Riding into Elche from the dry hills of southern Alicante, the sudden forest of date palms feels like a mistake of geography, as if a piece of North Africa had been set down in Spain. In a sense it was. The palm groves were laid out in their present form during the Islamic period, when Arab settlers brought an irrigation system of channels fed by the Vinalopó river and arranged the orchards in walled plots, with palms on the edges and crops beneath. Tens of thousands of palms remain today in and around the city, the largest palm grove in Europe, and the Palmeral was added to the UNESCO list in 2000.
The most famous garden is the Huerto del Cura, where a palm with several trunks growing from one base, known as the Imperial Palm, gets photographed by just about everyone. Elche also gave the world the Dama de Elche, the mysterious Iberian bust found at La Alcúdia in 1897 and now in Madrid, and every August the Basilica of Santa María hosts the Misteri d'Elx, a sung medieval drama about the Assumption of the Virgin that UNESCO also recognises. In spring you will see palm fronds being blanched and woven for Palm Sunday, a craft for which the city is known across Spain.
As a riding stop, be honest with yourself. Elche is a city of over two hundred thousand, flat and busy, with roundabouts, delivery vans and the usual urban chaos. The rewards lie outside: the hills toward Aspe and Crevillente, the coastal road toward Santa Pola and its salt flats, where flamingos feed in the shallow lagoons. Summers are very hot and the air can be heavy with humidity from the sea, so early morning is the best time to move, and afternoons are best spent in the shade of the palms.
Practically, Elche has everything: fuel on all the main approaches, workshops, hotels, supermarkets. The city's shoe industry is famous, if you need new boots. Look for local rice dishes like arroz con costra, a baked rice with sausage and a crust of egg, and finish with dates or a glass of horchata. Parking near the gardens is easier on two wheels than four, but keep valuables with you.