Palmeral of Elche (El Palmeral)

The Palmeral of Elche is not one park but a network of palm orchards, called huertos, spread through the city, with more than 200,000 palms (Visit Elche). The easiest way in is the Parque Municipal, beside the old town and about 360 m from Elx Parc train station. From there, the 10 km Palm Grove Route links the orchards, and the Huerto del Cura, home of the Imperial Palm, is a paid private garden: adults €6.80 in 2026. Skip the Huerto del Cura if you only want to walk among palms; the park and the trail cover that.

Quick facts

• What it is: the heart of an irrigated farming landscape of palm orchards, known in Valencian as the Palmerar d’Elx. UNESCO describes it as an oasis, a system for farming in arid land.
• World Heritage: inscribed by UNESCO in 2000 under criteria (ii) and (v); the listed property covers 144 ha.
• Palms: more than 200,000, plus about 50,000 more in municipal nurseries. Visit Elche calls it the largest palm grove in Europe.
• Spread through the city: the trail goes from orchard to orchard and between city streets. Most of the historic urban orchards are now open spaces owned by the city (elche.es).
• Easiest start: the Parque Municipal, six hectares of old orchards turned into a public park from 1946.
• Huerto del Cura: a family-owned garden of 12,000 m² with the Imperial Palm; adults €6.80 in 2026.
• Trail: PR-CV 439 Palm Grove Route, circular, 10,162 m, about 3 h 35 min, 51 m of climbing, low difficulty.

Access and parking

By train: Elx Parc is an underground commuter station on Cercanías line C-1 (Murcia/Alicante) and serves the city centre. It is at Avenida del Ferrocarril 10, the station Visit Elche lists for the city (Visit Elche, train). The Parque Municipal is about 360 m from the station in a straight line, and the Huerto del Cura about 0.9 km.

By bus: the Huerto del Cura lists city bus lines 1, 90, E and H to the garden (Huerto del Cura, visits).

Parking: the Huerto del Cura gives the Saba Porta Morera car park, on Calle Porta de la Morera, as parking for the garden. Visit Elche’s Palm Grove Walk ends at the Jardín de Porta de la Morera next to the Congress Centre, by a car park entrance. No official source we found gives parking for the Parque Municipal; the train is the simpler choice.

What to expect

Although it may look like a forest from a distance, the Palmeral is an agricultural plantation, which is why each plot or group of trees is called a huerto (orchard). Each plot is bordered by rows of palms, so that from the air they form a grid, and the terraced plots inside were farmed (Visit Elche). The city council puts it plainly: the Palmeral is not a chance group of palms, nor a forest, nor a garden, but an oasis, with plots of about one tahúlla, or 953 m² (elche.es).

How old it is: UNESCO says the grove was formally laid out, with its irrigation, towards the end of the tenth century, when the Muslim city of Elche was built, and that date palms have been grown here since Iberian times, around the fifth century BC (UNESCO). Visit Elche places the expansion in the 8th and 9th centuries, with an irrigation network that largely remains in use today. Today the grove has more of a landscape and cultural role than a farming one; the farming left is mainly white palm fronds for Palm Sunday and small-scale dates for the local market.

Parque Municipal: the city’s first public park joins the Colomer, Real, Mare de Déu and Baix orchards. Look for the Molí del Real, an 18th-century water mill driven by the main irrigation channel, the egg-shaped visitor centre left from the 1946 fair, and a pond with swans. The Tourist Information Office is by the park’s southern entrance (Visit Elche, Parque Municipal).

Two walks, two names: Visit Elche’s Palm Grove Walk (Ruta del Palmeral) starts and finishes at the Huerto de San Plácido, home of the Palm Grove Museum, and passes the Huerto del Cura and the Filet de Fora orchards (Visit Elche, Palm Grove Walk). The longer PR-CV 439 Palm Grove Route is a circular trail of 10,162 m, about 3 h 35 min, with 51 m of climbing, graded low difficulty and walkable all year round (Visit Elche, PR-CV 439). The city council describes it starting near the Congress Centre, crossing orchard after orchard, passing the Vaíllo Tower and crossing the Parque Municipal, and offers the route as a KMZ file for Google Earth (elche.es, Ruta del Palmeral).

