Alicante is a privileged city. Situated in the Mediterranean sea makes Alicante feature sunny and warm weather. The town centre is only about 25 minutes by bus from the 5th busiest airport in Spain. Madrid is about 2h 20m away by high-speed train and London about 2h 35m away by plane. By road, many coach companies have regular services in the city. If you are driving your own vehicle you might find good quality motorways in Spain. Finally, there are 2 ports where guests can dock for a few nights and big cruise ships have a terminal. Let’s go into more detail on how to go to Alicante.
Alicante By Plane
Alicante has one of the busiest airports in Spain. It ranks in the 5th position on passenger traffic and many airlines have routes from/to Alicante all year round. The official name is Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport, as Elche is the municipality where the airport sits.
Flying is one of the best ways how to go to the city. All this said, the peak on flights (and ticket prices) is in summer, where is the tourism high season in Costa Blanca. This situation makes Alicante a perfect place for holidays, living and business.
Alicante-Elche airport has direct flights to about 142 destinations, including cities like London, Berlin, Oslo and Rome and many other big, medium and small cities across Spain, Europe and North Africa (Aena destinations list).
As you can imagine, that is done thanks to many airlines operating in Alicante airport. Some of them are Vueling, Iberia, British Airways, Ryanair, Easy Jet, Norwegian, SAS or TUI Airways among many many others. So, flight search engines like SkyScanner.net will help you to find the best flights and airlines on the dates you need.
Alicante By Road
Alicante is connected by the AP-7 motorway coming from the north through the coast, which is toll-free since January 2020. The free motorway A-31 connects to Madrid. To the south, the AP-7 is a toll motorway and the free A-7 runs alongside it. The main single carriage road is the N-332, a beautiful alternative if you are not in a hurry. In the city, there is a low-emission zone (ZBE): at the moment, cars without a DGT environmental label cannot drive into the old town (Casco Antiguo), and there are extra restrictions during pollution episodes.
Alicante has a terminal bus station. The biggest bus company in Spain is Alsa connecting Alicante to most of the rest of the cities in the country at very low prices.
Another cheap way to travel from/to Alicante is using Blablacar. This French company provides a platform to organize trips between people in their own cars. It is well-used in Spain.
The last option is renting a car. There are many big and small companies sitting in Alicante. Some examples are Goldcar or Hertz. But here you can search for more brands:
Alicante By Train
There are 3 main types of rail services in Alicante: long-distance, short distance and TRAM Trains.
The short-distance and most long-distance trains are operated by Renfe, and the high-speed trains to Madrid by Renfe (AVE and Avlo), Iryo and Ouigo. On the other hand, the Tram de Alicante light tram-train is operated by the autonomic government corporation FGV. It is useful for routes such as Alicante to Benidorm, for example.
On the long-distance trains, you can take the high-speed trains to Madrid and other cities in between to follow your trip in slower trains to your final destination. In addition to this, the trains going north along the coast to Barcelona (Renfe’s Euromed, about 5h 20m) are not high-speed all the way but offer a reliable service.
Alicante By Sea
And last but not least you can travel to Alicante by sea. There are ferry routes that connect the city with Oran and Algiers in Algeria (the operators and frequencies change with the season) and, from the nearby town of Denia, Baleària ferries to the Balearic Islands.
Not surprisingly, Alicante has a cruise terminal where tourists can get off the ship and visit the city.
As well, if you are
Hopefully, all this information has cleared up some of your concerns about how to go to Alicante. If you have an experience in any of those ways of travelling to the city feel free to tell us in the comments. In a similar way, if you have any other questions not answered in this article, please, leave a comment and we will try to help you.
No, there are multiple options to get into Alicante and Alicante area which means the competition is high. You can find cheap flights in the low season. The high season gets more expensive but finding good offers if you are flexible with your travel hours is easy. It is also inexpensive to rent a car in Alicante.