The biggest holiday resort on the Costa Blanca. These days the 6km of beach area along Benidorm's frontage attracts an average 180,000 people. It has not always been like that though. It was once a sleepy fishing village - before the holiday boom of the 70s. The area is now a mass of high rise hotels and apartments and a haunt of the package holiday. Local officials are in the process of cleaning up the image of Benidorm and trying to rid it of the lager-lout reputation it once had. The council now provide such things as free jazz and classical concerts. Families from all over Europe flock to Benidorm in the summer and in the winter, the hotels and apartments fill with pensioners, enjoying the climate for the winter months. The shopping areas are typical touristy shops offering all manners of goods.
Benidorm has a youthful and pulsating nightlife with many discos and nightclubs, endless bars and fine restaurants. Here you can party till dawn. Or experience the rollercoaster thrills of the Terra Mitica theme park.
The old Benidorm city center meanwhile still lives on in the narrow streets near the castle, although there's not much left from the old center, where English-owned pubs and bars have long been part of the scenery.
