Alicante is a bright, easy city built on a rock. The Castillo de Santa Bárbara sits on top of Mount Benacantil and watches the harbour from about 170 metres up, and on a clear day the view runs all the way along the coast. The promenade below, the Explanada de España, is paved with a wave pattern in red, cream and black marble, with palms on both sides, and it is the natural place to start an evening: the whole town seems to be on that walk.
For a rider, Alicante is the starting point for the dry mountains that sit behind the Costa Blanca. The coastal highway is fast and dull, the old N-332 is slower and often busy, and the real prize is inland, where narrow roads climb through almond groves, pine and rocky ravines to small villages whose white houses look painted on the hillside. The rides that begin here lead to rock shelters in the Valencian hills, decorated by prehistoric hunters and recognised as part of the Levantine rock art of the Mediterranean basin.
Weather here is among the most dependable in Spain. It is hot in summer, very hot in August, and gloriously mild in autumn and spring, when the light is clear and the sea is still warm. Winter days are often good for riding. Heat is the thing to plan for, so start early, drink water often and be careful on town streets where the sun-baked surface can be greasy after a rare shower.
Fuel is no concern in a city of over three hundred thousand, and every suburb has a petrol station. The old town, with the Barrio de Santa Cruz clinging to the castle slope, is lovely on foot but difficult for bikes. Try the rice dishes, which are the local religion, and the turrón made in nearby Jijona and Alicante, a nougat that the Spanish ship round the world every Christmas.