Family Days Out in Alicante: Beach to Castle
Postiguet Beach sits close enough to the old town that a family can go from castle battlements to sandcastles in the time it takes to walk downhill, which is the main reason Alicante works so well with young kids in tow.
Beach first
Postiguet has gentle, shallow water, summer lifeguards, and shaded climbing frames right on the sand, all a few minutes from the marina. Playa de San Juan, a TRAM ride north on lines L4 or L5, is bigger and windier, with mini-golf and wide paths for scooters alongside its 3 kilometers of open beach. Both are free, and neither needs advance planning beyond a hat and sunscreen. If you are choosing where to stay, a beachfront family room near Postiguet or San Juan is worth comparing directly on Booking.com before you land.
Then the castle, by tunnel
The Castillo de Santa Bárbara grounds are free to enter; only the elevator that carries you 166 meters up through the mountain from a tunnel opposite Postiguet costs anything, at €2.70 a ride (free under 5 and for seniors). Kids get stone ramparts, arrow slits, real cannons, and dark gunpowder magazines once they are up top. Down at the marina, The Ocean Race Museum is free and built around hands-on exhibits: touch-screens, a real ocean-racing yacht on dry dock, and a paid sailing simulator that puts kids through simulated Southern Ocean waves for a few euros extra.
What is not there anymore
Skip Parque El Palmeral if rowboats were the plan: the boat concession has been closed for years, whatever an older guide might say. The park is still pleasant for palms, footbridges and picnic tables, just not for boating. Museo de Hogueras, inside Casa de la Festa on Rambla Méndez Núñez, is free and worth the short stop for its oversized, cartoonish ninots saved from past bonfire festivals, and kids generally respond to these better than a formal history exhibit.
A bigger day out, honestly framed
Benidorm’s theme parks sit about 45 kilometers north of Alicante, reachable by TRAM Line 1, and they are a separate full-day trip rather than a city activity: Terra Mítica for rides themed around ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and Aqualandia for waterslides in summer. A combined theme park ticket covers more than one park if you are committing the whole day anyway, and it is worth booking before you leave rather than queuing at the gate.
Do not attempt Barrio de Santa Cruz with a stroller on the way to the castle; the steps are steep and continuous with no ramp access, so take the beach tunnel lift or a taxi to the upper car park instead. For the same castle and old town from an adult sightseeing angle, see our sightseeing guide .