Cabo de Las Huertas Coves – Services, Location & Tips ❲Photos❳

El Cabo (or The Cape in English) is one of the most beautiful swimming areas in the city of Alicante

Cabo de San Juan or San Juan Cape is an area of Alicante city between La Almadraba Beach and San Juan Beach. It is known for its expensive houses and truly beautiful coves. As it is an extended rocky area, there is no lifeguard services and some people practices naturism outside the most famous coves.

There are some top coves with a parking lot where it is easy to expand the towel or even get a shadow from the high rocks. This is the most savage place to swim on all of Alicante’s beaches. Let’s going to take a look.

Coves at El Cabo de San Juan

Most of El Cabo has little spots where you can go for a swim or lie on the towel to tan under the sun. But there are a few coves that have a parking lot nearby and are more known. There is also public transport you can use to get there.

Map of Coves and trails at El Cabo de San Juan Alicante

Let’s gonna explore the most famous coves.

La Palmera Cove

One of the most known coves at El Cabo is La Palmera (which translates to the Palm Tree). Ironically, the cove doesn’t have more palm trees, or trees in general, than other coves in El Cabo.

This cove has a small beach that makes your life easier to get into the water. I would still recommend wearing wet shoes to walk around. Also, the beach is small and can get a bit crowdy so you might want to access thought the other parts of the cove.

There are flat rocky areas that are under the water but just at the ankles high. Those rocks create a kind of natural trampoline when they just end like on an aquatic cliff. In there you will need your aquatic shoes.

Cantalar Cove

This is the second most famous cove in el Cabo. The set-up is similar to La Palmera: a small beach with rocky areas around it.

Again, I would recommend the use of wet shoes.

The disadvantage of this cove versus La Palmera is the access. Wherever you park the car or you are left to the closest point to the cove there will be a 5 to 10 minutes walk.

The best places to park are…

Naturist Zones

El Cabo has traditionally been a territory for naturist swimmers. During peak time in summer is not that common to find them on the main coves.

Naturist Girl at El Cabo de San Juan in Alicante

If you want to get naked at El Cabo during summer you can just walk to the places next to the most crowdy coves areas where other tanners will also lay with no fabrics on the rocks.

Services at El Cabo de San Juan

As you can see, there are different coves and places to go for swimming. You can just go swimming anywhere in El Cabo de San Juan if you are good at easy rock climbing.

This freedom has a counterpart: there are no official services at Cabo de San Juan.

No lifeguards, no bins, no cleaning services, no toilets… nothing. Just you, the sea and the other swimmers and tanners.

But don’t get down by this lack of services, the area is beautiful and calmer than beaches such as El Postiguet. If you are living in Alicante or staying for a longer time, it is worth visiting this amazing part of the city.

How to Get to El Cabo?

Different coves and areas might have better/different car parks bus and Tram stops.

To La Palmera Cove

This is probably the best-communicated cove at El Cabo.

By Tram train, the best stop is Cabo Huertas on lines 4 and 5 and it takes about 15-20 min to walk to the cove. By the way, all info about how to pay for the Tram, trains, fares, zones, etc in this article.

By bus, the best stop is Camino del Faro 17, on lines 22 and 22N and, to the cove, it takes about 10 min.

Also, there are two parking lots in La Palmera next to each other. One has tarmac the other no. Both parking gives an okay car capacity to La Palmera. And I mean that don’t expect to find easy parking space on a Saturday morning in August but a Saturday morning in September should be okay.

Here is the one with tarmac:

Parking lot without tarmac at La Palmera Cove

And here is the one that doesn’t have tarmac:

To El Cantalar Cove

The Cove El Cantalar have slightly more difficult access than La Palmera. The places where you can park the car or get off from the bus are about 500m or 0.3 miles to the actual cove.

The path to get to the cove is a dirt track. It goes through a beautiful pine forest and the difficulty is very low.

The bus stop to get to the cove is Tridente – Costa Blanca on bus line 22 and bus night line 22N. It takes about 10 min to walk to the cove.

Bus Line 22 dropping off passengers at *Tridente – Costa Blanca*

The TRAM of Alicante stop is Tridente on lines 4 and 5. It will take you about 20min to walk to the cove.

If you are coming by car or motorbike there are a couple of parking spaces for you to use:

This is the main parking lot for El Cantalar cove. There are a few other streets around there where you can try your luck. As this parking is not serving only this cove will get full very fast, especially in peak months in summer.

Tips & Recommendations

This area is not guarded by the live servers so it is crucial to extreme precautions when you go to the sea:

From the coves, it should be easy to get in and out of the sea but there are many rocky areas that make things more difficult. Do not risk getting injured going swimming in a place with difficult access.

If the sea is rough, better to just get in/out on the coves beaches or not go for a swim at all.
It is easier to move around when inside the water with wet shoes. There might be rocks and sea plants even on the sandy coves.
Clean after yourself. Bins and cleaning services are not available.

Plan the circumstance that you won’t find a toilet. There is shrubbery or the actual sea, just have all that in mind.
Use solar protection and drink water. Always.
Again, do not take risks. Maybe other swimmers and tanners won’t be able to help you.