Torrevieja
A big, unpretentious resort town built around two salt lakes — one famously pink — with long beaches, a huge Friday market and one of Spain's largest British and Northern-European communities.
Costa Blanca
Alicante's white coast — Benidorm, Jávea, Dénia and the Marina Alta, a long-standing favourite with British and Northern-European residents.
Towns on the Costa Blanca
Alicante
The Costa Blanca's capital and airport gateway — a proper year-round Spanish city with the palm-lined Explanada, the Santa Bárbara castle above a tangled old town, and a lively tapas and nightlife scene.
Benidorm
Spain's high-rise beach capital — two glorious blue-flag bays, a buzzing old town of tapas bars between them, and Europe's biggest cluster of theme parks and shows just inland. Brash, fun and busy all year.
Jávea
Known locally as Xàbia — an upmarket, low-rise favourite split between a historic inland old town, the working fishing port and the Arenal beach, ringed by pine-clad hills and the Montgó massif.
Dénia
A gastronomy city — UNESCO-listed for its cuisine — beneath a hilltop castle, with a working fishing port, ferries to Ibiza and the wild coves of Les Rotes just to the south.