Alicante

Sunkissed beaches
The Castillo de Santa Bárbara
Seafront promenades

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Alicante

The relaxing atmosphere of the Mediterranean

The thoroughly Spanish Alicante has a decidedly elegant Mediterranean air that you can get a taste of on your holiday cruise to southern Spain: close to your cruise ship the city offers seafront paseos and wide, breezy esplanades, peppered with cosy bars and terrace cafés.


What is more, a series of well-curated museums feature everything from ancient archaeology to contemporary art; the city’s cuisine scene is making a name for itself, just as its healthy nightlife did long ago; and its long, sandy beaches are sunkissed for much of the year. 


The rambling Castillo de Santa Bárbara, an imposing medieval fortress located on the bare rocky hill above the town beach, is Alicante’s main historical sight. Best approached from the Mediterranean Sea side – the lift entrance is on Avenida de Jovellanos – it’s easy to reach from your cruise ship. Almost opposite are the Iberian and Roman remains that have been found on the site.


The city’s well-maintained beach – Playa del Postiguet – is perfect for another shore excursion too.


Elche (Elx), 20km inland and south from Alicante, is famed throughout Spain for its exotic palm forest. The palm trees, originally planted by the Moors, are still the town’s chief industry – not only do they attract tourists, but the female trees produce dates, and the fronds from the males are in demand all over the country for use in Palm Sunday processions and as charms against lightning.


A cruise excursion can also be an opportunity to discover Guadalest, one of the more popular tourist attractions in the area. The sixteenth-century Moorish castle town and former Muslim settlement is built high up in the surrounding rock, and you enter through a gateway tunnelled into the mountain.

Must see places in Alicante

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    Spain

    Love at first sight
    Love at first sight

    If you’re visiting Spain for the first time, be warned: this is a country that fast becomes an addiction. You might intend to come just for a cruise holiday, a walking tour or a city break, but before you know it you’ll find yourself hooked by something quite different – the celebration of some local fiesta, perhaps, or the otherworldly architecture of Barcelona.

    Even in the most over-touristic Mediterranean resorts of the Costa del Sol, you’ll be able to find an authentic bar or restaurant where the locals eat, and a village not far away where an age-old bullfighting tradition owes nothing to tourism. 


    A holiday to Spain can also show you the large cities of the north like Barcelona, which have reinvented themselves as essential cultural destinations (and don’t all close down for hours for a kip every afternoon). 


    And when the world now looks to Spain for culinary inspiration – the country has some of the most acclaimed chefs and innovative restaurants in the world – it’s clear that things have changed. Spain, despite the current economic uncertainty, sees itself very differently from a generation ago. 

    So should you – prepare to be surprised.