Day trips from Jávea

The best-placed base on the coast

One of Jávea's quiet advantages is what surrounds it. The town sits roughly midway between Valencia and Alicante, tucked behind the Montgó with the AP-7 motorway a short hop inland — which means the greatest hits of the northern Costa Blanca are all day-trip material, and most are barely a coffee's drive away. The itineraries below assume a car, because that's the honest answer to how you do this; buses exist between the coastal towns but run to a rhythm best described as contemplative. Everything here has been done, from Jávea, between breakfast and dinner, with time for lunch somewhere good.

Dénia: the castle over the ferry port

Twenty-five minutes over or around the Montgó sits Dénia — a bigger, busier working town with a Moorish castle rising straight out of the shopping streets and a ferry port that connects to Ibiza and Mallorca, a fact that lends the harbour a certain going-places energy Jávea doesn't attempt. Climb the castle for the view over the bay, wander Calle Loreto for tapas, and note that Dénia takes its food seriously — it holds UNESCO's Creative City of Gastronomy designation and its red prawn is a cult item with prices to match. An easy, satisfying first outing.

Moraira and Calpe: the coast heading south

Head south instead and the coast obliges twice. Moraira, around twenty minutes away, is the polished small-harbour version of the Costa Blanca — a castle the size of a garden shed, a pleasant front, and a Friday market worth timing. Continue on and Calpe announces itself from miles out via the Penyal d'Ifac, the 300-odd-metre limestone monolith that guards its harbour. You can walk up it — the path is a protected natural park and access is managed, so check current arrangements and book ahead in busy periods — or simply admire it from a fish restaurant by the port, which is the traditional method.

Altea: the pretty one

About forty-five minutes south, Altea has cornered the market in whitewashed charm. The old town climbs a hill to a blue-domed church, and the lanes on the way up are all galleries, jasmine and photogenic doorways — it has long traded on being the artists' town of this coast and keeps the promise better than most. Go late afternoon, when the light softens and the tour groups thin, walk up slowly, and take the sunset from the church square. The seafront below is agreeable rather than remarkable; the hill is the point.

Guadalest and the Algar waterfalls

For the inland day, pair two classics. Guadalest, roughly an hour away, is a castle village wedged improbably into a mountain crag above a turquoise reservoir — tiny, unashamedly touristy, and genuinely spectacular anyway, with a clutch of eccentric little museums for good measure. On the way back, the Fonts de l'Algar near Callosa d'en Sarrià offer spring-fed waterfalls and swimming pools of memorably bracing water — a managed site with an entry fee, gloriously refreshing in summer and correspondingly popular, so mornings are kinder. Together they make the best non-beach day this region offers.

The big two: Valencia and Alicante

When a proper city calls, you have options in both directions. Valencia — Spain's third city, about an hour and a half north — brings the City of Arts and Sciences, the old town, the Central Market and the original paella, and rewards an early start. Alicante, about an hour and a quarter south, is the smaller, saltier fix: the Santa Bárbara castle above the marina, the Explanada, and an old quarter built for an evening. Both are motorway runs door to door, and both work better as day trips than most people expect.

The practical run: Portal de la Marina and the N-332 corridor

Not every excursion is romantic. When the weather breaks or the household needs things, the Portal de la Marina shopping-centre area at Ondara — about twenty minutes away — is the region's default indoor answer: high-street chains, a hypermarket, a cinema and air conditioning, which in August is an attraction in its own right. The commercial strip along the N-332 corridor nearby handles the rest, from furniture to garden centres. Nobody writes poetry about it, but every resident makes the run eventually, and on a wet Tuesday it earns its place on this list.