38.17° N · 0.48° W
The only inhabited island in the Comunitat Valenciana: boats from Alicante and Santa Pola, 18th-century walls, snorkelling in the marine reserve and caldero.
What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
An hour's crossing from the centre of Alicante with Cruceros Kontiki · €24 return · open return · all year.
The 18th-century walled enclosure, a Historic-Artistic Site and BIC, entered through the Levante or San Rafael Gate · free walk · free.
The short crossing: about 15 minutes from the Santa Pola quay with Tabarbus, departures every half hour in the morning and afternoon.
Itineraries
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
From April to June and in September and October: clear water, frequent boats and fewer people. In July and August it fills up at midday. In winter there are fewer boats and some restaurants close; check the easterly wind before going.
How you travel
Choose how you're travelling and we'll tell you where to stay, how to get around, where to eat and which services you'll need. We only show the ways of travelling that make sense here.
Tabarca is an island without cars, so travelling without a car is the natural way: you walk to Alicante harbour from the centre and an hour by boat later you are at the island's quay. There, everything is done on foot.
If you are coming by car from Murcia, Elche or the south, drive to Santa Pola harbour and leave the car there: the crossing to the island takes about 15 minutes and leaves every half hour. From Alicante, the direct boat saves you driving.
Who you're with
A trip with a toddler is not the same as one with a teenager. Pick yours to see what works and what to bear in mind.
Tabarca works well with children: the boat is already an adventure, there are no cars on the island and everything is less than a kilometre away. With a mid-morning boat and the return at five, the day fits in without rushing.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: Three-star hotel with 14 rooms on Calle Arzola, inside Tabarca village, open all year, with a café with sea views.
Why we like it: One-star guesthouse on Carrer d'Enmig, with doubles and quadruples with air conditioning and its annexe Nuevo Masín, with a quadruple with a sea-view balcony.
Why we like it: Six-room bed and breakfast on the island, with breakfast included; four have a terrace and sea views, two of them suites.
Services for this trip
Where to eat
From set lunch menus to Michelin stars. We mark the price level and what to order at each place.
What to order: the caldero, which serves the rice first and then the fish with potato and alioli.
What to order: caldero or a fish rice dish; ask about the fish of the day.
What to order: the soupy rice with lechola, or the chopped tomato with capellán to start.
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
Tips
On Sundays, the 10:45 from Alicante gives you five hours on the island.
The inner waters are free to look at fish without a permit.
There is no shade outside the village and the beach sand is coarse.
Tabarca is the only inhabited island in the Comunitat Valenciana: 1,800 metres long and 400 wide off Cape Santa Pola, eleven miles from Alicante. At one end, a white village inside an 18th-century wall; at the other, a scrubland plain with a tower and a lighthouse. All around, the first marine reserve in Spain. You arrive by boat, explore on foot and eat caldero. It is a perfect Sunday from Alicante, Elche or Murcia, and a different kind of night if you stay when the boats leave.
By boat from the city's port. Cruceros Kontiki leaves from paseo de los Mártires de la Libertad and takes around an hour. The return ticket costs €24, free from ages 0 to 4, and the return leg is open. On Saturdays and Sundays there are departures at 10:45 and 12:15, with returns at 14:30 and 17:00; on weekdays, one boat at 11:30 and a return at 16:30. The boat company warns that the timetable is confirmed when you collect the ticket. You can walk to Alicante port from the centre, so you don't need a car. If you prefer a whole day at sea, from April to October a sailing catamaran also leaves, anchoring for three hours off the island, with paella on board, for €75.
Drive to Santa Pola: from Elche it is about 20 minutes and from Murcia a little under an hour on the motorway. From the Santa Pola quay, Tabarbus crosses in about 15 minutes, with departures every half hour from 9:00 to 14:00 and from 16:00 to 20:30, and returns every hour until 21:00. It does not publish prices on its website: book and ask on 687 916 450. From 2 March to 31 October, Viajes Isla Tabarca crosses in a glass-bottom catamaran that stops for ten minutes over the marine reserve: €15 return, with dogs free. Outside the season, Santa Pola is the port with the most boats. Park with time to spare: in summer the area around the port fills up early.
It all fits into a walk of two or three hours, flat and car-free. From the quay you reach the Museo Nueva Tabarca, free, which tells how Charles III ordered the island to be fortified and a village built for the Genoese families rescued from the Tunisian port of Tabarka. You enter the walled enclosure through the San Rafael Gate, also called the Levante Gate, and walk along straight streets to the church of San Pedro y San Pablo, from the 18th century, beside the sea. The walls are a Historic-Artistic Ensemble and a Site of Cultural Interest.
Outside the village, a path crosses the countryside eastwards, to the San José Tower and the lighthouse. The tower served as a state prison in the 19th century; the lighthouse has a square plan. If you are interested in birds, Avanzatour runs a guided birdwatching morning through coves, countryside and pinewood, with the boat from Santa Pola. At the eastern end, Punta Falcón, the island is certified as a Starlight site: if you sleep here, at night you see the sky with hardly any light pollution.
Yes, and it is the best thing on the island. In the inner waters snorkelling is free and needs no permit; recreational fishing is prohibited and scuba diving requires authorisation. Beneath the surface there are meadows of posidonia and rock with fish just a few metres from the shore. If you prefer to go with an instructor, Tabarca Snorkel runs tours of 1 h 20 min from the island for €21, or of 4 h 30 min with the boat from Alicante for €45. To dive with a tank, Scuba Elx sails all year from Santa Pola port to the reserve's dive sites and nearby wrecks: dives from €38 and a discovery dive from age 10 for €110. The rules: don't touch or disturb the animals, don't feed the fish, don't take anything living, carry a buoy and don't go in when there are waves.
The island's dish is caldero: rice cooked in rock-fish stock and served in two parts, first the rice and then the fish with potato and alioli. The official guide lists about twenty places, almost all on the central beach and on calle Virgen del Carmen. Here are three with their address and phone number: Los Pescadores, with which Kontiki puts together its boat-and-lunch package for groups; La Almadraba, inside the village; and Mar Azul, facing the water. None publishes opening hours: call beforehand, especially from November to March, and book in summer.
If you can, yes. After the last boat, around five o'clock, the island empties and the village goes back to belonging to those who live in it. There are small hotels inside the wall: the Hotel Boutique Isla de Tabarca, three-star and open all year; the Hostal Masín, with quadruple rooms; and Cala Tabarca, a six-room bed and breakfast with terraces over the sea.
From April to June and in September and October: the water is clear, there are boats every day and the beach doesn't fill up. In July and August the island receives all the boats at midday at the same time; get up early or stay overnight. From 15 June to 15 September there are lifeguards on the beach from 11:00 to 19:00. In winter there are fewer departures and some restaurants close on weekdays. In a strong easterly the boats may not sail: call the boat company that morning.
Questions
Around an hour from Alicante port and about 15 minutes from Santa Pola.
From Alicante, with Cruceros Kontiki, €24 return, free for ages 0 to 4. Tabarbus, from Santa Pola, does not publish prices: ask when booking.
Kontiki admits pets on board, and the Viajes Isla Tabarca catamaran carries dogs free. On the island, in the streets and on paths, always on a lead. The accommodation does not publish that it admits them; the Hotel Boutique Isla de Tabarca says no.
No. Everything is done on foot: from the village to the lighthouse is less than a kilometre.
Caldero: rice in rock-fish stock, served with the fish separately, potato and alioli.
Yes. Kontiki publishes departures every week and Santa Pola has boats out of season. Confirm the timetable on the day.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/valencian-community/tabarca-island
