Alicante

During our port day in Alicante, Spain, we chose to do a NCL excursion “Panoramic Alicante”. The excursion was advertised as a 3 hour bus tour with the description: “A relaxed tour visiting city highlights like the Explanada de España promenade, the Bullring, and local beaches by transport, often with a stop for horchata.” This was an early morning bus tour which took us through the town of Alicante with an English/Spanish speaking guide narrating. We drove along the coastal highway, and we stopped for a quick 30 minute walk at nearby San Juan beach. After making our way back to the downtown center, we made our final stop at a local market for 45 minutes shopping time. We were supposed to meet at a certain place near the market to end the tour walking to a nearby factory for horchata tasting.

We were a little bit disappointed by the bus excursion “Panoramic Alicante” that didn’t even take you to see the most panoramic sight in town! So, we ended up skipping the horchata tasting portion of the tour, and since we had plenty of time in port that day, we ended up walking from the market area down the Platja del Postiguet beach boardwalk to the lower elevator entrance to Castillo de Santa Barbara. The line went quickly, and 2.7 euro (paid for by CC only, no cash as the cash machine was not working) per person for the elevator ride later, we were touring the castle. Warning: if you have Claustrophobia, the elevator packs in about 15-20 people like sardines and it is stuffy hot in there for the several minutes ride. Great self-guided tour, and awesome views! Well worth the time to do this self-tour if you are in this port.