Benidorm

Benidorm is a Spanish touristic phenomenon, very unusual city for Spain. Its main feature is a huge number of skyscrapers. According to a study of Urban Age project Benidorm has the largest number of skyscrapers per capita, so it is also called "Spanish Manhattan" or "Beniyork." By the way, the prefix "Beni" is used here with many words. For example, throughout the city you can see elder people on electric beniskuters.

60 years ago at this place was only a small village, but with the advent of mass tourism, the city has developed tremendously. At the same time major of Benidorm at that time felt tourism potential and decided to concentrate city on the small territory. This decision began the story of skyscrapers. Nowadays Benidorm has more than 40 thousand hotel beds. Most high-rise apartment houses have their own underground parkings and swimming pools.

At 2014 8 of 20 tallest buildings in Spain are in Benidorm. The most unusual of them is the Intempo, with a height of 200 meters.

Waterfront is the best place in the city.

In late September the water was still warm and the beaches were completely empty. So, if you want to avoid the crowds, come in September.


Basic holidaymakers in Benidorm is British. Also a lot of Dutch. English language is everywhere, most of the restaurants and pubs are English, on the streets playing mostly English music.


In the morning we flew a little with a copter over the Levante beach. Although the beaches of the Costa Blanca are famous, next photo clearly shows that the sea in Benidorm near the shore is rocky in some places. So, it's not easy to swim without rubber shoes.




Benidorm has several view points. If you look at a map of the city, you see that the long beach is divided in the middle. Therefore, the best viewing points are on the left side, right side and in the middle. Take the bikes and drive along the waterfront which has the length of 5 kilometers. Also, there is an observation deck on the roof of the Grand Hotel Bali (booking.com), the highest hotel in Europe.

Download this map here.

In the evening we went up to the viewpoint over the Levante beach (N 38 31.919 W 0 05.784). You can walk there in 30 minutes or drive with a car or bike. Viewpoint is marked by large cross which is visible from everywhere.

We were lucky and made such photos.




In general, Benidorm left purely positive impression. It has everything for a good rest: water parks, attractions, museums, music halls, bullring and so on.

Getting to Benidorm

The closest airport is in Alicante (60 km). Use shuttle buses (10 euro) to reach the Benidorm. Also you can go on the TRAM, which runs from Alicante along the coast (map of lines). And here find routes of city buses (in Spanish).