Spanish Pearl: Beautiful and Magnificent Alicante

“To travel is to live.”

Hans Christian Anderson

Alicante is a big coastal city on the Costa Brava which made me fall in love from the first step. As a typical Spanish city, it was all sleeping at 8-9am on Saturday and I had a chance to see its natural and genuine beauty. I was visiting this amazing city at the beginning of October and I still felt it was the summer but a bit colder as on other coastal cities around. It was hot at day but morning reminded a pleasant Spanish autumn. It felt colder because of the closeness with the sea and port and the wind was blowing so fresh from the sea, felt like an ocean… My first desire was to see the whole city from the hill and it was the best idea. The walk to the top, to Saint Ferdinand Castle, was amazing – all streets were empty and so clean. I met only rare dog walkers.. There were some parks on my way and the view from the hill was amazing – I could see the whole city, each part of it, all sights and the port. There was a school on the hill – a beautiful location… It was a beautiful sunny day and the whole universe opened to me that amazing city. The next destination was…

Castle of Santa Barbara

It’s one of the most popular and visiting places in Alicante. I have no idea how did we find the way to the top through the city, but it was the only free way to get. The other way – from the beach on the lift (paid) or by car (it’s probably paid entrance too), but we were lucky to walk a lot and achieve the top. There were no tourists on our way to the top, but there were already many tourists on the castle and its top area. The view from there was even more splendid – I could see all the mountains around and a hilly surface which defines lovely Spain. I liked the castle outside and inside – everything looked old but majestic. The way back we chose by lift and to go down was free so we were lucky again 🙂 And we appeared to be right on the beach in a few minutes, that was incredible! The beach was very wide and this is something I really like in Spain – most beaches I saw was very wide and long and with perfect clean soft sand! For some reason, the sea on Alicante felt like it was an ocean. The day I was visiting it there were big waves and I didn’t swim, just walked and enjoy the breeze. At the end of the beach there were some stones and waved crashed in there and there were beautiful views.

Explanada de España

My favorite spot in Alicante is Explanada de España – marble-laid promenade from the old town along the seafront. It’s a very beautiful and remarkable street, there are palms from both sides of the road and it has a shape of waves – looks really amazing and it’s a unique place which defines this city! And it goes to Marina which is also one of the most beautiful sights in the city.

Marina is a peaceful and beautiful spot in any city but in Spain it’s amazing – there are unique buildings around the Marina, wide cozy streets, restaurants and pier… In Spain, there are also a lot of palms and fancy yachts…

Alicante also is an old city – there are a lot of parks with very old trees inside – it’s incredible how beautiful they are – with very wide trunk, very tall trees, greens and they create so much shadow which is really cool for a hot sunny day.

Besides, what I like about Spain – is that almost every city has its own Plaza de España. In Alicante, it’s not a big square with fountains and trees from borders and the display of traditional corrida at the beginning of it.