Alicante as a place to live in Spain
When we had researched different places to live in Spain, Alicante had been pretty high on our list. In theory it looked good: it has a busy international airport located only 12 km from the city center, it has high speed trains to Madrid, it has a great tram network around the city, it has beaches minutes from the city center. It’s a popular place for expats.
We spent 11 days in Alicante and realized pretty quickly that the city is not for us.
We just didn’t find Alicante to be a very inspiring place.
If you like beaches then you’ll like Alicante. The whole coast is lined with beaches and they’re very nice. What’s amazing is that you can take the tram from the city center and be at beautiful San Juan beach in 10 minutes (even less if you chose to go to Postiguet beach which is right by the city center).
The city center has a nice promenade and some historic buildings. There are some pretty squares around the city.
Santa Barbara Castle sits on top of the city and has spectacular views of Alicante and around.
People are friendly. We met a lot of nice people in Alicante.
I think Alicante is worth visiting for a day or two.
Why didn’t we find in inspiring?
Overall, Alicante is not an attractive city. Outside a few large boulevards in the center, lined with palm trees, most of the city’s neighbourhoods feature tight streets lined by ugly apartment blocks. That includes much of the center.
Michelin Guide says Alicante’s Old Town is “one of the most charming anywhere”. I don’t get it. Alicante’s old town is among the least impressive of the Spanish towns and cities we’ve visited.
I read a few reviews on Trip Advisor about the “beautiful Marina”. Since when is a parking lot of boats beautiful?
When writing about Malaga I mentioned that it was unfortunate that the unattractive Marina/harbour/port dominated the city center. The same is true in Alicante. The difference is that Malaga has a much more attractive old town than Alicante.
Summing up Alicante
The city is worth visiting for the castle and the promenade in the center. Other than that I don’t really have anything to add about Alicante. For those of you used to my long posts I’m sorry. I’m trying to pull some inspiration out of my butt but it’s not happening…
I’m not trashing Alicante, it’s a a fine city and better than many places we’ve visited on our travels. I’m sure residents enjoy it’s proximity to nature, it’s great transport system (the tram is great), and its low key nature. But since this whole exercise is about finding a base in Spain I just have to be honest that Alicante is not a place that made it very high on our list.
Note: We’re in Valencia right now. Beautiful city which I’ll write about in the next little while. For all those googling “Valencia or Alicante?” – well, there’s really no comparison.
Love the blog! Very interesting to hear of your experiences in the different cities in Spain and how the pandemic changed you views on location and type of home you would want. I lived in castedefells just below Barcelona in my 30s with 4 kids and as a young person, in small beach town but close to Barcelona seem perfect ,bit pricy thou, so we moved to Calafell, which was great until one of my kids got sick and it was a 45 min journey to the hospital in BCN with 4 under 7 at 4 in the morning. The other thing that I didn’t like was the pushing of Catalan as a first language. I understand to need to maintain it, especially knowing Spain’s history but it’s terribly political / volatile subject that even intrudes at the level of primary school🤷🏻♀️. Apart from that I lived the weather and the lifestyle . However due to unforeseen circumstances which I won’t bore you with we moved to Vigo. In Galicia , A city I was familiar with from childhood so had prior affection.
Vigo to me is a great city perfectly located on the coast, small , bit hilly but generally easy to get around and beautiful local beaches. My kids who spoke english and Catalan , learnt Spanish and eventually Galician . They experienced a happy carefree childhood in a relatively safe environment as we lived in a small house on the outskirts , a tiny village where the local kids played together in country lanes and fields.
Unfortunately we outgrew our tiny house and found anything bigger near Vigo out of my price range . So we moved to a Village 15 mins south of Vigo called Gondomar in an area called Val miñor which is comprised of two popular tourist coastal village Bayonne and Nigran but a couple of kms inland away from the crowds in summer.
The valmiiñor is protected but a natural bay as well a being located kin a valley so has an amazing micro climate, never too hot or too cold. I often joke with my old neighbour in calafell that the weathers really warm here when she complains of bad weather over there.
Truth is that although it rains quite a bit, which is why it’s so green, not nearly so much as it used to and the sun is nearly always out all year round. Summer days are longer than on other coasts. gondomar is perfectly located , with local schools and even international / British schools within easy reach, minutes from the beach. A small pretty town with all amenities , well connected ,to vigo, the airport. And right next the Portugueses estuary and bridge to Portugal where you can enjoy the delights of another country ,culture cuisine and cheap shopping . I would definitely recommend it as a great place to live .
As I would most of Galicia and northern Spain such as Asturias and Cantabria . However the weather perhaps not so kind but very beautiful areas. I had worked for Age in Spain helping Brits get residency and all the other processes that sometime make it difficult to live in Spain . The Beauacracy ! So after Brexit finished I decided on a new project to help expats from any country find their dream home here and help with all the services required. Until now I’ve been only doing it via the social
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Agree. I also visited Alicante with a view to buy a place there. When arriving along the coast and the boulevard, I thought I’d found my future home. It was really pretty. After one day walking around in the city I came to the same conclusion as you.
Thank you for the comment Sabine. Yes, after all I’ve heard about Alicante I wasn’t impressed one bit…
This is definitely some advice I’m going to be using as I prepare to travel to Spain in September. Thanks for sharing!
interesting. your photos are actually really beautiful…
I should have taken more ugly shots. I tend to focus on the pretty. Shows you though how deceivingly you can portray a destination…
I have to agree with your assessment. We only passed through it with our RV last year, we did not feel like stopping there at all. But perhaps we’ll return for a couple days in the future. We absolutely loved Valencia, I could imagine myself living there. Good luck with your ongoing research for a home.
Thank you very much Gilda 🙂
Yeah, we had pretty much the same take on Alicante. We were there twice, for a total of 6 or 8 weeks. We liked it, enjoyed the beaches and the coast; we are of an age where we could get a tram pass and for 10 Euros a month had unlimited travel. We explored the coast north of Alicante and found many pleasant suburban communities (generally populated by Brits and Scots). There’s a lot to like about Alicante, but, like you, it did not hold us.
Oh, and by the way, you mentioned Alicante is good for a couple of days–yes, if you’re on your three-week European tour! For us slow travelers, it was a pleasant place to stay for a while. But, we didn’t settle there. (Instead, we’re in Montpellier, a mid-size city in the south of France.)
I read your post. We live in Sérignan , south of Béziers ,5 km from the beach, settled down there upon retirement. Quite nice. A few Brits too. Do you know the place ?