🇪🇸 Spain · Europe
Alicante
A castle over a palm-lined port, and a tram that surfs the coast.
beachcityslow☀ best: May – Jun & Sep – Oct
The Alicante guide
Inside the premium guide
A preview of the real thing — a detailed premium guide, researched and checked in 2026. Click a page to enlarge.
THE COMPLETE CITY GUIDE
SPAIN · RESEARCHED 2026
Alicante
A castle over a palm-lined port, and a tram that surfs the coast.
sama·sama
The cover
What this guide covers
38 pages, A4 — cover to back. A phone edition comes with it.
What’s inside + how to use
The place & what a day costs
City at a glance — the best-of snapshot
What & how to eat
Where to eat — cheap & local
Mid-range & special occasion
Sweets, cafés & coffee
Vegan, veggie & gluten-free
Supermarkets & typical prices
Markets & food halls
Souvenirs & shopping
Where to stay — neighbourhoods
Budget, boutique & luxury stays
Hostels — the backpacker shortlist
Six big things to do
Top 10 experiences — book & compare
Nightlife & after dark
Best day trips
Insider tips + safety & scams
Ready-made day plans
Getting around
Arrival, tickets & transport cheat sheet
When to go + best time to visit
Cash, cards & tipping
Connectivity & insurance
Health, safety & entry
The travel toolbox
Every link, one place
Sama·Sama · Alicante guide38 pages
Everything it covers
STRAIGHT FROM THE GUIDE
Designed cover to cover
One real entry from the Alicante guide
The price tables further down give you the ranges. The guide gives you the places — 29 of them in Alicante, each priced, each one tap from Google Maps.
€2–4 / montaditoCervecería Sento — CentroA cult standing bar whose montaditos — the secreto ibérico, the pulpo, the solomillo — are hot little masterpieces off the plancha. No seats, no fuss, a queue out the door; go early or wait your turn with the locals. Two central branches; a genuine Alicante rite of passage for a few euros.📍 Open in Google Maps →One of 29. The rest are in the guide.
Everything. Two files. One price.
This isn’t a blog post saved as a PDF — it’s a detailed, premium, 38-page A4 magazine — researched and checked in 2026, designed to be used. And every purchase comes as two files: the A4 edition for your laptop, tablet and printer, and a phone edition laid out tall and narrow so you never pinch or zoom — the same guide re-flowed into 97 phone-sized pages. Keep it on your phone or print it, open it at a street corner in Alicante and it answers the question you’re standing there with.
38A4 pages — cover to back
97phone pages — same guide, re-flowed
217+researched prices in €
246live, verified links
118jump straight to Google Maps
65hand-picked photos
Add it up: 528+ researched details — every price checked, every venue placed, every link live. More usable information than a week of blog-tab hopping, in one beautiful file.
- Made for the phone in your pocket — as well as the A4 magazine you get a phone edition: one attraction per screen, nothing cut, every link still live. No pinching, no sideways scrolling.
- Every venue is one tap from navigation — 118 Google Maps links mean you never type an address on holiday.
- Real prices, not vibes — three honest daily budgets (€43 / €78 / €156) and prices on everything from a dorm bed to a splurge dinner.
- Zero sponsorships — nobody paid to be in this guide. If it’s in, it’s in because it’s good.
- Book everything from the page — stays open on Booking.com & Hostelworld, experiences on GetYourGuide, Trip.com & Klook, transport on official operator sites.
- Plan-it-for-me included — ready day plans, a Top 10, a best-of snapshot, and neighbourhood “best for” labels that choose your base with you.
Buy the Alicante guide — €9.95 →Or buy Alicante on Etsy ↗
Was €14.50 — now €9.95, every city the same.
This page gives you the ranges. The guide gives you the places — every venue named, priced and linked.
