Alicante: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

So after being in Alicante for a couple months, I've had quite a few great experiences and quite a few terrible ones. This post is dedicated to all the best of and worst of Alicante.


1. Best of : A Wine Named Val

I've always liked wine, but usually preferred other drinks. However, since coming to Spain, my appreciation for good wine has increased. Here's a picture of me, with a wine called Val, basically begging me to buy it. Don't forget to try tinto de verano, a sweeter wine drink that's served in almost every restaurant!

Would recommend?: yes absolutely yes
Where to find: Local Supercore













2. Worst of: Is this Mexican food?

We held out as long as we could, but eventually the craving for tacos overcame us. We decided to try the Mexican food restaurant closes to us, La Tia Juana Alicante. The inside is decorated with some pretty convincing traditional Spanish decor, including these great Luchador masks and fighting ring. What could go wrong!

Oh so many things... first of all, the food isn't bad, it's just not Mexican food. There was hardly any spice, my plate was decorated with colorful mayonnaise, and when we ordered margaritas, we were served straight up frozen mojitos. Sad.

On the other hand they did give us tequila shots before the meal, and the staff was very friendly.

Would recommend? Probs not, unless you really like giant mojitos...
Where to find: corner of La Rambla in el centro



3. Best of: Cool old things! Castles!

One major difference between Spain and the US is that people have lived in Spain since basically forever. Really though, before we even evolved from cave men into modern H. sapiens, you could find hominid like folk living in the Iberian Peninsula. And from there a slew of different kingdoms and empires have had control over Spain. What does this mean for the history here? Well basically, there's a bunch of really cool old things to check out! Almost every town you visit will have an ancient castle on a hill, including this one in Santa Pola.

On another cool note, there are a ton of prehistoric sites throughout the province of Alicante, and all of Spain, where you can see super cool things like ancient cave paintings! I got a chance to see this one with my class at La Sarga. This style of cave painting is exclusively found in this region of Spain, so you really won't find anything like this anywhere else in the world!

Would recommend?: Yes! But after a while, all the castles do sort of look the same...
Where to find? : Anywhere and everywhere! The castle in Alicante is called Castillo Santa Barbara and is free to tour



4. Worst of: Playa Postiguet 
Alicante's premier beach is La Playa Postiguet. Now, it's not all bad, but there are a couple not so great things about it. First, it's extremely crowded in the summer months. I mean super duper crowded, and also most of the older people treat it like a nude beach so watch out for that. Also, it's a little dirty; the cigarette butts littered everywhere can really cramp your style. Other than that, the beach itself isn't so bad, with a nice boardwalk and when it's hot enough there's a little pop up bar at the end!

Would recommend? : Well yes, you will end up going here anyway if you live in Alicante
Where to find : Just keep walking through el centro and you'll find it! Just past the port


5. Best of : Playa San Juan 

Now Playa Postiguet usually works just fine, but if you really want to enjoy a good beach day, hop on the tram over to San Juan, where the beach is a lot less crowded and way cleaner! It takes about 30 minutes to get there, but it's easy to use the tram and you can definitely spend a day over in San Juan if you want to. There's a nice boardwalk there as well with a lot of great places to grab tapas.

Would recommend?: Yes! It's definitely the superior beach, the only problem is sometimes you don't feel like wasting a bus pas and an hour there and back just to sit in the sun for a couple hours.

Where to find: Go to the tram station in Alicante and hop on the L4 train headed for San Juan.