Alicante

A fortress atop Mount Benacantil, in view from anywhere in town. A tunnel off the road opposite Postiguet beach leads to a lift bored through the rock, rising almost to the top. Walking down through the Santa Cruz quarter makes a natural way back.

A harbour promenade under four rows of palms, paved with marble pieces in three colours that draw a wave pattern. On summer evenings stalls and buskers come out and the crowd keeps moving until late. Some Sundays bring a daytime concert at the bandstand.

An archaeology museum in a converted former hospital that won the European Museum of the Year award in 2004. Rather than rows of cases, it rebuilds excavation sites in dark rooms with lighting and film. It is a few tram stops from the beach.

An old quarter of white houses stacked up the slope below the fortress. Lanes are narrow and steps steep, so no car gets in. Pots of flowers hang by every door. During Holy Week, a crucifix carried down these steps makes the quarter's biggest sight.

The old town's oldest church, raised in fourteenth-century Gothic where the Islamic-era main mosque had been. Only the front is eighteenth-century Baroque, so outside and inside come from different ages. The mansion opposite holds the modern art museum.

The only inhabited island in the Valencia region, its waters became Spain's first marine reserve in 1986. Boats from Alicante port take about an hour, and from Santa Pola less than half that. When the last boat leaves at sunset only a few dozen residents stay.

Every figure raised in the streets for San Juan is burned, but each year a public vote spares one from the fire and sends it here. Decades of survivors stand together, so you can trace what each year chose to mock.

A modernist market from the early twentieth century, fish in the basement and meat and produce upstairs. In 1938, during the civil war, the square outside was bombed and many died; a memorial stands there now. Sunday is its closing day.

A sand beach running several kilometres north of town, with a tram along its back so you get there without changing. It is wider than the central Postiguet, so even summer weekends leave room, and shallow water suits children.

Thirty minutes from Alicante on the train, the town of Elche is spread with date palm groves tended since Islamic times, now a World Heritage site. The Huerto del Cura garden inside holds the Imperial Palm, seven trunks rising from a single base.

A rock-top village roughly an hour inland by car, where a tunnel bored through stone is the sole way into the walled upper part. From the castle ruins a turquoise reservoir pools between mountains. Late afternoon beats midday, when coach tours crowd in.

White houses rise in tiers up a seaside hill, topped by a church whose two domes wear blue and white glazed tiles. The lookout before it sweeps the coast towards Benidorm and the mountains; galleries and restaurants pack the lanes. The tram runs there.

A fishing town whose houses, daubed in reds, yellows and blues, line the beach by the river mouth. Folk say the colours let fishermen pick out home from far offshore. Several chocolate factories are here too; the tram from Alicante reaches it.

A Roman town on a low hill near Albufereta beach, northeast of the centre, with its gate, main street, baths and forum laid bare. Run by the archaeology museum, this open site offers little shade; bring a hat on summer afternoons. A tram stop is minutes away.

Raised in the seventeenth century where a mosque had stood, in the pared-back Herrerian style, so it looks plain and heavy. A big blue dome rises over the old lanes; a side door opens on a quiet cloister. City patron Nicholas has his feast in early December.