What's on in Alicante

Alicante is the easy-going capital of the Costa Blanca, a proper working city as much as a holiday town. The castle of Santa Bárbara looks down from its crag over the old quarter, the palm-lined Explanada and a long city beach, and the marble esplanade runs right along the harbour. It has good museums, a tapas-bar old town and the airport that brings most of this coast its visitors.

Its great moment comes at midsummer with the Hogueras de San Juan, one of Spain's major fire festivals — giant satirical monuments built across the city and then burned in the Cremà on the night of the 24th. Here's what's on while you're here.