Alicante

Introduction

Watching Life Go By

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Alicante is a city in the autonomous region of the Valencian Community and is the capital of the province with the same name. The city itself has about 335,000 inhabitants and is a historical Mediterranean port city, while the total urban population would be over 750,000 according to recent statistics, making it the 8th largest metropolitan area in Spain.

Neighbourhoods

Sights and Activities

• Castle of Santa Bárbara
• Archaeological Museum of Alicante
• Gravina Museum of Fine Arts

Events and Festivals

• Bonfires of Saint John

Weather

Alicante has a warm Mediterranean climate. Summers last from late May to September when average daytime temperatures are between 28 °C and 32 °C (highest recorded is over 40 °C though) and nights are around 18 °C to 20 °C. Hardly any rain falls during the months of July and August. Winters last from December to February with daytime temperatures just below 20 °C! Nights are between 6 °C and 8 °C with an all-time low of -4.6 °C. September to November sees most of the rain, averaging around 45 mm a month, though it can be dry as a bone, as recent years proved. Because of its climate it's a popular place for many Northern Europeans to spend winter.

Getting There

By Plane

Alicante Airport (ALC), about 9 kilometres from Alicante, is even bigger than the airport in Valencia, making this a good alternative if you are going to visit the region.

Many lowcost airlines serve the city with Ryanair having flights to/from Aarhus, Basel, Billund, Birmingham, Bologna, Bournemouth, Bratislava, Bremen, Bristol, Brussels South-Charleroi, Derry, Sheffield, Dublin, Durham Tees Valley, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Fez, Gdańsk, Glasgow-Prestwick, Gothenburg, Frankfurt-Hahn, Haugesund, Karlsruhe, Knock, Leeds, Lille, Liverpool, London-Gatwick, London-Stansted, Lübeck, Maastricht/Aachen, Marrakech, Memmingen, Milan-Orio al Serio, Oslo, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Beauvais, Pisa, Santander, Santiago de Compostela, Shannon, Stockholm-Skavsta, Airport Weeze (near Düsseldorf), Wroclaw, Zaragoza.

Easjet has quite a few flights as well, and there are many more budget airlines and some regular airlines that have flights, mainly to countries in the west and north of Europe and some domestic flights.

To/from the airport

• Bus: Subus and Alsa provide excess to the airport by bus. The first one to/from Alicante and Elche, the latter one to/from Benidorm and Murcia.
• Taxis and car rental facilities are available at the airport as well.

By Train

RENFE Cercanias (Cercanias are commuter rail systems in metropolitan areas in Spain) has services from Alicante to its suburbs and to Murcia.

RENFE has regular services to Madrid and Barcelona.

Alicante Tram has services along the Costa Blanca to Benidorm and further on to Denia in the near future.

By Car

By Bus

Eurolines has buses to other places in Spain and quite a few cities/countries in Europe, as well as to Morocco.

By Boat

Algeria

• Algerie Ferries operates services between the Algerian city of Oran and Alicante.
• Trasmediterranea has regular ferries from Alicante to Ghazaouet.

Balearic Islands

• Acciona Trasmediterránea has ferries from Alicante to the Balearic Islands, like Mallorca and Ibiza.

Getting Around

By Car

By Public Transport

By Foot

By Bike

Eat

Drink

Sleep

Budget

Mid-Range

Upscale

Work

Learn

• University of Alicante

Keep Connected

Internet

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Post

If you want to post a card, you can head to the post office (Correos). The Spanish post is not yet as efficient as colleagues in other countries so receiving a card can take a bit longer than the number of days that it should take. On the website of Correos, you can find the locations of nearby post offices.
Post offices are generally open from 8:30am to 2:00pm, although times can vary and the main post office usually is open until the early evening. Most will also open again on Saturday mornings, but in the smaller towns will close as early as 12 noon. When posting a letter, look for a yellow box and, if possible, post at the post office itself where there will also be divisions for local, national and international mail. Be prepared for long queues at the post office. This is why tobacco shops sell stamps and many will also have the facility to weigh packages.
Standard letters/postcards of up to 20 grams sent within Spain are €0.34. However, non-standard letters/postcards of up to 20g are €0.39. Letters/postcards of 20 to 50 grams are €0.45. In the case of international shipping, the price is €0.64 to most countries within Europe for standard envelopes (letters/postcards) up to 20g, for a few European countries and outside Europe it is €0.78.