The repeat tourist returns in search of what made him happy. But many like to find news to report on their return home: a new attraction, a bar or restaurant that TripAdvisor has not yet reviewed, a walk that wasn’t there last year.
You always want to revisit the classics, and from time to time discover hidden corners that the guides don’t usually cover, but it also doesn’t hurt to get closer to the new discoveries that any city, and Alicante is no exception, can offer the visitor.
The new fountain of La Explanada.
The work has taken longer than expected, but the well-known ‘fund de sac’ of the most touristy promenade in the city, at the intersection between the Rambla de Méndez Núñez and the Explanada de España, has been inaugurated and has a new fountain at ground level, with colored lighting at night, around which moment hunters are already gathering, armed with their smartphones. Its glowing jets are an undoubted temptation for naughty children.
New pedestrian zone
Alicante has gained a new pedestrian space after the reform of Constitución Avenue and its continuation on Bailén Street. The work was not without controversy, due to the dubious quality of the pavement and the replacement of the trees that shaded the street, but the fact is that the walker now has a new space that descends from Avenida de Alfonso Wise, at the height of the Central Market, next to the Principal Theatre, ideal for having a drink on its terraces or simply resting on its new benches.
The pedestrianization does not seem to have affected the flow of traffic, so perhaps the city council decides to expand it to other narrow streets in its traditional center. For now, the municipal authority has filled the city with cameras designed to capture the license plates of vehicles entering and leaving, with the aim – they say – of studying the flow of traffic and thus being able to plan it better.
The museum of illusions
It exists in other Spanish cities, but it is added to the leisure offer of Alicante, on Ramón y Cajal avenue. It offers a permanent exhibition, in a 700 m2 space, full of illusions, scientific inventions and artistic expressions where physics and optics share space with mysterious works of art and classic riddles.
Those who have tried it say that it is worth it, although the price of 15 euros per adult and 12 euros per student may deter those who are just looking for it. It is in front of El Mundo de los Ninos, a small permanent amusement fair that has been consolidated on the Canalejas Parking, where the city council did not want to install benches or litter bins at the time so as not to obstruct the view of passers-by. Things that happen.
The port walkway
It is not so recent, the section that goes from the sculpture of ‘The Return of Icarus’ to the Casino was inaugurated in the summer of 2022, but those who have not visited Alicante for two years and walk along the urban dock of the port will see that there is now a wooden walkway over the water that expands the space for the always pleasant walk next to the dock where the pleasure boats rest.
The Zagalico
Thus, with an accent, the promoters of this new restaurant write their name, which is the penultimate gastronomic secret spread by Alicante residents who dine out a lot. Without it -zagalico- word has spread that this small establishment on Germany Street brings a creative touch to its traditional Murcian specialties.
Delicious and well-founded, but it is advisable to reserve because it barely has space for 30 guests and it is fashionable. Of course, the custom of establishing two dinner seatings has been adopted to make the space profitable. Secreto del zarangollo (€16.5), Acho que pulpico! (€9.5), michirones (€5.2) or the classic marinara (€3.5) are some of the expressive recipes that appear on the menu.
Puntapiedra, beach club
It opened last June and has had its ups and downs with the residents of nearby Albufereta, who prefer to play the music themselves. But it has made a place for itself on the agenda of the local pijerío thanks to its location right on the sea, a stone’s throw from the center and an Ibizan beach club atmosphere (they -honestly and in the absence of sand- call it coast club).
It includes a restaurant run by Pablo Montoro, a chef who the Forty Group – promoter of this and much of the new local hospitality industry – has endowed with the gift of ubiquity. The atmosphere is Mediterranean but the prices are Central European: the cheapest rice on the menu is 26 euros (and is only served at lunch) and a semi-dried squid with ñora picaeta and Mutxamel tomato is 29 euros, to name a couple of examples. When an illustrious local gourmet was consulted, he assured that everything was exquisite and that it was not expensive, because he paid another price.
