You should write about “Alicante and how to explore it in one day” – my wife said, because traditional Costa Blanca tourists really won’t have much interest in the city – but more in the beaches, villages and bars around the area.

I imagine some of you will come over and spend summer holidays around Costa Blanca in places like Benidorm, Torrevieja, Denia or Calpe.

Come and join me for a walk around Alicante

Before we start a quick overview. Alicante, with about 310,000 inhabitants lies about 6 hours south of Barcelona along the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

In the summer months about 6 million tourists visit the Costa Blanca area.

Depending on the source, about 4.5 million come from the U.K. alone. Cities like Benidorm (population 50.000) host up to 4 million visitors every year. Alicante is the second largest city in the province of Valencia. 

The city is best explored by foot starting at the harbour, where many parking areas are available. So we leave our car next to the Melia Hotel right on the harbour entrance.

Alicante Bars and Parks - 

I think now is the best time to take a break from our traditional Alicante sightseeing tour and leave the path of historic buildings and museums.

There are so many different churches, museums and places around the old city centre, that you can spend many days discovering them.

However, as you visit the city during the rather hot summer months take a little step back and go up to the Plaza de C. Sotelo.

Having completed more or less our walk through Alicante – which might take anywhere between 4 to 6 hours - there are obviously many more things to see and visit around this impressive city. Among others you could go up to the castle of Santa Barbara (take the car to get there if it’s too hot), see the bullfighting ring or visit the Park Ruiz de Alda which is located north of Alicante.

However, you might reconsider your plans when you are actually visiting the Costa Blanca area, because above everything else is the beach, the sand and the sea.

About the author - Robert Carlton lives with his valencian wife and daughter in the Alicante suburb of San Joan. Running a marketing company he started setting up a website for some of his international customers that visited him.

You can reach him via his website http://www.alicante-spain.com