Alicante

Crowning the 166-metre Mount Benacantil like a stone galleon, the Castle of Santa Bárbara has watched over Alicante’s bay since the 9th century, when the Moors first fortified the craggy summit. The fortress unfolds in three distinct enclosures: the highest, La Torreta, preserves the oldest Islamic walls and the iconic “Moor’s Face” rock profile; the middle enclosure holds the grand Habsburg-era halls where Philip II once held court; the lower ramparts, added in the 18th century, bristle with cannons aimed eternally at the Mediterranean. From the upper esplanade the panorama is staggering: the sweeping arc of Playa del Postiguet, the marble-white marina, the grid of the old town, and on clear days the silhouette of Tabarca Island floating on the horizon. Inside, the Museo de la Ciudad de Alicante (MUSA) traces the city’s arc from Iberian settlement to tourist capital through interactive displays housed in vaulted chambers that once stored gunpowder.

Europe’s largest palm grove unfurls like a green ocean across Elche, a living legacy of Al‑Andalus’ sophisticated irrigation. Over 200,000 date palms — planted in orderly grids — create a microclimate where citrus, pomegranate, and vegetables thrive beneath the fronds. The *Huerto del Cura*, a prized garden, showcases the rare imperial palm with seven trunks. This UNESCO landscape is both agricultural marvel and tranquil sanctuary.

A tiny, sun-baked island floating 11 nautical miles off the Alicante coast, Tabarca is the only permanently inhabited isle in the Valencian Community. Once a refuge for Barbary pirates, it was fortified in the 18th century by Charles III to house Genoese prisoners ransomed from Tunis. Today, its whitewashed village, encircled by honey-coloured ramparts, feels like a film set for a Mediterranean idyll. The real treasure lies beneath the surface: the surrounding waters form Spain’s first marine reserve, where posidonia meadows shelter gilt-head bream, octopus, and the occasional loggerhead turtle. Arrive on the morning ferry, snorkel the crystalline coves, lunch on caldero — the island’s signature rice-and-fish stew — at a family-run tavern beneath the walls, and catch the late-afternoon boat back, salt-crusted and satisfied.