Explora Journeys in Alicante

Alicante is a working Costa Blanca city that puts a hilltop Moorish fortress, a marble seafront promenade, and a maze-like medieval quarter inside a single walkable radius from the cruise pier. The day earns its keep because the high points are genuinely different in character: a castle with port-and-Mediterranean views, a 1920s food market, and a whitewashed old town that feels like an Andalusian village dropped into a port city.

What to do on a day in Alicante

• Castle of Santa Bárbara on Mount Benacantil, reached by an elevator cut into the rock from near Postiguet beach rather than the roughly 30-minute uphill climb, for views over the port and coast
• Explanada de España, the palm-lined seafront promenade paved with red, cream, and black marble tiles in a wave pattern, running about half a mile alongside the harbor
• Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old town's steep lanes of whitewashed houses with potted flowers and painted doors below the castle
• Basílica de Santa María, Alicante's oldest church, built over a former mosque after the 1246 reconquest
• Mercado Central, the 1920s covered market with roughly 300 stalls of produce, fish, and flowers (closes at 2pm weekdays, 3pm Saturday, shut Sunday)

Getting ashore

Ships berth at Muelle 14 in the cruise terminal, about 1 to 1.5 km from the old town; a free port shuttle runs to Plaza Puerta del Mar by the marina, or you can walk the flat 15 to 25 minutes along the waterfront. One day is comfortably enough to cover the castle, old town, market, and promenade on foot.

When to book the ship's excursion vs your own →

Weather and when to visit

• May to June. Warm and increasingly sunny, daytime highs around 25 to 29C, sea still cool but warming, beaches not yet crowded
• September to October. Often the most reliable weather, highs around 23 to 30C in September easing to the low to mid 20s by October, warm sea temperatures, occasional autumn rain