the airport. Hay un autobús a Alicante (línea C-6), una parada de taxis, traslados privados y un bus station para desplazamientos a Benidorm, Altea y muchos otros destinos. No se puede pedir Uber o Cabify from Alicante airport, but taxis are available and waiting in the terminal.
Vida nocturna en Alicante
Alicante también es buena para salir de fiesta. Tiene una animada vida nocturna animada por gente de todas las edades. La fiesta se divide en 4 zonas principales:
Casco antiguo El Barrio
The main party area in Alicante has the most clubs. A bit of everything, from Latin music to techno, not forgetting commercial Spanish music, commercial international music, reggaeton, rock and more. Clubs close at 3 am by law.
Castaños
Perfecto para unirse a la Tardeo phenomenon. The Spanish usually start partying late. It is common to meet your friends for dinner at 10 pm and then go to a club from 11 pm-12 am, up to 3 am or more, moving to after-hours clubs.
In Castaños, people would meet earlier for a drink, from 5 pm or so, which is not that common in Spain. In that street, clubs open earlier than in the Old Quarter, so you can be partying from 5-6 pm and go home earlier after a nice party evening.
Los clubes abrirán por la tarde y cerrarán también a las 3 de la madrugada.
Puerto
Puerto (meaning port or harbour) is between El Postiguet Playa y el puerto deportivo de Alicante, cerca del “Museo ”La Regata Oceánica.
En Puerto, some of the clubs will close later than 3 am, so it is a good place to go after a party at the Old Quarter or Castaños. There are different places with different music styles, including Música latina, e incluso un karaoke.
Playa de San Juan (Verano)
Playa de San Juan also has some pubs and clubs, but the season when more people would party in this part of Alicante is summer.
El Golf (Verano)
Junto al campo de golf “Alicante Golf”, there are some clubs that get busy during the summer. You can go by TRAM lines 1 and 3, getting off at “Campo de Golf”, which usually offers night service during the summer weekends.
Gastronomía de Alicante
Alicante es rica en gastronomía tradicional. Aquí tienes algunos ejemplos de comidas que deberías probar cuando estés en Alicante:
- Arroz Alicantino: A Banda, arroz del señorito, arroz con costra, con bogavante, del señoret y otras variantes
- Coca de Mollitas
- Turrones de Jijona
- Olleta Alicantina
- Coca de San Juan/Coca amb Tonyina
Alicante Preguntas Frecuentes
Temperatures during summer can be a bit suffocating if you are not used to it. It is not common to have more than 35ºC during the day, but possible. At night, it goes down to around 20ºC in the very early morning, but most flats don’t have enough time to cool down. The Mediterranean Sea makes sure the humidity is high all day and night every day. Having A/C where you are staying is the safest bet if you don’t have experience with heat. Fans and dehumidifiers can help too. Keep in mind that isolation in flats is not the best in older buildings.
Alicante es una ciudad segura. Hay 29 delitos por cada 1.000 habitantes. En comparación, Barcelona tiene 47,8 delitos por cada 1.000 habitantes y Madrid, 37. Málaga es solo un poco más segura, con 25,8 por cada 1000 habitantes. Los datos son de 2022 y se han obtenido de este artículo de prensa.
Alicante is generally a safe city, but there are some neighbourhoods that are generally less safe than others. Generally speaking, avoid this neighbourhood if you don’t know what you are doing:
- Virgen del Remedio
- Colonia Requena
- Juan XIII
- Cuatrocientas Viviendas
Es posible pagar con tarjeta en TRAMs, Autobuses, Autobuses del aeropuerto y Taxis.
Grandes almacenes como Mercadona o Carrefour también aceptan pagos con tarjeta.
La mayoría de los pequeños comercios, panaderías, estancos, bares y restaurantes también tienen tarjetas de pago.
Sólo un pequeño porcentaje de pequeñas tiendas, bares, restaurantes y clubes se aceptar pagos en efectivo.
La recomendación es disponer de un una pequeña cantidad de dinero en efectivo, …aparte de tus tarjetas, para algún que otro sitio en el que sólo puedas pagar en efectivo.
Remember, La moneda de Alicante es el euro (€).
– Fig FM – en línea en bigradiospain.com/big-fm o en sus Apps
– Radio BR2 Pure Gold en bigradiospain.com/br2puregoldradio o en sus Apps
– TKO – en línea en tko.radio o en Alexa y sus aplicaciones
– Bay Radio – en línea en bayradio.fm o en Alexa
Pruebe a visitar varios sitios web inmobiliarios:
- idealista.com
The rental agreement usually requires the first and last month’s rent equivalent and the security deposit. If you found the flat using an agent, then add one more month’s rent equivalent to the agent’s fee.
It is very easy to rent a car in Alicante, but, sadly, there is no service such as Zipcar.com, share-now.com or Hiyacar.co.uk where you can book a car from an app and drive it just for a few hours, without going to a rental company office first.
Pero los precios de alquiler de coches en Alicante son económicos. Algunas empresas de ejemplo que te permitirán alquilar un coche por un día con tarifas económicas son Centauro.net, wiberrentacar.com y drivalia.es.
A few years ago, a company called Mooving used the hourly/minutes rental system with an app for electric moped,s but went bankrupt during the 2020 pandemic after leaving Alicante a few months earlier.