Benidorm

Benidorm is the most British resort in Spain, and that reputation does it a disservice. Yes, the strip behind Levante beach is a wall of pubs, karaoke and tribute acts, and English Square at the Rincon de Loix end is exactly what you imagine. But the resort is really three places: Levante for nightlife and the busy beach, Poniente for a wider, calmer beach and cheaper rooms, and an actual Spanish Old Town on the headland between them, where the tapas bars and the Balcon del Mar viewpoint have nothing to do with the postcard cliche. Pick your side before you book, because they deliver very different holidays.

The reason Benidorm endures is value. It is one of the cheapest places to eat out on the whole Spanish coast if you walk one street back from the Levante seafront terraces — a menu del dia in the Old Town costs a few euros, the same plate on the promenade roughly double. Getting here is cheap too: fly into Alicante, take the ALSA airport bus for about €10 rather than a €70-€80 taxi, and skip the hire car entirely, because the L1 tram runs up the coast to Altea, Calpe and Denia in under an hour.

A package week of five to seven nights is the natural shape of a Benidorm trip, and booking flights, hotel and transfers together often undercuts buying the pieces separately. Below, the structured planning — where to stay, what a day costs in pounds, the airport run and when to go — picks up from here.