Biking around Alicante
A workation was the perfect break away from Belgian winter with rain and cold temperatures. We rented an apartment in Alicante centre to have a good working environment and took now and then some time to go out and bike.
Things we have learned
While it’s nice to be in the city centre to explore the vibrant life, be close to restaurants and shops, it also means difficult to find free parking places. When we arrived on Friday evening we gave up after 35 minutes driving around. We took a parking garage which came at 18 euro for the night. The next day we did find a free spot after again circling around for 20 minutes, it was around 650 meters away from our apartment. We didn’t need the car during the week, so we left it there. When walking around during the week, we almost never saw a free parking spot. It was not even high season, so I advise you to avoid using a car if you stay in the city centre.
While it was nice for the social life, it wasn’t such a success to leave or enter the city with our racing bikes. You have plenty of red lights. You will loose some time with this. So a next time, we would take something outside the city and then take public transportation or our car to go for dinner in the city.
Spotting professional cyclists
During this period of the year plenty of professional cyclists are in this area to prepare for the new season. When you are riding you mostly will spot a couple of them. I spotted several famous teams during my biking trips: Lotto Dstny, Intermarché Circus Wanty, Team Isreal, Soudal Quick-Step. Next to those I also spotted less famous or local teams. As someone who is interested in cycling it’s always nice to run into them.
Cycling tracks
Starting our trip from the city center was not always convenient, but we always got better in it. Nevertheless, we lost each time a couple of minutes because we run into a lot of traffic lights. The area is very nice and the road are in good condition. Below you can find my tracks to get some inspiration when you are heading in the same direction.
Strava tracks
Walks
Being located in the centre of Alicante made that we had an ideal start location for walks. The beach was just a few minutes away, but also the Castell de Santa Barbara was just around the corner. Here you find the Strava tracks as inspiration:
Restaurants
For us, coming from Belgium, Spain is a paradise. Restaurants are really cheap in Alicante, even in the most tourist locations. We had a drink at the promenade at the beach and we paid 3.8 euro for a glas of Cava. Something which would cost in our home town 7 euro and in a Belgian city or restaurant easily 9 euro. Domestic beer is also very cheap and for imported you would pay the same price as in Belgium. It’s also recommended to not take a glas of Cava but immediate order a bottle. In a nice restaurant a glass of cava might cost 5 euro but in one restaurant we only paid 15 euro for an entire bottle. The dishes themselves are also cheap for our standars. During our trip there was an evening we had a dinner with 6 people, starting with aperitief, took a menu, couple of bottles of wine and a degestif and we only paid 240 euro. You would easily pay double in Belgium.