Costa Blanca Guide: Benidorm, Calpe, Altea and the Best of Alicante

The Costa Blanca, the “white coast” of Alicante province, is the most popular stretch of coast in Spain for northern European visitors, and for good reason. It packs an enormous range into a short drive: the high-rise energy of Benidorm, the dramatic rock at Calpe, white hill towns, quiet coves and mountain villages just inland. This is an honest, grounded guide to where to go and what tends to disappoint.

Alicante, Benidorm and the southern coast

Alicante anchors the coast, its old town climbing toward the Santa Bárbara castle on Mount Benacantil, with a palm-lined seafront promenade below. North along the shore, Benidorm is the high-rise resort capital, built around two long beaches and a nightlife that runs year-round. South of Alicante, Torrevieja spreads beside salt lagoons, one of which can turn a startling pink.

Calpe, Altea and the white towns

The coast grows dramatic around Calpe, where the great limestone rock of the Peñón de Ifach rises straight from the sea as a natural park. Just north, Altea stacks white houses up to a blue-domed church, long a favourite of artists. Further on, Jávea and Dénia trade resort bustle for coves, the Montgó mountain and a quieter, more local rhythm, with ferries from Dénia out to Ibiza.

The mountains inland

Turn away from the sea and the land climbs fast. Guadalest, a tiny village wedged into the rock above a turquoise reservoir, is one of the most visited spots in Spain for a reason. The hills behind the coast hide more, from almond groves to the nougat workshops of Jijona, and they make an easy escape from the beaches on a hot afternoon.

Which part of the Costa Blanca is for you?

A quick comparison of the coast’s main areas

Area	Character	Best for
Alicante	Provincial capital, hilltop castle, island of Tabarca offshore	City culture and the coast’s main transport hub
Benidorm	High-rise skyline, big beaches, non-stop nightlife	Resort energy — loved or avoided, no in between
Calpe	The Peñón de Ifach rock dominating the bay	A dramatic view paired with an easy hike
Jávea & Dénia	Coves, cliffs, red prawns and a quieter pace	The coast’s prettiest, calmer northern half
Guadalest (inland)	A castle village perched above a turquoise reservoir	The classic mountain day trip

Getting around once you’re here

Alicante–Elche Airport is one of Spain’s busiest, with routes from across northern Europe, and the coastal TRAM light rail makes a surprising amount of this coast reachable without a car — it links Alicante to Benidorm in about 70 minutes and continues on to Altea, Calpe and Dénia. That covers the main resort towns well, but it does not reach Guadalest, the hill villages, or most of the smaller coves, so a car still opens up a genuinely different, quieter side of the Costa Blanca once you want to leave the coastal strip.

Food beyond the rice dishes

Rice is the backbone — paella and its many regional cousins turn up on almost every menu — but two other local specialities are worth seeking out deliberately. Dénia’s red prawns, gambas rojas, are considered among the best in Spain and command prices to match, best eaten simply grilled or barely cooked to let the flavour speak for itself. Inland, the town of Jijona (Xixona) is the historic home of turrón, the almond nougat eaten across Spain at Christmas, still produced by small family workshops that have been making it for generations — several offer tours and tastings if you are driving through the Vinalopó valley.

Tabarca, Spain’s first marine reserve

A short boat ride from Alicante or Santa Pola, Tabarca is Spain’s smallest inhabited island and was declared the country’s first marine reserve back in 1986, protecting waters that stay noticeably clearer than much of the mainland coast. The tiny fortified old town, built in the eighteenth century to shelter fishing families from pirate raids, can be walked from end to end in under an hour, and most visitors come for a half-day trip combining a swim in the reserve’s calm water with a seafood lunch before the boat back. It gets busy with day-trippers in high summer, so an early or late-season visit rewards you with a much quieter island.

Guadalest, the classic mountain detour

Barely 40 minutes inland from Benidorm and Altea, Guadalest is the Costa Blanca’s most-visited inland village for good reason: a castle perched on a rocky outcrop looks down over a startlingly turquoise reservoir, with the Aitana mountains rising behind. The approach alone, winding up through the Guadalest valley, is worth the drive, and the village itself — tiny, stone-built, threaded with a handful of small museums — can be seen properly in two or three hours. It draws heavy coach-tour traffic by mid-morning, so an early start or a late-afternoon visit avoids the worst of the crowds and gives the reservoir’s colour its best light.

