Alicante evening

Amber streetlights cast a warm sheen over the wavy mosaic tiles of the Explanada d’España, while the palms whisper the breeze rolling in from the marina. In ten minutes you can trade the waterfront for Santa Cruz’s whitewashed lanes up Calle San Rafael, where geraniums spill from balconies and tapas bars hum around Plaza de la Santísima Faz. At dusk the Castillo de Santa Bárbara flares to life, a 166‑meter beacon on Mount Benacantil. Down by the Real Club de Regatas, dinner tables face the moorings as late-returning boats idle past around 9 pm.

Collected at your hotel and kept in easy reach all evening, your driver handles each hop so you can eat, stroll, repeat. With a dedicated chauffeur in Alicante, start with a pre-dinner vermouth on Plaça del Carmen, sit down at D’Tablas or Muelle 12, then ride the lift by Parque de la Ereta up to the castle (last summer entry around 10 pm). You’re dropped at each door, the car waits while you savor arroz a banda or a local aranjuez dessert, and then it glides along the Explanada for a final gelato at Livanti, two minutes from the Teatro Principal.