Things to do in Alicante

Landmark · On Benacantil, above the old town

A fortress on a 166-metre crag straight above the city, with Iberian, Roman and Muslim layers beneath the sixteenth-century walls.

Local tip: There is a free lift tunnelled through the rock from the Postiguet beach side — most visitors walk up the road and never find it. Entry to the castle itself is free; the lift charges a small fee, and going up by lift and walking down through the Ereta park is the right order.

Neighborhood · Between the old town and the castle hill

The whitewashed lanes climbing the hill behind the cathedral, with flower-covered steps, tiny squares and the densest bar concentration in the city.

Local tip: The photogenic streets are Calle San Rafael and San Antonio, and they are quiet by day. The drinking happens lower down around Plaza de Santa Faz and Calle Labradores. Residents in the barrio itself have fought a long campaign over noise, so a flat here is charming and loud in equal measure.

Food · Central, by the port

A 1921 modernista market hall of fish, rice and turrón, a few minutes from the wave-patterned marble promenade along the harbour.

Local tip: The upstairs fish floor is where the city actually shops, and several stalls will cook or prepare what you buy. The Explanada is best walked at dusk — its six and a half million marble tiles are laid in a red, cream and black wave that is genuinely hypnotic and impossible to photograph well.

Nature · 11 km offshore, ferry from the port

Spain's smallest permanently inhabited island and the Mediterranean's first designated marine reserve, walled and settled in the eighteenth century by families from Tunisia.

Local tip: Go outside July and August and go on a weekday. The marine reserve means the snorkelling is unlike anything on the mainland coast. Ferries stop running in bad weather and there is essentially nothing on the island if you are stranded, so check the return before you go.

Nightlife · North-east, on the tram line

A long sandy beach with a strip of chiringuitos and beach bars, ending at a rocky cape of coves and low cliffs.

Local tip: The tram runs from the city centre right along it, which makes this the one beach nightlife strip you can reach and leave without driving. Get off before the main stretch and walk out onto the Cap de l'Horta for the coves — Cala Cantalars and the little inlets beyond it are where residents swim.

Culture · Busot, 24 km inland

A single cavern of vast height inside the Cabeçó d'Or mountain, used as an aircraft-engine workshop during the Civil War and now a lit concert space.

Local tip: Almost nobody staying on the coast makes the twenty-five-minute drive inland, and the acoustics are extraordinary enough that concerts are staged inside. Combine it with lunch in Busot or Aigües and you have the best half-day escape from the coast that does not involve a beach.