A Day Trip to Elche: Palm Forests and a UNESCO City (2026)
Twenty minutes by train from Alicante sits a city with a thousand-year-old palm forest and two UNESCO listings. Here's how to do Elche in one day, on foot.
Elche (Elx) is the easiest proper day trip from Alicante, and one of the most underrated. It is about twenty minutes away on the train, and it has something nowhere else in Spain can claim: a palm forest of more than 200,000 trees in the middle of the city, planted by the Moors over a thousand years ago and now protected by UNESCO. Most Alicante visitors never make the short hop. They are missing the most distinctive city on the Costa Blanca. Here is a full day, and you can do almost all of it on foot.
Getting there
This is the rare day trip where you should leave the car at home. The Cercanías train (line C-1) runs from Alicante to Elche in around twenty to thirty minutes, cheap and frequent. From the station you can walk to everything. Elche is flat and compact, so once you arrive you will not need a bus or a taxi all day.
The Palmeral (the palm grove)
Start with the thing Elche is famous for. The Palmeral is the largest palm grove in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage site, and walking through it is genuinely unlike anywhere else in the country. There are marked routes through the groves, shaded and quiet even in summer. You do not need to see all of it, but give it an hour and let it sink in that this has been here, in working order, for a thousand years.
Huerto del Cura
Inside the palm grove sits the Huerto del Cura, a national artistic garden and the highlight for most people. It is a beautifully kept garden of palms, cacti, and exotic plants around lily ponds, and home to the famous Imperial Palm, a strange seven-armed tree that is well over a century old. It is a paid entry and worth it. This is the postcard of Elche.
The Basílica de Santa María
Walk into the old centre to the Basílica de Santa María, a big Baroque church that is the stage, every August, for the Misteri d'Elx, a medieval sung mystery play so unusual that it has its own UNESCO listing. If your visit lines up with mid-August, that is a whole reason to come on its own. The rest of the year, climb the tower for a view out over the palms and the rooftops. It is the best vantage point in the city.
The Lady of Elche and the old town
Elche's other claim to fame is the Dama de Elche, a 2,500-year-old Iberian stone bust and one of the most important pieces of ancient art ever found in Spain. The original lives in Madrid, but the city's archaeology museum (MAHE) tells the story and the city wears her as its symbol. Wander the old centre around the basilica, and you will also notice Elche is Spain's shoe capital, so it is a decent place to shop if that is your thing.
Lunch
Elche eats well and traditionally. Mesón El Granaíno is the local institution for proper Ilicitano cooking and a great call for a sit-down lunch. If you want to make more of an occasion of it, La Finca is the area's standout fine-dining option. And if you would rather eat surrounded by the palms, the restaurant at the Hotel Huerto del Cura sits right by the gardens.
One-day plan, in short
Train from Alicante, the Palmeral and Huerto del Cura in the morning, the Basílica and old town before lunch, a long lunch, and the museum or some shoe shopping in the afternoon before the easy train home. A complete day, no car, barely any planning. Browse more places to eat on our restaurants directory, or take another easy day out with our day trip to Altea by tram and our day in Jávea.