Alicante's Museums and Fortress, Toured
Alicante’s paid attractions are cheap enough, and its free ones good enough, that the usual advice to “budget for tickets” barely applies here. The real planning question is which four or five sites fit into a day before the midday heat sends you looking for shade.
Castillo de Santa Bárbara, on your own or dramatized
The fortress on Mount Benacantil is free to enter, walls, ramparts and MUSA museum halls included; the only charge in the whole complex is the tunnel elevator from opposite Postiguet Beach, at €2.70 a ride. For something beyond a self-guided walk through the Torre del Homenaje and the Cara del Moro viewpoint, Alicante Turismo runs official theatrical night tours through the cisterns and powder magazines on summer evenings and weekend mornings, €5.00 to €8.00 per person, bookable via castillodesantabarbara.com . A private e-bike castle and old town tour covers the same ground with a guide doing the narrating.
MARQ, the museum that keeps winning awards
MARQ , the Provincial Archaeological Museum on Plaza Dr. Gómez Ulla, won European Museum of the Year in 2004 for multimedia galleries that trace settlement here from prehistory through Roman Lucentum to the Islamic and modern eras. General admission is €6.00, and an €8.00 combined ticket adds three more archaeological sites: the Roman remains at Lucentum, La Illeta dels Banyets in El Campello, and the Almudaina Tower.
MACA, free and unexpectedly serious
Inside the 17th-century Casa de la Asegurada on Plaza Santa María, MACA holds a genuinely strong 20th-century collection: Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Juan Gris and Alexander Calder, all donated by local sculptor Eusebio Sempere. Entry is free, and it pairs naturally with a stop at the neighboring Basílica de Santa María, the city’s oldest working church.
The Ocean Race Museum, free with a paid add-on
At Muelle de Levante in the working port, the world headquarters of The Ocean Race runs a free museum covering navigation gear, ocean conservation and a retired VO65 yacht on dry dock. The optional sailing simulator costs €3.00 and is worth the extra few minutes if you have kids with you or just want to feel the boat pitch.
Turibús, seasonal only
The open-top hop-on hop-off bus loops 11 stops between Puerta del Mar, MARQ, the castle elevator and Mercado Central for €10.00. It operates from March 19 to December 8 only, pausing daily between 13:00 and 16:00 for siesta.
Before you go
Both MARQ and MACA close Mondays, so stack your museum stops between Tuesday and Saturday. For a self-guided route linking the castle, the Explanada and the old town without the museum stops, see our walking tours guide .