The Huerto del Cura and the Imperial Palm: declared a National Artistic Garden in 1943, the garden holds collections of palms and cacti alongside lemon, orange and pomegranate trees (Visit Elche, Huerto del Cura). Its best-known tree is the Imperial Palm, a male date palm named after Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi), who visited the orchard in 1894. Seven offshoots grew from its trunk at an unusual height of 2 m, making a candelabra of 8 arms that weighs over 8 tonnes and stands over 17 m tall; one of the arms dried out in 2014 (Huerto del Cura). The garden is still in private hands: after 1958 it passed to the six children of Juan Orts Román (the garden’s history of its owners).

Palm Grove Museum: in a 19th-century house at the Huerto de San Plácido, close to the Huerto del Cura. The rooms explain the grove’s history and uses, and the visit continues into the orchard with a recreation of the traditional irrigation (Visit Elche, museum). The city’s white palm workshop is also here (elche.es, museum).

Protection: since 2021 the grove has its own regional law, Ley 6/2021 on the protection and promotion of the Palmeral of Elche (Visit Elche).

Practical details

• Huerto del Cura, 2026 prices: adults €6.80, children 5–15 €3.80, over-65s and students from 16 €4.80; Elche residents, people with disabilities and the unemployed €3.80. An audio guide is included, in languages including English (huertodelcura.com, checked Sept 2026). Opening hours change month by month and ticket sales stop 30 minutes before closing, so check the garden’s monthly table before you go.
• Palm Grove Museum: the city council and Visit Elche both list general admission at €1 and free entry on Sundays, and Visit Elche says it is closed on Mondays (checked Sept 2026). Check before you go.
• Parque Municipal: a public park looked after by the city council. Visit Elche lists it open from 07:00, until 21:00 from November to March and 23:00 from April to October (checked Sept 2026).
• Route files: the city council offers the PR-CV 439 route and its points of interest as KMZ downloads on its route page.

Accessibility and safety

Best time to visit

Visit Elche lists the PR-CV 439 trail as walkable all year round. The Huerto del Cura keeps its longest hours in July and August and its shortest from November to February (Visit Elche). For the palms at their most symbolic, come for Palm Sunday: the procession, of International Tourist Interest since 1997, has about 60,000 people carrying white palms, and a white palm market is set up in the city’s markets in the days before (Visit Elche, Palm Sunday). The white fronds come from the traditional hooding of palms, a practice already regulated by the regional palm grove law of 1986 (elche.es).

Nearby alternatives

• Basílica de Santa María, 0.3 km away: Elche’s main church, with a 170-step bell tower that looks out over the palm groves.
• Salinas de Santa Pola, 12 km away: salt pans and lagoons near the coast.
• El Hondo Natural Park, 12 km away: the wetland between Elche and Crevillent, with bird hides.
• For where to stay and eat, see our guide to Elche (Elx).
• Alannia Costa Blanca, about 14 km away: the nearest campsite you can book through Campcation (affiliate link).

Distances are in a straight line from the Parque Municipal.

FAQ

Do you have to pay to see the Palmeral of Elche?

Not to see most of it. The Parque Municipal is a public park run by the city council, and the palm routes run through orchards and city streets. The Huerto del Cura is a private garden with a ticket: in 2026 adults pay €6.80. The Palm Grove Museum charges €1, with free entry on Sundays.

How long is the Palm Grove Route in Elche?

The PR-CV 439 Palm Grove Route is a circular trail of 10,162 m. Visit Elche gives about 3 h 35 min, with 51 m of climbing and low difficulty.

What is the Imperial Palm?

A male date palm in the Huerto del Cura with seven offshoots growing from its trunk, named after Empress Elisabeth of Austria after her visit in 1894. It weighs over 8 tonnes and stands over 17 m tall.

How do you get to the Palmeral of Elche by train?

Take Cercanías line C-1 to Elx Parc (Elche-Parque). The Parque Municipal is about 360 m away in a straight line and the Huerto del Cura about 0.9 km.

Sources and freshness

Checked 30 September 2026. Official: UNESCO on the Palmeral of Elche (inscribed 2000, criteria, 144 ha, tenth-century layout, Iberian origins); Visit Elche (Elche tourism) on the Palmeral (200,000 palms, huertos, white palm, Ley 6/2021), the Valencian page (Palmerar d’Elx), the Parque Municipal, the Huerto del Cura, the Palm Grove Museum, the Palm Grove Walk, the PR-CV 439 trail, Palm Sunday and the train station; the city council on the Palmeral (orchards, protection), the museum and the Ruta del Palmeral; the Huerto del Cura on visits and 2026 prices, the Imperial Palm and its owners. Station: EuroVelo Spain on Elx Parc and Wikipedia (es) for line C-1. Location and distances: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Photos: Wikimedia Commons, licences as credited.