Visit Alicante, Spain and you’ll see many of the delightful things the city has to offer. Eventually though, you may find yourself itching to see places outside Alicante and that’s when taking a day trip or tour is a great idea. With day trips and tours to places like Benidorm, Guadalest and Altea, just a few miles from Alicante, make sure you don’t miss these incredible day trips and tours. They’re well worth it.
Benidorm – One of the best day trips to take out of Alicante is to hop a bus to Benidorm. Just 20 minutes north of Alicante, Benidorm is a busy beach side resort town packed with restaurants, cafes, and shops packed with inexpensive bargains. Once with a reputation as a sleazy town full of drunks and touts, Benidorm has cleaned up its act in recent years and is now a lovely place for the family.
Walk along Benidorm’s two enormous promenades, and stop at an ocean front cafe for a coffee or lunch. Visit the town’s Sunday and Wednesday markets and get the best bargains in town. Take the kids to Terra Natura, Benidorm’s open-air wildlife park, or just wander around Benidorm’s old town, checking out the small bodegas and enjoying a glass of Spanish wine.
Canelobre Caves and Busot – Just 15 miles outside Alicante, another wonderful day trip is a visit to Canelobre Caves. One of the largest cave systems in Spain, Canelobre Caves (in English known as the Candelabra Caves) is near the small mountain town of Busot.
Take a guided tour through the caves, seeing the phenomenal limestone stalactites and stalagmites and, if you’re an audiophile, don’t miss taking audio of the amazing echoes in the cave system.
After the caves, walk the trail to the lookout point to see the views out over ocean. Then back to Busot, where you can have lunch and explore the ruined 12th-century Moorish castle.
The easiest way to do a day trip to Canelobre Caves and Busot is to hire a car. Or check with any Alicante travel agent for any available tours.
Guadalest – Spain’s most visited mountain village is just an hour’s drive from Alicante and with so many tour buses going there every day, it’s an easy and inexpensive day trip to make.
On the way up the mountain, the tour buses stop off at the Museo Vehiculos Historical Valle de Guadalest, an incredible motorbike and classic car museum where you can also shop at their farmer’s market store for olive oil and olives, jams, honey, chocolate, wines, liquors and gifts.
Then on up to the village of Guadalest with its amazing views, ancient castle, old dungeon and cute cafes and gift shops. Enjoy a cafe con leche and a slice of apple pie at a village square cafe, or visit the Miniatures Museum, where you’ll see paintings painted on a grain of rice.
Altea – The perfect Costa Blanca ocean side, traditional Spanish town, the town of Altea is perched up on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean. Offering a stunning promenade, on which you can walk all the way down to the neighboring town of Albir, a hill top church, old town cafes and craft shops, restaurants, cafes and, in the summer, a night time handicraft market, Altea has so much to offer a day trip doesn’t always cover it all.
One secret in Altea that many do not find is the small museum atop the town’s small library. Here you’ll see all the elaborate costumes that have been worn by the townsfolk during the festival of Moros y Critianos (the Moors and the Christians in September each year.
For a day trip to Altea, take the train from Alicante. There’s one runs almost every hour throughout the day and, as Altea’s train station is right next to the town center, once you get there everything is within walking distance.
Photo – Costumes in Altea’s museum