Refusing to Be a Typical Tourist in Alicante
Alicante is easy to do badly – sun, beach, sangria, repeat. This was an attempt to do it differently: to skip the obvious and find the city that the package tours tend to miss.
If you have time for nothing else, watch the film first. Everything below is the context.
Where I went
Alicante sits on Spain’s Costa Blanca, in the south-east, with a big airport that funnels millions of holidaymakers straight out to the resorts. This walk stayed in the city instead: up through the old quarter to the castle on the hill, back down through the markets and the ordinary streets, and along the seafront only where it earned the detour. A few miles, with one steep climb to the castle, easily done in an afternoon.
Why this place
Most people pass through Alicante on the way to somewhere else, which is a shame, because the city itself is good. Behind the seafront promenade there is a proper Spanish town – a tangle of painted houses in the old quarter, a covered market, neighbourhood bars, and a castle on a crag with one of the best views on the coast. Refusing to be a typical tourist here does not take much: it mostly means walking ten minutes inland from the beach and paying attention.
What you will see in the video
- Santa Barbara castle, high on Mount Benacantil, looking down over the city and the sea.
- El Barrio, the old quarter, with its narrow, painted streets.
- The Central Market and the everyday city behind the seafront.
- The Explanada, the palm-lined, mosaic-tiled promenade by the harbour.
- [Patrick – add the specific streets, bars or viewpoints featured.]
Practical notes
- Best time of year: spring and autumn – summer is hot and crowded.
- How long: a half-day on foot.
- Walkability: easy in the centre, with a steep climb – or a lift – up to the castle.
- Getting there: Alicante’s airport and main station both sit close to the centre.
- What I wish I had known: [Patrick – the tip from the day, e.g. the lift up through the hill to the castle.]
A little history
Alicante has been fought over for millennia – Iberians, Romans, Moors and Christians all held the hill where Santa Barbara castle now stands. The castle is one of the largest medieval fortresses in Spain, and the old quarter below it grew up in its shadow. The wide seafront and the famous wavy-tiled Explanada came much later, as the city turned toward the sea and, eventually, toward tourism. Walk inland and you step back through all of it.
Related walks
If you enjoyed this one, you might like the rest of the Costa Blanca trip:
- Refusing to Be a Typical Tourist in Alicante — trying not to do the typical-tourist routine in Alicante.
- Tabarca Island: Paradise Until the Pills Kicked In — a small Mediterranean island that wasn’t quite the paradise I expected.
- Hitchhiking to Santa Pola’s Salt Hills — a hitchhike to the salt hills above the town.
- I Walked from Alicante Airport in the Dark (and Got Lost) — walking out of the airport in the dark — and getting lost.
Stay in touch
New walks land on the channel regularly — the easiest way to follow along is to subscribe on YouTube. The full set of written companions to every film lives in The Journal, and there’s a curated set of the longer pieces on the Featured Films page. If you’ve got an idea for somewhere I should walk next, send it through the Contact page — I read everything.
Patrick Ashton is a UK-based filmmaker walking the overlooked corners of Britain and Europe. More about Patrick →
