Playa San Juan

Playa de San Juan is the great urban beach of Alicante — a 7-kilometre arc of fine golden sand, Blue Flag waters and a continuous palm-lined promenade running from the Cabo de las Huertas headland north toward El Campello. Although administratively part of Alicante municipality (not San Juan de Alicante), it functions as its own neighbourhood, with a year-round resident population, high-rise apartment blocks, beach restaurants and the only Costa Blanca beach served by a city tram line.

Until the 1960s a stretch of dunes and farmland used by Alicante families for summer cabins. Mass tourism and second-home development from the 1970s onward created today's high-rise seafront and back-street neighbourhoods.

Year-round beach living: morning swims, paseo cycling, coffee on the promenade, long beach-restaurant lunches and evening drinks at the chiringuitos. A more international, less traditional feel than central Alicante.

• 1.Cycle the 7 km seafront paseo from Cabo Huertas to Campello
• 2.Play golf at Alicante Golf (designed by Seve Ballesteros)
• 3.Hike or snorkel the Cabo de las Huertas coves
• 4.Take the TRAM to Alicante's old town and castle in 20 minutes
• 5.Eat seafood at the legendary beach restaurants of the paseo

Beach-restaurant culture par excellence — Alicante is the world capital of rice cooking, and the paseo features some of the most celebrated arrocerías on the coast (Dársena, Pópuli, La Ereta).

Several 4-star seafront hotels (Hotel Spa Holiday, Almirante, Castilla Alicante), aparthotels and a large stock of holiday rentals.

Continue exploring the Central Costa Blanca.