Thinking of living car-free on the Spanish coast? Discover walkable towns with great public transport, from Denia to..

The Costa Blanca city of Alicante had been on my wish list for decades, but somehow it always lost out to the likes of Barcelona, Palma, or ...

The other side to Alicante's fine dining is exercise - the enjoyable kind. Fancy a stroll along the city's best-known promenade, Explanada de Espana, running across the road from the marina?

But for either approach, Alicante, Spain, is best avoided. Council planners in the Mediterranean resort have taken the unusual step of installing their promenade with wacky, 3D-effect paving stones.