If I had to choose one destination that would be the least likely for me to visit, it would be… well, Benidorm, to be honest. But Alicante is the airport for Benidorm, so it’s close enough. So why the heck did I go to Alicante?
Well, quite honestly I wanted some winter sun without taking any time off work, and this was one of the few places that fit the bill from Edinburgh! I learned last year that taking some sort of trip in January makes a world of difference to getting through the bleak Scottish winter days – by the time February rolls around, I have had enough.
In the end, I had a fantastic time with some unexpected adventures and ridiculous museums. Exactly my sort of trip!
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Alicante is a very surprising city destination, because despite being probably the most popular Spanish mainland airport to fly to from the UK, most people make a beeline for Benidorm, leaving Alicante as a strangely under-touristed city. Maybe it’s because I visited in January so it wasn’t busy, but what I mean is… I didn’t see a single souvenir shop. I found authentic tapas bars where the waiters barely spoke English, local clubs exclusively playing Spanish songs that I’d never heard, and I went to a fantastic flamenco show full of Spanish people. It didn’t feel touristy.
And that’s probably why I ended up liking it far more than I thought I would. (And I ended up buying my obligatory postcard from a newspaper kiosk!)
Here’s everything I got up to in 24 hours in Alicante.
Surprisingly, we landed a full 20 minutes early. By the time the scheduled landing time came around, I was already through passport control (an interesting post-EES experience of being shepherded into a dark room to verify fingerprints and photo, before breezing straight through the border control desks where a man stamped my passport without even looking at me) and waiting for a bus.
The C6 bus takes you straight to the Alicante promenade, the perfect starting point for the city. It costs 4.60€ each way and someone takes payment as you get on the bus. Nice and easy!
The bus runs in a loop, so I was thinking of taking it to the stop by the market, as originally this was to be my first port of call for lunch. But because we were early, I had much more pressing matters…
Museu de les Fogueres
I read about this museum after I had booked my flights, and discovered that the weekend opening hours are limited to 10am to 1.30pm. As I was landing at 12.25pm and leaving at 12pm (meaning I’d need to leave for the airport by 10am), the opening hours are the exact opposite of the time I was due to be there. As luck would have it with the early arrival, I got into town at 1.10pm. I might barely have any time in there, but it would have to do!
The Museu de les Fogueres is a fever dream of caricatures created for Alicante’s biggest annual event: a bonfire festival.
These figures are so much more than political effigies or whimsical local lore.
No. They are RIDICULOUS.
As soon as I saw a photo of that cow, I knew I had to try and go. Please, prepare yourself for the madness.
Honestly, the more you look at each one, the more insanity you notice! What’s going on in the bottom left of the big-boobed one? Why is that horse singing maniacally into a microphone – and what is happening to its insides, and where is that arm coming from?!
I would wager that this is one of the most ridiculous museums I’ve ever been to – and you know how much I love a ridiculous museum. I LOVE that it’s such a cultural event, too. I couldn’t really think of a more on-brand way to start my trip.
Oh, and did I mention it’s totally FREE?
Central Market for lunch – or not, as it turned out
Speaking of being on-brand… my next stop was a total fail. …or not, as it turned out.
Central Market is packed with stalls selling meat, fish and fresh produce, but I’d read about one tapas place in particular that is meant to be excellent. Well, I could not find Mil921 Tapas anywhere. Was I on the wrong floor? I checked both, soaking up the atmosphere as I went. I stumbled across bustling bars and a handful of bakeries selling sweet things, but other places were shutting up shop for the day and I ended up deciding to go somewhere else on my list.
I had expected Central Market to be a bit more like the San Miguel market in Madrid, with lots of places offering lunch options, but instead it was a much more local market with produce instead of meals. Definitely worth a wander nonetheless.
Related: How To Spend A Lazy Day In Madrid
Carmencita Brunch for lunch instead
I had planned to go to Carmencita Brunch for breakfast the next morning, but as it’s only round the corner from the market, I decided to head there for lunch instead.
Honestly, this was probably the best decision. I was already planning a tapas place for later, so it wasn’t a must-do for my lunch. And as you’ll read later, I wouldn’t have had time the following morning, so I’m really glad I managed to check this place out!
