Where to Stay in Alicante, Comunitat Valenciana

What is Alicante known for?

Alicante is known for the beaches of the Costa Blanca, the Santa Bárbara Castle above its old town, and a working Mediterranean port. Bonfires mark the year. The hogueras museum and the Monumento al foguerer belong to the bonfire festival the city keeps, and the Basilica of Saint Mary and the Església de Sant Nicolau hold its older ceremonies.

Collections fill the gaps. The Archaeological Museum of Alicante, the Gravina Museum of Fine Arts, and the Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art sit within the same few streets.

What are the main landmarks in Alicante?

Alicante's landmarks start with the Santa Bárbara Castle and the City walls of Alicante. Below them the Basilica of Saint Mary and the Església de Sant Nicolau anchor the old quarter, while the Convent de les Monges Clarisses Caputxines and the iglesia de la Misericordia hold the smaller corners. Inland the museums take over: the Archaeological Museum of Alicante, the Gravina Museum of Fine Arts, and the Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art divide the collections between them.

Castell de Sant Ferran stands apart.

What is the history of Alicante?

Alicante has been a port for as long as it has been a place. A Roman find site inside the modern city gave up Samian ware, and the Archaeological Museum of Alicante holds that layer along with everything under it. Defence shaped what followed.

Santa Bárbara Castle took the height above the harbour, the City walls of Alicante ran below it, and the Castell de Sant Ferran stands on its own ground apart, so the town spent centuries watching the sea it lived from. Churches followed the soldiers, and the Basilica of Saint Mary and the Església de Sant Nicolau became the two poles of the old town. Alacant is the same city under its Valencian name.

Tourism made the modern shape of it, and the Costa Blanca turned a working port into the base for a coast of beaches that reaches well past the city. The Monumento al foguerer and the hogueras museum keep the bonfires in the record.

Where is Alicante?

Alicante sits on the Costa Blanca, the Mediterranean shore of the Valencian Community. The city holds the flat ground between the water and the hills behind it: Santa Bárbara Castle takes one of them and the Castell de Sant Ferran another, and the dry Baetic ranges close the land side. The coast does the rest.

Beaches run north and south from the port, the Costa Blanca carries them for the length of the province, and the coastal plain behind stays green with irrigation while the interior does not.

What is the climate of Alicante?

The Baetic ranges take the rain before it reaches Alicante. The city keeps the sea's temper instead, warm through a long summer and mild for the short winter, and the water off the Costa Blanca holds enough heat to keep frost off the coast. Rain is rare.

What falls tends to come in the cooler half of the year, and the dry ground behind the city shows how little of it there is.

How do you get to Alicante?

Alicante has always been reached from the water first. The port is the oldest way in, and the same harbour that made Alicante a Mediterranean trading stop still opens onto the city centre. The coast road carries the rest.

Traffic for the Costa Blanca resorts runs along the shore in both directions from the city, and the province beyond feeds its towns into the same corridor before it reaches Alicante. Most visitors arrive for the beaches and stop in the city on the way.