Alicante Travel Forum

Does anyone have any advice for me, travelling to the murcia region of alicante to work for the summer. ideally i intend to stay in hostels with the emphasis on cheap! Aiming for bar work possibly with provided accommodation. I will be travelling alone for the first few months after which i will be travelling to madrid.

If you consider learning Spanish and having a job, Alicante is a good choice. The city is quite ugly, but the food and the people living in here are very nice. You won't be able to learn Spanish or get through in Catalonia and most of the cities mentioned by the girl from Barcelona are terribly expensive. Very near from Alicante there are little villages which are worth to see and with excellent gastronomy, in case you want to escape from the tourist routine.

In case you decide for Alicante, I can give you all the information you need about hostels and directions (you might want to share a flat with students, too). I must tell you besides, that Alicante has the second highest density of mountains in Spain and that's for most of us, the main reason to stay in this touristy city.

See you soon.

Costa Brava is expensive, the service is awful, it rains for most of the year, often with floods and tornadoes, and the beaches are rocky or use construction sand. They want to believe they're not Spanish, but it's the same crap at double the price with a pretencious accent, though it's a nice place to visit if you have friends there or like to splurge. Andalucia is just overpriced with the same poor service unless you're a member of the Saudi royal family or Ruso/Israeli mafia.

Murcia is a separate region to the south of Alicante, more green, further from the beach, but sharing an excellent culinary reputation and known for its agriculture.

To me, I find beauty in Alicante's idiosyncracies that others may call ugly. It's all in the eye of the beholder. I dare you to go to plaza de Luceros, plaza America, plaza de Manila, the Explanada, the Gran Via, the Bulevar de Pla, plaza de Miro, or the barrio de Santa Cruz and call it ugly. If you like the scenery in films by Pedro Almodovar showing the characteristic pre-touristy Spain, you'll find that here. Even in the barrios, you won't be overwhelmed with an immediate sense of artificial beauty - the beauty is the kind you need to discover, then you'll find it's the fabric of this city. A little patience and a desire to live simply will serve you well here. Alicante is no Spanish theme park.

There are plenty of bar/restaurant jobs here - check out the classified ads in www.informacion.com, or pick up any local paper while you're here. Plenty of cheap accomodations and flat sharing opportunies here as well. With the university nearby, most of the students prefer to live in the city near Plaza de Toros or in the bohemian Carolinas Bajas neighborhood.

Good luck, and above all, have fun!

Ilargitxo, don't complain when someone says that Costa Brava is awful. Look at your own words in the first reply: "Alicante is horrible and Murcia too..."
Probably you have never been in Alicante or Murcia, but don' worry, I don't think that any of us is offended, you know, "no ofende quien quiere sino quien puede". Come to discover the long sand beaches that I am afraid you have never seen.
Dandan2, by now you will probably have discovered by your own how Alicante or Murcia are. I hope you found a job and accomodation for the summer.