Benidorm

There were settlements around Benidorm as far back as 3000 BC, with Punic and Roman remains, but the place grew only under Arab rule. After the Christian conquest of the region in the 13th century, Admiral Bernat de Sarrià gave it a town charter in 1325 to bring in Christian settlers. For centuries the coast suffered raids by Barbary and Ottoman pirates; in 1448 they carried off most of the inhabitants as slaves, and by 1520 the town was deserted.

Resettled, Benidorm recovered in the 17th century, helped by an irrigation system built in 1666. By the 18th century its fishermen were famous across Spain and beyond for tuna caught by the almadraba, the ancient technique of trapping migrating tuna in a maze of nets, and the town became a base for sea captains and shipbuilding. A spa opened in the 19th century, and in 1925 the port was extended and the first hotels were built.

When the fishing industry declined in the early 1950s, the council turned to tourism. In 1954 the young mayor Pedro Zaragoza Orts created a town plan requiring every building to have an area of open leisure land around it, and he encouraged high-rise building so that more people could see the beaches. Package tourism from northern Europe followed, and the village of about 5,000 people in the late 1950s became the high-rise city of today, nicknamed the "New York of the Mediterranean".

Benidorm is often called the birthplace of package tourism, and the image of the resort — the towers, the British bars, the cabaret, the long-stay pensioners of winter — has been satirised in television series in Britain, Spain and Belgium. The town's mayor once protested about a Belgian programme's use of its name. The reality is a resort that receives as many Spanish visitors as foreign ones, and one of the most culturally diverse towns in Europe, with a large immigrant population.

Music has long been part of its story. The Benidorm International Song Festival, held every summer from 1959 to 2000, launched the careers of Julio Iglesias and Raphael, and from 2022 to 2025 Benidorm Fest chose Spain's Eurovision entry here. The Low Festival brings indie bands each July, and every 12 July an Orange parade with marching bands has been held since 2005.

The town's own calendar remains: Fallas in March, bonfires for Saint John in June, Moors and Christians in October, and above all the Fiestas Mayores Patronales in November for the Virgen del Sufragio and St James, held then because that was when the tuna fishermen came home. Sport has a place too — the town hosted the world road cycling championships in 1992 and the start of the Vuelta a España in 2011.

About 77,000 people were registered as living in Benidorm in 2025, the most densely populated municipality of its comarca, and the number in town can reach 400,000 in summer. Almost the whole economy depends on tourism — hotels, apartments, bars, restaurants and the parks — and the old fruit farmers and fishermen have largely gone. Benidorm has worked to present itself as a modern destination; in 2018 it was the first city to be certified under Spain's smart tourism standard.

The town is divided between the old town on its headland, the Levante and Poniente districts behind the two beaches, Rincón de Loix and La Cala. Many residents are foreign-born, and many winter visitors from northern Europe stay for weeks or months. Unlike Barcelona and other Spanish destinations, Benidorm has not seen protests against mass tourism.

Daily rhythms split in two: Spanish families keep late meal times in the old town and on Poniente, while Levante runs on visitor hours, with cabaret from about nine and pubs open until three in the morning.

Benidorm's own tradition is the sea. Its fishermen were known across Spain for tuna caught with the almadraba, a maze of nets set across the path of the fish as they migrate along the coast. Today the best place for local food is the old town, where tapas bars serve Spanish dishes, jamón and wines from the nearby Jalón valley.

The rice dishes of the Alicante coast are found here too. Arròs a banda — "rice on the side" — is rice cooked in fish stock, a dish that began with Alicante's fishermen and is usually served with alioli, and fideuà is a seafood dish of the Valencian coast made like paella but with noodles in place of rice. Turrón, the almond nougat eaten at Christmas, comes from Xixona, inland in the same province.

Away from the old town, Levante caters to its visitors: English café-bars serve home-style food, and pubs, mostly in the British style, stay open until three in the morning.