The two salt lakes that bracket Torrevieja to the north and south are the reason to come here beyond the beaches, and most visitors who come just for the sun miss them entirely — which is their loss. The Laguna de Torrevieja, startlingly pink in the right season, and the greener Laguna de La Mata together form a protected natural park with walking circuits, bird life, and a landscape unlike anything else on the Costa Blanca. Salt has been extracted from Laguna de Torrevieja commercially for centuries, and the workings are still active — the sight of industrial salt harvesting machinery against a bubblegum-pink lake is oddly compelling.
The town itself has more character than the standard Costa Blanca resort. The paseo marítimo running the length of the seafront is a genuine social hub, and the Casino del Mar building — a grand 19th-century pile on the waterfront — speaks to the wealth that the salt trade once generated. Torrevieja also has an unlikely attachment to habanera music, the Cuban-influenced maritime song form that sailors brought back from the Caribbean during the salt-trade era, celebrated each August at an international choral festival. Between the lakes, the beaches, the submarine on permanent display near the port, and the habaneras, there is enough to fill several days for anyone paying attention.