Alicante City Centre (Centro)

- La Explanada, Plaza de los Luceros, Plaza Puerta del Mar, Mercado Central, Parque de Canalejas, Playa de Postiguet, Alicante Terminal/Estación de FFCC, Avenida Alfonso X

Alicante has a nice city centre (Centro in Spanish). It is compact, and thus very walkable. Most parts of it is very modern, but you can also find some beautiful old buildings here and there, and in the East part there is a separate Old Town (El Barrio), where you find the Town Hall and the cathedral. The city center is situated between the Mediterranean Sea and the 166m high Mount Becantil. At the harbour you find Paseo Explanada de España (or simply just La Explanada), a fashionable palm promenade that goes along the coastline in the city centre of Alicante, with curve shaped tile patterns on the ground. It is filled with restaurants and market stalls. Some of the largest casinos and hotels are also in the area. La Explanada ends at Plaza Plaza Puerta del Mar in the East end. There you find the beautiful Edificio Casa Carbonell, a white grandiose residential building from 1925, designed by the Alicante architect Juan Vidal Ramos. In the West end of La Explanada you find Placa de las Canalejas, with the Canalejas Monument and Parque de Canalejas - a small, narrow park that serves as an extention of La Explanada, just next to the sea, with strange wide trees and beautiful sculptures, all illuminated in different colours at night. In the harbour, Puerta del Mar, you find a marina with yachts and other private ships, the Melia Hotel, Casino Mediterraneo, several open air restaurants and the museum ship Santisima Trinidad. Santisima Trinidad is a replica of a historic ship situated in the port of central Alicante, that can be visited for a small entrance fee that includes a drink! The original ship was launched from Havana, Cuba. It was the flagship of the Spanish fleet during the war against Great Britain.

Plaza de los Luceros is a circular central square in the heart of the city, with a beautiful sculpture and fountain (La Fuenta de Levante. Pl. Luceros is situated between Santa Barbara Castle and the modern central station, Alacant Terminal (Estación de FFCC), along two busy boulevards. The other boulevard, that changes name three times, leads to the sea and La Explanada, and is just like the latter named filled with palms, benches and beautiful tiles on the ground. Avenida Alfonso X El Sabio goes in one direction from Plaza de los Luceros, and passes Mercado Central (Central Market), an impressive 2-storey art deco building. Churches, administrative buildings, numerous nice restaurnants, interesting stores and a large branch of the department store chain El Corte Inglés at the nice square Placa de Calvo Sotelo can all be found along the avenues. Another branch of El Corte Inglés can be found at Placa de Estrella only a few blocks away. The city center is partly hilly, but mostly the old Eastermost part, El Barrio that borders the Mount Becantil and Santa Barbara Castle.

Also worth to mention is the narrow lane Carrer San Francisco with it's many stranges swamp sculptures that are big as trees, the square Placa del Muntanyeta with it's illuminated fountains, open air restaurants and Teatro Principal, a beautiful theater in neo-classical style that can be found at the square just like the Parraquia Nuestra Senora de Gracia church. At Plaza Gabriel Miró you near La Explanada you find even more illuminated trees, fountains and nice open air restaurants. These sights can only be found in the Alicante by night and sunset section.

Click here for the Old Town (El Barrio). Click and here for hotel reviews in the city center. Click here for Alicante by night and sunset, that includes parts of the city center not shown on this page.