SHOESTRING
€43/day
dorms, street plates, transit
COMFY
€78/day
private room, sit-down meals, a treat
FLASH
€156/day
nice hotel, good dinners, no maths
🧮 Trip maths
€547 total
What Alicante costs, day to day
🛵 Getting around
Bolt
Uber
City bus€1.3
Coastal TRAM to El Campello / Benidorm€1.3–€3.5
Airport bus C6€3.5
🛏 Stays
Per night
Hostel dorm bed€16–€26
Airbnb 1-BR€48–€87
Centre hotel€61–€104
Beachfront hotel€95–€174
Monthly
Studio€694–€1,042
1-BR near Postiguet€825–€1,302
🛒 Groceries & daily life
Mercadona — the king of Spanish value
Lidl / Dia / Aldi — discounters everywhere
Municipal market — produce + lunch counters
Water 1.5 L€0.4–€0.6
Milk 1 L€0.9–€1.1
Eggs ×10€1.9–€2.4
Bread loaf€0.8–€1.2
Rice 1 kg€1–€1.5
Chicken breast 1 kg€5.2–€6.5
Bananas 1 kg€1.2–€1.6
Local beer 0.5 L (shop)€0.7–€1
🍜 Eating out
Menú del día€9.5–€12
Tapas on Calle Castaños€10–€17
Arroz a banda (min 2)per person€12–€16
Horchata€1.7–€2.6
🎡 Things to do — with kids
Postiguet beachfree
Santa Bárbara castle (lift)€0–€2.6
Tabarca island boat (return)€17–€22
🌙 Things to do — grown-ups
Castle sunsetfree
Explanada strollfree
Tabarca snorkel day€17–€26
El Barrio bar crawl€0–€8.7
🌤 Climate
Day °CSea °CRain
Best: May – Jun & Sep – Oct · Wet: —
One of mainland Spain’s driest, sunniest corners — 300 clear days and mild winters.
✈️ Getting there
RyanaireasyJetVuelingNorwegianLondon€16–€43
Oslo€22–€56
Milan€17–€48
🏧 ATMs & money
Fees: The tricky one: Spanish banks surcharge foreign cards €0–5 each — Santander and CaixaBank sit at the punchy end, smaller banks are kind.
Limits: €300–600 typical; some machines offer €1,000 'premium' pulls with a bigger fee — decline.
Best machines: ABANCAEVO BancoIbercaja
Check the on-screen fee before confirming and walk to the next bank if it's €3+. Decline conversion, and skip exchange offices — a low-fee ATM beats them all.
🩺 Health & safety
Vaccines: Routine only.
Health: Tap water fine everywhere on our list (coastal areas vary in taste, not safety). July–August heat inland (Sevilla, Madrid!) is genuinely fierce — siesta culture exists for a reason; May–June and Sept–Oct are golden alternatives.
Tap water: ✅ Safe nationwide (Madrid's is famously good); some coastal spots taste briny but remain safe.
Safety: Violent crime toward visitors: among Europe's lowest. Barcelona is, however, the continent's pickpocket capital — Las Ramblas, metro L3, and beach bags are the arenas. Phone gripped, bag worn forward, nothing valuable on the sand: play that defense and Spain is pure joy.
Emergency: 112
🌱 Vegan, veggie & gluten-free
Plant-based: Tortilla, gazpacho, salmorejo (check bread), pimientos de padrón, escalivada — tapas culture has a veg lane if you order à la carte.
Gluten-free: Jamón, tortilla, grilled fish are GF; beware croquetas (flour) and always ask about 'harina' in sauces. GF menus are legally common.
'Soy celiaco/a' is widely understood — Spain is one of Europe's best coeliac countries.
🛂 Visa & entry
This is a Schengen-area country. Most US, UK, EU, Canadian, Australian, NZ, Brazilian, Japanese and Korean passports enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen zone. From 2025 the EU's ETIAS pre-authorisation applies to visa-free non-EU visitors — check before you fly.
Rules change — always verify with an official source for your nationality before you book.
💬 Traveller tips & reports
Ride the TRAM up the coast — The coastal tram threads beach towns to Benidorm for pocket change — hop off at El Campello for paella nobody photographs.
@costa.blanca.cents · May ’26 · ▲ 74