Alicante Holidays, Spain The provincial capital, Alicante is a bustling city with an excellent beach, a new marina, buzzing nightlife, and an atmospheric old quarter. High above the port, the Castillo de Santa Barbara looks down into the Barrio Santa Cruz, a picturesque warren of whitewashed streets, its little houses with window grills and geraniums, reminiscent of Andalusia. This is the heart of the city’s nightlife, full of hole-in-the-wall bars and clubs.
Benidorm Holidays, Spain Young fun-seekers and families looking for a beach holiday with plenty of evening entertainment have made Benidorm one of Spain’s most popular resorts. Densely-developed, its superb long golden beaches are screened by a forest of skyscraping hotels. However an Old Town still survives and is the place to go for authentic Spanish food. Benidorm is top destination for family attractions with two theme parks, a huge water park and a marine life park.
Calpe Holidays, Spain A small, busy, densely-packed family-friendly beach resort, Calpe huddles beneath the dramatic Peñón de Ifach rock outcrop. It is 330 metres to the top but footpaths allow anyone of reasonable fitness to walk up here in an hour or less to enjoy the fabulous views. Calpe Old Town, a 10-minute walk uphill from the beach resort, is a pretty little restored residential area with a handful of bars and restaurants.
Denia Holidays, Spain The Castillo de Denia perches high above the original village of brightly-painted former fishermen’s houses in this relatively quiet, low-key, family resort. The adjacent newer part of town is typically Spanish with many elegant 19th-century buildings. Denia’s seafront includes a working port, a marina, excellent fish restaurants, ferries to the Balearic Islands, and a broad, long, sandy beach that stretches for many miles.
Elche Holidays, Spain Elche is renowned for its magnificent palm forest, the only one of its kind in Europe, comprising over 300,000 century-old trees. These surround and infiltrate the whole city centre, giving it a cool shady feel. The best known area is the Huerto del Cura (The Priest’s Garden), home to the Imperial Palm, a huge seven-stemmed specimen. Elche is also famous for its Mystery Play (Misteri d’Elx) dating back to the mid 13th century, staged in August.
Torrevieja Holidays, Spain The largest resort in the southern Costa Blanca, Torrevieja is very popular with northern European visitors. Beaches stretch for miles along its front, while two large saltwater lagoons enclose the town. Although most of Torrevieja is modern, the focus of the Old Town is the typically Spanish 19th-century Plaza Constitución. On the seafront is the late 19th-century ‘Casino’, a beautifully-preserved gentlemen’s club, open as a café-restaurant.
