Alicante Spain: Tourist information
Pleasure in diversity for your holidays in Alicante and your Spanish language learning in Spain!
  Alicante Spain: Mediterranean coast
If diversity is what you are looking for your Spanish immersion courses in Spain, you will find plenty of it in Alicante, Costa Blanca region, Mediterranean coast.
Alicante combines classicism and modernity, leisure and business, fun and studying and even the mountain and the beach.
The richness of Alicante's history is preserved through the archaeological remains dating as far back as the third millennium B.C. and on through to the later Iberians. At the beginning of our era, the Romans conferred Alicante with the rank of “city” and named it Lucentum.
The wonderful beaches and mild climate all year round make Alicante one of Spain’s most important tourist areas.
The beauty of the monuments added to the charm of the various festivities and cultural events held throughout the year increase the appeal of Alicante.
Alicante is an economically active and dynamic city, immersed in a process of expansion.
All in all, Alicante is a mediterranean city, with its beautiful beaches, its walk along the coast, its restaurants, cafés and discotheques, its nautical club and its harbour, from which boats leave for the island of Tabarca — a surfer’s paradise.
Alicante Spain — Its location
Alicante is dominated by the two castles of Santa Barbara and San Fernando. From the top of their rocky peaks, they seem to keep an eye on the city, whose houses are spread over the hills, gently sloping towards the sea, the harbour, the beaches and the coves: San Juan, the Albufereta, Cocó, Postiguet and Saladar beach to the south.
Very few cities can boast of such fine, white sand beaches with such pure water.
Alicante offers you both the hubbub of the coast as well as the calm of the inland countryside.
The city is surrounded by beaches as well as by many first class tourist centres. We should not forget the smaller villages in the region of La Marina with towns like Benissa, Javea, Dénia or the white Altea. Castles, fortresses and towns like Elche and Orihuela embellish the fertile inland, full of orange and lemon groves.
Around 330,000 inhabitants.
Alicante is a prosperous city, attracting people from different regions in Spain and Europe.
Alicante has grown a lot thanks the continuous expansion of
its dynamic services sector.
There are train and bus stations, a harbour and an international airport. Alicante is located 185 Km from Valencia, 60 Km from Elche, 515 Km from Barcelona and 422 Km from Madrid.
The A-7 toll motorway connects Alicante to all the Mediterranean coast cities. There is also a highway to Madrid.
Bus and train lines link Alicante to all these cities. Airlines offering both regular and charter flights connect Alicante with the main European cities.
 Alicante Spain — Monuments
If you go up the top of the hill of the Santa Barbara Castle, you will discover an unforgettable panoramic view of the most important monuments in Alicante:
- the church of Santa Maria, the Cathedral,
- the Town Hall façade,
- the monastery of Santa Faz,
- the San Fernando Castle and much more.
Seeing all these magnificent monuments from above will invite you to go down the hill and walk among them.
Along the streets, you will come across large and small palaces, as well as traditionally painted white, yellow and pink houses.
Everything in Alicante is illuminated by the blue light of the Mediterranean Sea and encourages you to continue walking around and discovering places.
You can find the old Mercy House, the Asegurada House, where nowadays the Contemporary Art Museum is situated, the Marquis del Bosch palace, the Quijano Pantheon, with its romantic garden, the House of the Witches or the Alberola House.
The widest avenues, such as La Rambla or Doctor Gadea will lead you to Alfonso X el Sabio (Alfonso the wise) Street with the Luceros (Creole fish) on one side and the Central Market on the other, just in front of the School ofSpanish.
This area of Alicante city centre including Maisonnave Street, is the most commercial part of the city, where you will see many people shopping.
After so much walking, you will be ready to sit at one of the many outdoor cafés. You can also relax on the benches of the oceanfront promenade or sit on the chairs in the Explanada (forecourt) de España and watch the masts of the boats in the harbour, the constant movement of the waves on the beach, the people going to and from... |
