Kiwi Roaming

There is a wonderful tram system as well as a bus network to move up and down the Costa Blanca coastline. What surprised us was we didn’t move around quite as much as we’d planned, instead we enjoyed lazy days in Benidorm, walking there, swimming and drinking cava on our deck.

Altea – one of our day trips was to this picturesque hilly town with a rabbit warren of narrow streets, white washed buildings with blue ceramics. A very small touristy town, very very pretty with a lovely beach. The beach here is pebbled, so quite different to the sand we saw elsewhere on the coastline, and wow so quiet – no sun loungers, no mobility scooters, no sunbathing men showing off their interesting bodies.

We enjoyed the contrast from Benidorm, walking up through the maze of streets and nosying in the wee boutiques. We had lunch down by the beach at one of the many restaurants along a lovely wide paved area. There were tourists here but not as many as we have been experiencing. We thought about hopping back on the tram to go further north but as usual mid-afternoon was hot! the tram told us 30C, so after our lunch we headed back for a siesta instead, then to our local wee beach for a swim.

Alicante – the main city with an international airport, cruise ship terminal, plenty of super yachts and train hub for the region. We had grand plans for our day in Alicante but it was over 30C, finally cooling down to 26C at 7pm! so we didn’t get up to the fort on the hill as worried we’d get heatstroke. We did enjoy however walking their tree lined promenades and eating in one of the many squares. Alicante is another very walkable city, I loved the different materials they used on the paths – all beautiful.

The main pedestrian avenues and promenades here were lush with fountains and trees – in such considerably stark contrast to the arid landscape of the area, dry, parched land with no trees or water sources. It rains on average 359mm per annum here, in Wellington it rains 1,250mm per annum by comparison. We are now in even drier climates but could see just how dry it is on the Costa Blanca.

As such a hub Alicante is frequented by tourists but also has a good mixture of authentic Spanish places too, mid-afternoon when it was too hot to do much we found a local bar and parked ourselves there for a few hours enjoying €3 drinks and the salty snacks they gave us. Steve liked it here, the heat mostly but also the eating outdoors culture and the wide walkable streets and lower buildings – a lovely mixture of old and very old architecture.