I’m sure a few friends are thinking, “where?” Alicante (ah-lee-KAHN-tay) is one of those places which hasn’t really made it onto the cognitive map of most Americans and Canadians, but the English know it well! Nestled on Spain’s southeast coast, due south of better-known Valencia, Alicante is the largest city along the Costa Blanca, 200 kilometers of pristine beaches overlooked by looming mountains. Alicante has become a tourism hotbed for Germans and English, and the latter group includes a sizable population of permanent expats (even after Brexit). Sizable as in almost 20% of the local population!
Despite entering the month of June, the weather in Alicante was a bit better than Andalusia. Slightly more humid, slightly cooler, perhaps due to the moderating effect of the Mediterranean Sea. The city itself is not that large, about 350k at last count. But it is large enough to have all the accoutrements of city life, with the added benefits (or is it drawbacks) of tourist attractions. Within five blocks of our apartment in the tourist zone, about ten blocks from the beach, we passed a Taco Bell, McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King (Rey de la hamburguesa?) and Five Guys. Sigh. But a million tapas, cervecerias, and arrocerias, too.
As is our custom, we took a food tour, and this time I decided to shoot some photos before we woofed down the food. Among the delicacies pictured: marcona almonds, ensalada with tuna and egg white, mojama (dried tuna with roe in a cold vegetable salad, warm baccalau (creamy fried cod) in a tomato sauce, and the pièce de résistance (slippin’ in some français there!), a montadito (lil’ sandwich) with Iberian ham, foie gras, rocket, and covered in a turrón sauce. Turrón is a local delicacy made (especially around Christmas) from those marcona almonds into a lightly sweet nougat. But at Sento tapas bar, they created a montadito, called the Ivan, which won best tapa in Alicante a few years back, and we can attest: it’s a legend! The salty cured ham, the bite of the rocket, the nutty sweetness of the turrón, and umami from the foie gras mixed to create a perfect savory treat. Pro-tip: when visiting a city for more than a day, reserve a slot early on with a food tour. It will introduce you to other interesting travelers, give you a local point of contact, and set you up to explore the city’s cuisine flawlessly.
The tourist/beach vibe was strong in Alicante. We saw folks headed down toward the beach early in the morning, and last-minute returnees as late as 10:00 pm (dead give-away? Nobody takes their beach umbrella on a tapas crawl). The Costa Blanca is basically one long beach, so finding a strip to your liking is easy. Developers have taken to dropping a cascade of high-rises just off the beach strip, but there’s still plenty of room in the sand and nothing cordoned off as private property (as far as we could tell).
Locals were already preparing for the big local happening, the Hogueras de San Juan (bonfires of St. John) which will happen June 24th-29th. Christian missionaries took the pagan rites of lighting fires for the Summer solstice and “blessed” them as an offering in honor of St. John the Baptist (yes, this really happened, and it is commemorated in an official ceremony). Now it’s a week-long festival where barrios build giant wood-and-paper mâché figures, which compete in a citywide vote, before being lit on fire in a special beach ceremony in the middle of the night. The neighborhoods hold public block parties, authorities relax open container laws, and the entire downtown turns into one big party zone (late, loud, but generally well-behaved). There are numerous parades which include women (especially) getting dressed up in period costumes and, well, parading. A local told us (like many places we’ve been), locals are split about the Hogueras: you either love it and participate in it, or get the heck out of town for a week. All we saw was the elaborate signage and decoration going up, designating the parade routes, the barrio fiestas, and the sponsors. I’ll choose to read about it from the quietude of Mexico (sarcasm font)!
We did some less touristy things, but more in line with apartment hunting, such as riding the tram and metro lines from one end to the other to get a feel for different neighborhoods. We’ve also contacted a local firm to consider a long-term rental for next year, perhaps as another form of trying the experience out. With such a rental (approximately 90 days), we could really settle in and even take some regional trips from the home-base. One local told us we might be able to establish the kind of relationship which would allow for a semi-permanent rental agreement, sort of a “preferred customer” thing where we could even leave some clothes and things behind for next year. We’ll see.
Why did Alicante impress us so much more than Sevilla (which was totally surprising to me)? Sevilla has more history, more culture, for sure. Cuisine is a wash: both have great food. Locals were equally friendly in both, although we saw a few signs of tourism fatigue in Sevilla. Alicante is just more live-able: cooler, with the tourist pull being the beach, not the old town. And it’s considerably less expensive.
So if you’re visiting Spain, you must visit Sevilla. If you want to hit a beach town, Alicante is just one of many in Spain. For living, the situation changes. I guess it’s a supply-and-demand thing: there is only one Sevilla, (limited supply, unlimited demand) but many great beach towns (unlimited supply, limited demand).