Spending the night in Alicante
In the famous The Princess and the Pea fairy tale, a fair maiden in search of a place to spend the night is put to a special test. To convince her hosts that she is who she claims to be- a member of a Royal Family and therefore a suitable candidate for their son to wed- she is forced to spend the night on a stack of mattresses and… a single pea hidden underneath them.
According to results from a study by the Department of Tourism of the Generalitat Valenciana, at the end of the third term of 2018 the number of overnight stays for the year in our province had reached the number of 22.085.085. That is 45{559da5ed8d3e656fba9907cea358236609d4342cf8dc21195618e7c83d19cb6c} of the total of the Valencian Community, as opposed to the 11.424.568 in the province of Castellón or the 15.744.556 in that of Valencia. These results represent already a first indication of the quality of the options for spending the night that we offer our visitors, and your trust in them. This article will detail the different options at your disposal, and how to pick the best ones, to ensure that, contrary to that of the poor princess, your good night’s rest is guaranteed.
Hotels. Would you like to be able to pick up the phone and always have someone at your disposal? To forget about everything, from the preparation of your breakfast to the washing of your towels and the making of your bed? No worries, just like 58,7{559da5ed8d3e656fba9907cea358236609d4342cf8dc21195618e7c83d19cb6c} of our visitors in 2017, you are therefore looking for a hotel. In Spain, for a business to be recognised as such it first must comply with a number of technical requirements regarding soundproofing and fire safety. Besides these, as CEHAT, the professional federation, prescribes: ‘the maximum rates of the services must be displayed at a visible location by the reception, and it is compulsory to put a price list of the extra services (for example, the phone, laundry, and parking) at customers’ disposal in their rooms. The hotel must render its category visible by means of a standard sign by the main entrance.’
Departing from that premise, depending on the size of the room and the available services, hotels are ranked as having from one to five stars. According to the Hotel Monitor, last year most overnight stays in Spain took place in three and four star-businesses. That is, in places where the single rooms are at least 8 or 9m2 in size and the double ones between 15 and 16m2, and are equipped with telephone, bar, safe, bath or shower or both, and air conditioning. The provincial authorities list a total of 507 hotels, so there is no shortage of possibilities to choose from, including Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Award Winners in Calpe, Guadalest, Parcent, and San Miguel de Salinas.
If you choose Alicante as your destination, then you likely do so because you intend to enjoy the beauty of the Mediterranean. We have a lot more to offer than just sun and beaches, but we understand their appeal. You can find ‘first line’ hotels in Alfaz del Pi, Altea, Benidorm, Calpe, Denia, San Juan, Torrevieja, la Zenia, en Villajoyosa, among other municipalities. Would you also like to enjoy purifying baths and treatments to wash away that stress and those daily worries? Consider a spa hotel, such as the ones you can find in Altea, Finestrat (World Travel Award 2018), Guardamar del Segura, or San Pedro del Pinatar, for example.
The ‘Paradores’ deserve a special mention. They are a hotel chain under public management currently consisting of a total of 94 chapters across the entire country, the first of which was opened in 1928. They stand out both due to the history, splendour and architectural value of their buildings as due to their emphasis on the local gastronomy. Discover Alicante’s Parador by the Arenal beach in Jávea. Another unique hotel is that of the toys in Ibi, where children can spend the night in thematic rooms dedicated to their favourite toys. If you would rather not hear the laughter and yelling for children for a while, there are also hotels that only allow adult guests, in Alcoy or Alicante itself, for example.
Rural tourism. This takes us to a specific option for those of you concerned about mass tourism in your search for rest: rural tourism. By this term we refer to the possibility of spending the night outside the usual hotspots, in areas with much lower population density, where there even is a certain degree of isolation, and where agriculture and/or cattle farming represents the main economic activity. The emphasis here lies on enjoying the landscape and on participating in activities that exploit it, like hiking, climbing, horseback riding, and so on. Here you can find both ‘charm hotels’ (such as in Jijona or Cocentaina, for example) as well as a large number of ‘rural houses’.
Rural houses are homes available for rent in their entirety to groups of people during a specific period. There are several hundreds of them across the entire province: in Aspe, Benissa, Biar, Campell, Crevillente, Monóvar, Mutxamel, Polop… They facilitate the sharing and therefore the limiting of the costs, and their ‘rural’ character need not necessarily be synonymous with ‘Spartan’. The Spanish Rural Tourism Association (ASETUR) has created a very useful classification system based on a number of ‘ears of wheat’, from one to five, to help you decide depending on the degree of comfort, the beauty of their surroundings, the decoration, the equipment, the building’s structure, and the services at customers’ disposal, including their accessibility for people with reduced mobility.
Holiday homes. Both on the countryside, as in the mountains or in urban areas, renting a place to stay is a solution for those of you who prefer a homecooked meal. These days, many of you will look to AirBnB for such a possibility. In case you had not heard of it before, AirBnB is a worldwide digital platform founded in California in 2008, where those who want to share space advertise it to potential guests. The hosts determine the rules and prices in advance, the guests are offered the prospect of a unique experience, and both parties enjoy the membership of a worldwide community.
AirBnB has stirred a lot of controversy, and this is not the place to enter that debate. We do, however, want to highlight that the holiday rentals’ market has been around for far longer than this American company. It is very well-regulated, which should put you at ease. A holiday home needs to be registered as ‘housing for touristic purposes’ and clearly display its registry number in all related advertising. It must comply with several strict requirements, including perfect hygiene, the availability of complaint forms, an official travellers’ record, and the owner may need to follow specific additional procedures in function of the type of plot on which it is located. Watch out, renting individual rooms is forbidden by law.
Possibilities for camping. Perhaps you would rather enjoy the freedom of travelling with your sleeping place literally strapped to your back, or of having a house on wheels, the adventure of being on the move and possibly sleeping under the stars. The province of Alicante offers you both ‘zonas de acampada’ (camping sites) and campings properly speaking, but to use them correctly it is recommended to know the differences between them. Please consider that, across Spain, setting up tents or spending the night in caravans outside the official standing areas is strictly prohibited.
A camping site is a location specially adapted for leisure purposes and for tents only, which can be set up for a maximum time of two weeks. It is therefore not allowed to park caravans there. You also have to ask for the authorities’ permission and verify their availability prior to using them. To do so you can contact the local environmental service (Servicio Territorial de Medio Ambiente) or the Valencian Community’s Refuges, Cabins and Camping Sites Network (Red de Refugios, Cabañas y Campamentos de la Comunidad Valenciana). Camping sites can be found in Petrer, Crevillente, Biar, Sax, Tormos, Villena, Banyeres de Mariola, and Agres.
The ‘true’ campings, on the other hand, can be defined as those areas that have been enclosed and adapted for their temporal occupation by people that want to stay in the open air for holiday purposes. You can set up both tents as station your mobile homes and other moveable elements there, but they also offer the possibility of sleeping in fixed elements such as cabins or bungalows. They offer the benefit of additional services such as swimming pools, shops, restaurants, and leisure pitches. You can find them in places such as Alfaz del Pí, El Campello, Altea, Benidorm, La Marina, Bigastro, Villajoyosa, Jávea, San Fulgencio, Santa Pola, or Denia.
This concludes our little introduction to the diversity of places for you to spend the night during your visit to Alicante. As you have read, there are possibilities for every taste and budget. And since it is not necessary to be part of a royal family to be treated as such, get out and enjoy them!
By Alexander Van der Biest