Carmencita Brunch is EGG-SELLENT! I had their classic eggs benedict with salmon and avocado, and a glass of orange juice so fresh that it tasted like I was just drinking an orange. The service was fantastic, a precursor of everything I would experience in Alicante.
I already planned to come back the following morning purely because it was so good. As you now know though, that didn’t happen!
Relax on the beach (or go to San Juan Playa)
By this time, it was pushing 3pm, which with my plan for sunset only gave me a couple of hours on the beach. That’s okay, though – I’m not really one for sitting around doing nothing.
I had originally planned to go to San Juan Playa, a long stretch of sand about half an hour out of the city centre. In the end I decided to just stick to Alicante’s main beach.
And it was fine – I think San Juan would have been much nicer, but this was good enough to while away a couple of hours. It’s a large enough beach that I could find my own space, and I watched a group of people playing volleyball.
Unfortunately it wasn’t too long before the sky clouded over, and what had been a nice, pleasant warmth on my skin soon turned a bit chilly! As is the risk of any winter sun trip, but it’s typical as it had been sunny since I landed.
Read more: Nice Is, Indeed, Nice: The Gateway To The French Riviera
Alicante’s main promenade
The sun wasn’t showing any sign of emerging, so I decided to take a wander along the main promenade past the marina. I loved it along here – the swirling tiles under my feet, the palm tree-lined avenue, and… what’s that? Oh yes, the sun came back out after all! Typical.
El Carrer dels Bolets (Mushroom Street)
I took a quick detour to the mushroom street on my way back to the hostel to recharge.
The what, you ask?!
Yep, there’s an entire street with these fun(ghi) mushroom characters all the way along! It was pretty busy on a Saturday afternoon (though not overwhelmingly so) so these photos are from the following morning when I swung by again.
Explore Barrio Santa Cruz
I was heading up to Santa Barbara castle for sunset, so instead of taking the main path up the side of the park, I decided to go through the Barrio Santa Cruz area, which was on my list anyway.
This gorgeous residential area is filled with alleyways linking to staircases, and packed with lovely whitewashed houses and blue plant pots. Is it all very Instagrammy? Of course. Does it make it any less beautiful? Absolutely not!
Unfortunately, I went up the staircase that leads out into Parc de l’Ereta, and… the gate was locked shut. It turned out to be closed due to the expected winds that evening, so I had to make a u-turn and find the main way up after all. By which point I was worried, now that the clouds had mostly disappeared, that I was going to miss the sunset…
Go up to Santa Barbara for sunset
Spoiler: I did not miss the sunset.
It turned out that Santa Barbara was ALSO closed for the same reason, but the park wasn’t. I found a viewpoint in front of the castle, along with very few other people, and we waited, once again, for the sun to emerge from behind a huge cloud.
I definitely recommend coming up here, as the views over the town are great. Obviously they would be better from the castle itself, and that’s free to visit as well. But I had to make do with this view instead, which incorporated some of the castle walls – not exactly a bad alternative!
Tapas at D’Tablas
Later in the evening, I headed out for tapas.
I passed lots of mostly-empty restaurants and bars until I got to D’Tablas and joined a queue. The only packed restaurant I’d seen? I’d read about how good it was, and this only confirmed it for me. Because I was alone, I was led in ahead of the queue to sit at the bar, a common occurrence I’ve found at tapas restaurants.
D’Tablas is brilliant – waiters bring round trays of tapas on wooden blocks, and you take whatever you like, and then they count up your wooden blocks at the end. At 1.70€ a board, it’s exceptional value!
Because of the nature of the service, I didn’t get any good photos because you only ever really have two dishes at any one time – so I couldn’t really get a photo of a selection.
Anyway, the food was great, but it was what happened next that made the whole trip for me.
A lady sat down next to me and we said hello, clocking straight away that we were both British. We got chatting and immediately hit it off. We were both just in Alicante for the weekend, and we had both worked in travel, lived in Australia, and had loads in common. She was heading to a flamenco show after dinner, and ended up inviting me along.
The funny thing is, the exact same thing happened to me in Seville. Eating tapas, get chatting to a girl, get invited to a flamenco show afterwards. Except in Seville, I was leaving the city in two hours’ time, so I had to sadly decline. Despite not being in the home of flamenco this time, I wasn’t about to make the same mistake again…
Flamenco show
So, onto the very unexpected night out with my new pal Vicky.
