
Benidorm
Benidorm gets mocked for its towers, but that skyline has a flip side, and it is the reason people move here. The town has more high-rises than any other city in Spain, and more per inhabitant than anywhere in the world. In return it does not close for winter: hotels, doctors, shops and buses run all twelve months. That is true almost nowhere else on this coast, and it is exactly why retired people choose Benidorm. It did not become a resort yesterday either. The harbour was enlarged early in the twentieth century, and in 1925 the first holiday villas went up on Levante beach. In the fifties Madrid started coming here on holiday.
Today it is the leading tourist town of the Valencian Community and third in Spain for hotel beds, after Madrid and Barcelona. In summer there can be four hundred thousand people here against seventy-seven thousand permanent residents. A third of residents are foreign, mostly British and Russian-speaking. There are three beaches, all with blue flags: noisy Levante, over two kilometres long; quiet Poniente; and the small Mal Pas cove below the Balcón del Mediterráneo viewpoint. narrow-gauge tram station for Alicante and Dénia, the airport is fifty minutes away and the hospital 17.
- Altea · 11 km — the white old town and the shingle shore
- Guadalest · 25 km — the castle on the crag above the mountain lake
- Alicante · 45 km — the airport, the station, a proper city
Benidorm sits in Marina Baixa, Alicante, right on the water. You can live here without a car: our rating is 4 out of 5, rare on the Spanish coast, and the town has its own train station. 34.8% of residents are foreign nationals per the census: Spanish is not the only language you will hear on the street. Summers are packed: tourist load hits 5 out of 5 at the peak against 3 in winter.
Hospital, terrain, getting around
Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratings for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.
Benidorm sea temperature by month
5 months above 20 °CsourceAverage sea surface temperature, °C, for 2015–2024 — NOAA OISST satellite series, grid cell 18.5 km from the centre.
Tourist load
Benidorm beaches and water quality
sourceBenidorm has 5 beaches tested under EU bathing water rules, at 7 sampling points. In the 2025 season, 4 of 5 were graded excellent. No beach here has been graded “poor” since testing began in 1990.
The grade is bacteria in water samples over the last four seasons — not sand, views or crowds. “Poor” means bathing there is advised against.
| Beach | From the centre | Grade 2025 | “Excellent” in a row | Last “poor” |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Playa de Llevant | 0.6 km | excellent | 12 seasons | none since 1990 |
| Playa del Mal Pas | 1.1 km | good | — | none since 1990 |
| Playa de Ponent | 1.8 km | excellent | 2 seasons | none since 1990 |
| Playa Cala de la Almadrava | 2 km | excellent | 2 seasons | none since 2024 |
| Playa Cala del Tio Xixo | 2.2 km | excellent | 2 seasons | none since 2024 |
Where from: European Environment Agency, bathing water register, seasons 1990–2025, licence CC BY 4.0. Distance is from the centre in a straight line. Every place in one table
On the map
What tenants actually pay
sourcedThis is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 6 187 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 250 € for a two-bedroom.
The point of the 75th percentile: it is closer to what is being signed now than the median. The gap between them shows how much a new tenant overpays relative to long-standing ones.
Where from: SERPAVI, Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Benidorm
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 900 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 1 250 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 1 630 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 550 €/mo | SERPAVI · 67 m² |
Asking prices are what long lets are advertised at today; the registry is what tenants pay on signed leases, including old ones. The gap between them is your negotiating argument.
Schools nearby
estimateInternational schools counted in the base: 1. Names and curricula for this place are not verified yet — the school registry covers the thirty most-requested places so far.
Renting without a Spanish contract
How realistic a long lease is without a nómina — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.
- —34.8% foreign residents — income from abroad is routine for landlords here
- —A community with its own services: agencies have dealt with foreigners before
- —Prices rising 19.8% a year — the landlord picks, and the first filter is a nómina
This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nómina is an individual landlord's practice and nobody publishes it. The rating is derived from the share of foreign residents, the presence of a community with services, price growth, seasonality of the stock and the size of the town.
Who lives here
INE 2025- United Kingdom3 065
- Colombia2 971
- Romania2 115
- Pakistan1 919
- Ukraine1 915
- Algeria1 657
- Russia1 262
- Morocco1 146
- enEnglish~3 065school, doctors or lawyers in the languageUK citizens in the 2025 census; the largest foreign group
- ruRussian~1 262school, doctors or lawyers in the languageRussian citizens in the 2025 census, plus 1,915 Ukrainian citizens
Where from: INE, Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrón registrations by citizenship on 1 January, not everyone living here: seasonal owners and the unregistered are outside it, and naturalised residents count as Spanish.
Winter direct flights from ALC
January 2026/2750 min to the airport- United Kingdom21
- other countries17
- Germany12
- Poland10
- Norway7
- Italy6
- Sweden5
- France5
- Belgium4
- Netherlands3
- Switzerland3
- Ireland2
- Denmark2
- Czechia2
- Finland1
- Austria1
Destinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.
Paperwork and practicalities
From OpenStreetMap — an open map filled in by volunteers. Something missing there may still exist: read this as «we found this many», not «there are no more».
Month by month
Air, sea, how busy it gets and what stays open — for each month on its own.
Articles that include this place
- Costa Blanca and Alicante beaches by water quality: every beach's record since 1990Every beach in Alicante province with an official sampling point: where the water has stayed excellent, where it slipped in recent seasons, and when the coast is quieter for the same sea.
- Who already lives there — and why it is not about neighboursA headcount of compatriots and a doctor and lawyer who speak your language are different things. A move runs into the second.
Where to look next
- Altea3 423 €/m²
- Calpe / Calp3 258 €/m²
- El Campello2 824 €/m²
- Benicàssim2 728 €/m²
- Mojácar2 651 €/m²
- Santa Pola2 604 €/m²
- Conil de la Frontera3 202 €/m²
- Málaga3 283 €/m²
- Sanxenxo3 301 €/m²