Costa Blanca

Like the other two provinces in the region, Castellón and Valencia, Alicante is historically divided into comarcas, counties or shires. Its coastal shires are, from north to south, La Marina Alta (capital Denia), the least dry of Alicante's comarcas; La Marina Baja (capital Villajoyosa, largest town Benidorm), the most touristy (but there are good reasons for that); L'Alacanti (capital, evidently, Alicante), the most densely populated and least dependent on tourism of the Costa Blanca comarcas; El Baix Vinalopó (capital and most interesting place, Elche); and El Baix Segura, also called La Vega Baja (capital Orihuela).

Costa Blanca Travel

The Costa Blanca's main attraction is its fine sandy beaches, without forgetting the sea which goes with them. Its best scenery is to be found in the north of the province, in the Marina Alta and Marina Baja, where the the coast is backed by attractive mountains. As you enter from the province of Valencia, the Marina Alta holds Teulada and its fishing port Moraira, interesting but backwater places (which may well be just what you are looking for), and also boasts Denia, a historic city with a splendid ruined fortress slap bang in the centre, and the town of Jávea (Xàbia in Catalan), a fishing port turned resort, said by the World Health Organisation to have one of the best climates in the world.

The Marina Baja practically consists of wall-to-wall picturesque villages and towns, though this is not always easy to see from the awful Mediterranean Highway. Calpe is an attractive town in the shadow of the emblematic Peñón de Ifach. Altea is perched on a hilltop overlooking the Mediterranean and one of the most picture-postcardy places in the region. L'Alfas del Pi is a small, inland town, with a stretch of coastline, particularly the Albir beach, and an almost exclusively expatriate population. Its annual film festival is of some interest. Benidorm, considered Spain's Manhattan because of its high-rise buildings, has fabulous beaches and was actually conceived to be high-rise, a vertical pleasure city, so it is difficult to mind. Villajoyosa is striking because of its brightly coloured houses, and best visited when its Moors and Christians celebrations are under way.

Entering L'Alacanti from the north, you enter the borough of El Campello, with 23 kilometres of coastline including splendid beaches. This is a part of the Costa Blanca that the Spanish generally keep to themselves, and a charming little spot with its working marina, low-rise old seafront, and bustling, if low-key nightlife. Just south of it, San Juan de Alicante is essentially an enormous, broad beach, seven kilometres of the softest sand you will ever find. Alicante, the capital of the province, is itself a working city, which effortlessly blends tourism with service industries of one sort or another. It has great beaches and a splendid promenade.

Elche is one of the most fascinating places in the Levante, with its double world-heritage status (for its palmeral, palm-tree forest, and for its mediaeval mystery play). Its beaches begin in the north of the Baix Vinalopó, and are mostly undeveloped or completely unspoilt. The first centre of population you come to actually on the coast is Santa Pola, another of those fishing villages turned resorts, with the added advantages of some of the most appealing countryside on the Costa Blanca, and the possibility of taking the boat across to the marine reserve and island of Tabarca, if you didn't do so from Alicante.

South of Santa Pola, you find a couple more of Elche's unspoilt beaches before you reach the Baixa Segura or Vega Baja, and Guardamar del Segura, a pleasant, low-key resort with 14 kilometres of splendid, duney beaches and some gorgeous countryside around. Torrevieja, in contrast is a much livelier and more commercial affair, another fishing town which has been tremendously developed in recent years, though it is a likeable enough place and a good choice for those looking for all mod cons and golf courses. Orihuela is an inland town, but its municipal limits take in a number of beaches with little or mostly low-rise development. Finally, before you reach Murcia, Pilar de la Horadada is a tiny little place with some great beaches and attractive scenery.