Alicante Is A Wonderful City To Which To Retire

Alicante is a city on the south eastern Costa Blanca in Spain and is the capital of Alicante Province. It is also a historic Mediterranean port and the population of the city is about 340,000. Including nearby towns, the population of the metropolitan area is over three quarters of a million. In recent years, the Port Authority has established it as one of the most important ports in Spain for tourists with around 80,000 passengers and 30,000 crew visiting every year.

Just to the north of Alicante is the town of San Vicente del Raspeig which houses the University of Alicante which is attended by over 27,000 students.

Alicante has hot summers, mild winters, and very little rainfall. From June through to September the temperature is in the 80’s, and even in December through to March it is in the mid 40’s. The average rainfall is only 11" a year.

Sitting high above the city on Mount Benacantil is the Santa Barbara Castle with sweeping views of the Mediterranean, the city, and the port.

The promenade in Alicante is said to be one of the most beautiful in Spain, lined with palm trees, and paved with six and a half million marble floor tiles. It is the meeting place for the traditional Spanish paseo which is an evening stroll along the waterfront. It is also a venue for outdoor concerts. The promenade extends from the port to the Gran Via ending at the famous statue of Mark Hersch.

There are two main parks in Alicante, one of which is the favourite of many Alicante citizens. This is El Palmeral Park and contains walking trails, ponds and brooks, children’s playgrounds, picnic areas, and an auditorium for concerts. L’Ereta Park is in the foothills of Mount Benacantil on the way to the castle and is on several levels, routes, decks, and rest stops providing a view over the city. A pretty quarter of the old city is Barrio de la Santa Cruz which has small houses climbing up the hill to the castle and has narrow streets with pretty flowers and flags decorating them.

Alicante has an archaeological museum that contains a wide range of jewellery, pottery, and other items from digs at the site of the nearby Roman town of Lucentum. There is also the Iberian room with wonderful ceramics and pieces of sculpture from several pre-Roman archaeological sites that are nearby.

Close to the foot of the mountain is the Basilica of Santa Maria which is the oldest and prettiest church in the city and is near to Postiguet Beach. It was built over a former mosque after Alicante was taken back from the Moors in the 13th century. The church has twin towers which look identical, but the one on the right is from the 1300’s while the other is from the 1800’s.

Next door to the church is the Contemporary Art Museum which is a former granary built in 1687. It was founded as an art museum by sculptor Eusebio Sempere in 1976 to display his private collection. Here you can see works by Salvador Dali, Picasso, Francis Bacon, and Joan Miro among others.

This is certainly a wonderful part of Spain to which to retire and there is plenty of opportunity to do so as there are a lot of apartments for sale in Alicante, as well as villas. One of the beauties of going to live in Spain is that property is cheap compared with the UK. This means that you may have a home worth half a million pounds here, but you could get an equivalent or even larger home for around £200,000 in Alicante, which would leave you with £300,000 in your pocket and sun all year round.

BeckettHanlon is a UK estate agent that has plenty of apartments for sale in Alicante and all along the south Spanish coast in Valencia, Malaga, Estepona, La Alcaidesa, Torrevieja, San Javier, Sucina, and more, and in the Portuguese Algarve as well. Many of these fine homes start at prices as low as £120,000 or so.

BeckettHanlon is an international estate agent with a special interest in Southern Spain and has many contacts with local agents in this part of the country. This means that it can often find villas and apartments, including Mijas apartments for sale