Alicante Activities: Sea to Salmorreta
Most first-time visitors treat Alicante as a stopover on the way to a beach resort further up the coast, then spend three days discovering that the city itself has enough to fill them: sea coves, a decommissioned rail line turned bike path, and a Saturday ritual that most tourists never hear about until a local mentions it in passing.
On the water at Cabo de las Huertas
The rocky headland northeast of San Juan Beach hides small coves, Cala Cantalar and Cala dels Jueus among them, with clear water over protected posidonia seagrass beds. Guided sea kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding trips from operators based around San Juan Beach run 2 hours and cost roughly €35 to €45 per person, gear included. If snorkeling further out is the goal, boats also run to the Tabarca marine reserve, Spain’s first, declared in 1986; a half-day guided snorkel excursion runs around €40 to €55. Bring hard-soled reef shoes wherever you go in the water here, since black sea urchins sit in the rock crevices at both Cabo de las Huertas and Tabarca.
Cycling the Via Verde del Maigmó
A 22-kilometer former railway line climbs gently from the coastal plain into the pine-covered Agost foothills, crossing old viaducts and passing through tunnels built for trains that stopped running decades ago. It suits a rental bike and a half-day, no guide required, and the grade is gentle enough for a casual rider rather than a mountain-biking specialist. In the city itself, a dedicated path runs the length of Playa de San Juan and around Cabo de las Huertas; e-bike rental in central Alicante runs about €25 to €35 for the day.
Cooking arroz alicantino, not paella valenciana
A rice and tapas workshop typically opens with a shopping walk through Mercado Central to buy ñoras, cuttlefish and shrimp, then moves to cooking salmorreta, the dried ñora pepper, garlic and tomato base that defines Alicante’s rice dishes, before finishing a pan of arroz a banda together. Expect to pay €65 to €85 per person including the meal and a wine pairing. This is not Valencian paella with chicken and rabbit; Alicante’s rice dishes lean entirely on salmorreta and seafood broth instead.
The Saturday tardeo
The single best free activity in the city runs on its own clock. Around 13:00, the seafood tapas bars in and around Mercado Central at Plaza 25 de Mayo fill with locals ordering cold cañas, local vermouth, cured ham and salazones. By 16:30 the same crowd has drifted to the open-air terraces on pedestrian Calle Castaños and Calle San Francisco, where it continues into live acoustic sets until around 21:00. Nobody needs a booking; showing up at either end of the afternoon is the whole plan.
Getting around while you do all this
The C6 airport bus runs 24 hours a day for €4.70 (a taxi runs €22 to €26), and the TRAM L4 and L5 lines reach Playa de San Juan from the underground Luceros hub for €1.45. If you’d rather have the coastline arranged for you, a Tabarca snorkeling and marine reserve excursion bundles the boat, gear and guide into a single morning. For the museums and landmarks that fill the rest of a trip, see our sightseeing guide .
Before you go
Carry water and sunscreen for anything outdoors between June and September; Cabo de las Huertas has no lifeguards, beach bars or fresh-water showers, so plan your own supplies rather than relying on finding a kiosk on the rocks.