Benidorm is Spain's ultimate beach resort — brash, unapologetic, and genuinely fun if you know what you are getting into. Two sweeping sandy beaches, Playa de Levante and Playa de Poniente, bracket the old town on either side, with the Mediterranean stretching blue to the horizon and the Sierra Helada rising dramatically behind. The beaches are among the finest on the Costa Blanca: wide, clean, and well-organised.
The climate is the best argument for Benidorm. Sheltered by mountains and warmed by a natural bay, it rarely gets cold even in January. This is why northern Europeans — British, Germans, Scandinavians — descend here in winter in enormous numbers, giving the town an odd dual character: a summer chaos of sunburned families and an almost genteel winter migration of pensioners who rent apartments for months at a time.
In summer the place is genuinely packed. If you want quiet Mediterranean beaches, look elsewhere. But if you are after people-watching, good nightlife, excellent seafood in the old town, and reliable sunshine, Benidorm delivers. The original fishing village survives as a compact, maze-like old quarter on the headland between the two beaches — worth an hour of wandering regardless of what you think of the resort around it. The Balcón del Mediterráneo lookout at the top of the headland gives the best panoramic view of the whole bay.