Costa Blanca · Town Guide
Alicante
The Costa Blanca’s capital city — a working port, a hilltop castle, and city beaches you can walk to from the old town.
✈️ 9 km / ~15 min from ALC airport ☀️ 300+ sunny days a year 👥 ~360,000 residents
The Costa Blanca’s capital city — a working port, a hilltop castle, and city beaches you can walk to from the old town.
Alicante is the capital of the Costa Blanca, home to around 360,000 people, with a working international airport (ALC) just 9 km — about 15 minutes — from the centre. The city beach, Postiguet, sits directly below Santa Bárbara Castle, while San Juan Beach a short tram ride away offers a longer, quieter stretch of sand. With over 300 sunny days a year, the best months to visit are May, June, and September — warm enough to swim, without the August crowds.
Alicante is the rare Costa Blanca town that works as both a real city and a beach destination. The Santa Cruz district — a hillside tangle of whitewashed, flower-draped houses below the castle — is where the old town concentrates its tapas bars and viewpoints. Down at sea level, the Explanada de España, a mosaic-tiled promenade lined with palms, runs from the marina toward Postiguet Beach.
The city is well-connected: its international airport is a nine-kilometre taxi ride away, and the TRAM light-rail line runs up the coast toward San Juan Beach, El Campello, and beyond — making Alicante a practical base for exploring the wider Costa Blanca without needing a car every day.
Warm enough to swim, sea and city both far less crowded than peak summer. The best overall window for most visitors.
Peak heat (highs around 30–31°C) and peak crowds. Beaches and the old town are busiest; book accommodation well ahead.
Sea stays warm, crowds thin out fast after the first week of September — many locals consider this the best month of all.
The Costa Blanca sits between two real cities — Alicante at its southern end, Valencia beyond its northern tip — with Benidorm roughly in the middle. Where you live along the coast tends to decide which one you actually go to for a flight, a hospital, or a proper day of shopping.
Its own airport, hospitals, and university — the natural “big city” for the southern and central Costa Blanca without leaving the region.
Spain’s biggest resort town by visitor numbers, but not a second capital — no airport or major hospital of its own; it borrows Alicante’s.
Spain’s third-largest city, with its own airport — often the closer, more convenient option for towns at the northern end of the Costa Blanca.
Check out our Festivity Calendar for this year in Alicante — and stay up to date on everything happening in town.
View Alicante Calendar
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