Private, fixed-price transfers from Alicante Airport to the city and the resorts of the Costa Blanca — plus what to see and how to get into Alicante once you arrive.
Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport is the gateway to the Costa Blanca, more than 200 km of Mediterranean shore running through Alicante province from Dénia in the north to Pilar de la Horadada in the south. The airport lies about 9 km south-west of Alicante, between the city and Elche. From there the coast leads north past Playa de San Juan and El Campello to Benidorm, Altea and Calpe, and south to Santa Pola, Guardamar del Segura, Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa. With the resorts spread out in both directions, the airport transfer is the one part of the trip worth settling before you fly.
Alicante itself deserves more than a glimpse from the motorway. Santa Bárbara Castle crowns Mount Benacantil above Postiguet beach and the port, and houses the Museum of the City of Alicante. Boats cross from the coast to Tabarca, a fortified island village inside Spain’s first marine reserve, and the UNESCO-listed Palm Grove of Elche lies about 10 km west of the airport. Further north, the mountain village of Guadalest sits beneath the ruins of an 11th-century castle, and at Calpe the Peñón de Ifach rises 332 metres straight out of the sea.
Mount Benacantil, city centre
Santa Bárbara Castle stands on the 166-metre Mount Benacantil in the centre of Alicante, looking out over the whole bay. Its origins date to the 9th century, under Muslim rule. Castilian forces captured it on 4 December 1248, the feast of Saint Barbara, which gave the castle its name, and the kings of Aragon later rebuilt it. After long years of neglect it opened to the public in 1963; lifts inside the mountain carry visitors up, and the Museum of the City of Alicante (MUSA) fills five rooms within the walls.
Island, 15 km south-south-east of Alicante
Tabarca is the largest island in the Valencian Community and the smallest permanently inhabited islet in Spain — just 1,800 metres long and no more than 400 metres wide. In 1760 Charles III ordered it fortified and resettled with Genoese sailors rescued near Tabarka in Tunisia, and its gateways and the church of St Peter and St Paul, completed in 1779, still stand. The surrounding waters became Spain’s first marine reserve in 1986. Boats link the island with Alicante, Santa Pola and Torrevieja, more often in summer.
Elche, 10 km west of the airport
The Palm Grove of Elche is a system of date-palm orchards within the city, laid out as walled rectangular plots and watered by irrigation channels built up since Roman and Islamic times. It is the largest palm grove in Europe, with some 70,000 date palms in 97 orchards inside Elche, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. Its best-known garden, the Huerto del Cura, is home to the Imperial Palm, a date palm with seven stems shaped like a candelabra, named after Empress Elisabeth, who visited in 1894.
Mountains of the Marina Baixa
El Castell de Guadalest is a small village in the mountains of the Marina Baixa, and its castle was built in the 11th century, under Muslim rule, to control the valley below. An earthquake partly destroyed the fortress in 1644, and in 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, a mine blew up its western side, so only a ruined portion still towers over the valley. Today the village lives mainly from tourism, with a Baroque church built between 1740 and 1753 and a string of small museums.
Calpe
The Peñón de Ifach is a massive limestone rock rising 332 metres out of the sea at Calpe, joined to the shore by an isthmus of rock debris. The Phoenicians called it the Northern Rock, to tell it apart from Gibraltar in the south. It has been a natural park since 1987 and, at 45 hectares, is the smallest in Spain, home to rare plants, more than 300 animal species and nesting sea birds. From the top, on a clear day, the view reaches across the sea to Ibiza.
Prices start from the lowest published fare for this airport and depend on the destination and vehicle class. Cancel up to 24 hours before pickup for a 90% refund.
Photo credits kallerna (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Jose A. (CC BY 2.0) · Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0)