Related on Costamap

Dénia at the northern end of this coast is the shortest ferry crossing to the Balearics — Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, which makes combining mainland and islands in one trip realistic.

Every town guide on the Costa Blanca

42 towns on this coast have their own guide on CostaMap. They are listed alphabetically, with what each one is actually for.

• Alcoy — an inland Costa Blanca mountain town of bridges and Modernista streets
• Alfàs del Pi — the Blue Flag beach of El Albir
• Alicante — Alicante pairs the Santa Bárbara castle and a palm-lined esplanade with Postiguet beach
• Almoradí — Rebuilt after the 1829 earthquake and known across Spain for its artichokes
• Altea — whitewashed old town, the blue-domed church, pebble beaches
• Altea Old Town — Altea’s blue-domed church and whitewashed lanes – and the pebble beaches and steep
• Aspe — The marble town of the Vinalopó valley: quarries that supply stone across Spain
• Benidorm — Levante and Poniente beaches, the high-rise skyline, theme parks
• Benissa — An inland Marina Alta town with four kilometres of coves
• Cala Granadella (Javea) — Javea’s Cala Granadella is stunning but tiny – the parking
• Callosa de Segura — A working Vega Baja town under a limestone ridge, with Spain’s hemp-rope heritage
• Calpe (Peñón de Ifach) — Calpe on the Costa Blanca is defined by the Peñón de Ifach rock
• Crevillent — a hillside Costa Blanca town of rug-weaving and a famous Semana Santa
• Denia Castle — Denia’s hilltop castle ruins
• Dénia — the hilltop castle, Marina Alta beaches, the ferry to Ibiza
• El Campello — El Campello lies just north of Alicante, linked by a vintage seafront tram
• Elche (Palmeral) — the UNESCO palm groves, the basilica, the Lady of Elche
• Elche — Europe’s largest palm grove, the Misteri d’Elx, the Lady of Elche
• Elda — the capital of Spain’s shoe industry
• Finestrat — An inland village under the Puig Campana with one of the smallest sea
• Guardamar del Segura — 11 km of pine-backed dune beaches
• Guardamar del Segura (dunes) — Guardamar’s vast pine-backed dunes and quiet beaches – a low-key alternative
• Guardamar — Guardamar del Segura is known for pine-backed dunes and wild
• Ibi — Spain’s toy industry grew up here, and the Toy Museum tells that story
• Jávea (Xàbia) — Jávea (Xàbia) on the northern Costa Blanca: coves
• La Nucia — a hilltop town in Alicante’s Marina Baixa just 8 km inland from Benidorm
• Moraira — sheltered coves, the marina and castle, sandy beaches
• Mutxamel — a green inland Costa Blanca town near Alicante, with baroque estates
• Novelda — a Modernista sanctuary echoing Gaudí
• Orihuela — a Baroque cathedral and old town inland
• Penon de Ifach (Calpe) — The Ifach climb needs a free advance booking and is capped daily –
• Petrer — a Moorish hilltop castle, whitewashed old-town lanes
• Pilar de la Horadada — the southernmost Costa Blanca town, with Torre de la Horadada beaches
• San Vicente del Raspeig — a lively University of Alicante town on the Costa Blanca
• Sant Joan — Sant Joan d’Alacant on the Costa Blanca: beaches near Alicante, the historic centre
• Santa Pola — sandy beaches, the salt flats and flamingos, the fishing harbour
• Tabarca — Tabarca’s walled village, clear water and what day-trippers don’t expect – ferries
• Torrevieja Pink Lake — What the Laguna Rosa really looks like, when it is pinkest
• Torrevieja — the pink salt lake, sandy beaches, the marina and promenade
• Villajoyosa — candy-coloured houses, the chocolate heritage, sandy beaches
• Villajoyosa (painted houses) — La Vila Joiosa’s rainbow facades and chocolate heritage – where the painted houses
• Villena — an inland Costa Blanca town with the Atalaya castle

Frequently asked questions

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