The flamenco show was only round the corner, so we arrived at the door and explained that Vicky has a ticket and I’d like to buy one, please. “I am sorry, we are sold out tonight.”
We began preparing to say goodbye, when we were told to wait. A few minutes later, another lady appeared (the manager?) who told us to come with her. My friend followed, and I held out my card to pay.
She shook her finger and brushed me off. “No, no. Officially we are full.”
And that’s how I got to see a flamenco show for free! A bar stool was pulled up to a table, and of course I bought drinks so it’s not like I was a total freeloader.
I loved how local this show was. Set up in the corner of a room, with seating along two sides, the performance was captivating, and the audience was passionate. Everyone was into it, clapping and yelling “AYYY!” at the end of each dance. It was brilliant!
I posted a couple of videos on Facebook:
The show went on until after midnight so that put an end to my “reasonably early night” plan. The man in the yellow shirt who had been hollering from the front row had got up to dance for the finale. The girl who had danced in the first act was out chatting to people in the audience.
And the night wasn’t over yet. On our walk back to the main road to part ways, we passed lots of bars and clubs. “Shall we go in for one drink?” my new pal who was now becoming a bad influence suggested. It was like a fever dream. No, we didn’t end up out until 6am; we danced to Spanish songs we’d never heard before while everyone else sang along, but we did only have the one drink (honest!) and it was a great end to such an unexpected night.
Read more: A Day In Beautiful Seville, Spain
That pretty much concludes my 24 hours in Alicante, because the following morning, I had planned to get up bright and early to go and get more (less crowded) photos of Barrio Santa Cruz and Mushroom Street after breakfast.
Well… while I wasn’t hungover, I WAS tired. The early start did not start early.
I did have time to visit both places, but I didn’t have time for breakfast, other than grabbing a pastry from a bakery near the hostel.
I stupidly went back down to the promenade to catch the airport bus from there, when what I should really have done is caught it from the market, as I would have made the earlier one. Instead, I was on a bus due to get in to the airport at 10.30am… for my midday flight. At 10.30, we still hadn’t even got out of the city, and I was beginning to panic. Eventually, we pulled up at departures at 10.50am, an hour and 10 minutes before my flight!! Talk about cutting it fine. I have never been so thankful to see an airport security so completely empty; I was through in less than a minute, which beat my record of Edinburgh’s seven minutes from bus to departure lounge!
And then came passport control, with a massive post-Brexit queue. The guys next to me started bickering about running late and having to rush, so I filled them in on my morning’s antics and we had an entertaining chat as we approached the desks. Thankfully, the queue moved very quickly, and we were through in about ten minutes. I even had time to get some duty-free rum!
Panic over, and a fantastic weekend done and dusted.
Is it worth visiting Alicante in the winter? A resounding YES!!
The days either side of my trip, naturally, were about 18 degrees. I swear it was warmer as I got on the plane than it had been for my entire visit. The day I was there was only 15, but that made a marked improvement on home…
I am surprised by just how much I enjoyed Alicante, too. Even without the great night out, it’s a nice city to wander, with enough going on, and that added quirkiness that is right up my (mushroom) street.
Once again, places I don’t expect to love take me by surprise. And with vitamin D in low supply in Scotland, maybe I should make this an annual thing. And in learning that you should never write anywhere off, maybe I should venture to Benidorm…
Check out some other favourite Spanish and Mediterranean destinations:
⭐ A Day In Beautiful Seville, Spain
⭐ How To Spend A Lazy Day In Madrid
⭐ Four Days In Rhodes, A Greek Island Escape
⭐ Nice Is, Indeed, Nice: The Gateway To The French Riviera
⭐ Monaco On A Budget: A Cheap Day Out From Nice
⭐ A Mediterranean Adventure: Gibraltar & Morocco
Discover more from An Orcadian Abroad
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Glad you ended up enjoying Alicante so much. Really surprised to hear you didn’t find it touristy because like you, I’d probably expect that.
It’s great you found a friend to go enjoy the evening with too!
Sounds fun, the quirky museum, mushroom street, flamenco show..
Aw I love this, and what an awesome thing to do for 24hrs to see some sunshine! Barrio Santa Cruz looks absolutely beautiful…and that cow fart had me lolling 😂
seems like a beautiful place to wander for a little while and soak up some sunshine- all the better that it was an unexpected place 🙂