Whichever way you look at it, Benidorm is a phenomenon. A mini-Manhattan, created by and for tourism. It has more skyscrapers per permanent inhabitant than anywhere else on the planet.  Whatever you might think of the architecture, it’s a spectacle in its own right.

So here are six of my best places to see Benidorm’s skyline in all its glory.

Gran Hotel Bali

What better place to see rank upon rank of skyscrapers than from…another skyscraper?   The Gran Hotel Bali is tall. Very tall.

It’s the second highest building in Spain (210 metres, including the mast), the highest building on Europe’s Mediterranean coast, the tallest hotel in Europe – the superlatives just keep on coming.

The good news is that it has a viewing deck on floor 45 where you get a fantastic panorama of Benidorm. Below you is the Playa Poniente, the southern half of Benidorm’s amazing double beach, with the Playa Levante in the distance.

Gran Hotel Bali is so high, it hosts the World Base Jumping championships, where competitors leap off tall buildings for fun and hope their parachute opens in time. Check out the video from the 2023 event here.

For us normal folk, it costs €6 to go up (no parachute necessary). For that, you also get a free drink, either in the Sky bar at the top, when it’s open, or down on the ground floor.

TIP – for an exciting ride to the top, take the external lift and get a panoramic view all the way up!

Fascinating fact!

The Hotel Bali took all of 14 years to build, according to Giles Tremlett in his book ‘Ghosts of Spain’.  That’s because its backers were a group of local hotel owners, who never took out any loans to fund the project. Instead, they paid for it out of the profits of their own hotels. In good years, building went well. In not so good years, it took rather longer.

What to see

Look inland to see the Puig Campana mountain with its distinctive gap in the summit.  Out in the bay is the islote (little island) of Benidorm. Legend has it that the gap was cut from the peak of the mountain by a giant and the rock rolled down into the sea to become the island. For more unlikely stories of the Puig Campana, check my post here.

Slightly to your left is the unmissable Intempo building, the tallest residential building in Spain, with its distinctive M shape. It’s had a bit of a chequered history – it was built just in time for the massive property crash of 2008 and was empty for years.  But if you’re looking for a prestige address and have a million euros to spare, it’s now open for business.

Right below you to your right is El Tossal de la Cala, a high point right at the end of the Playa Poniente. And that’s our next cool destination for more views of the skyline of Benidorm.

El Tossal de la Cala

It’s a crying shame that El Tossal has been smothered in housing all the way up. It’s now almost impossible to visualise how it might have looked before mass tourism arrived.

But you can see why the Romans built a fort, or castellum, here (in 77BCE or thereabouts). Back then, El Tossal would have completely dominated the surrounding area. It was a great place to keep an eye on enemy shipping.

In the last few years, the Roman fort has been excavated and opened up to the public. You can wander up to see the ruins – there are plenty of explanatory plaques – or catch a guided tour.

At 100 metres, it’s nowhere near as high as the Gran Bali, but from the mirador at the top, you do get wonderful views along the Playa Poniente and out to sea.

You can walk up from Cala de Finestrat beach or climb the steps from the end of Playa Poniente onto Calle Genaro Navarro.

That connects with Calle de la Ermita, which twists and turns all the way up, avoiding the cul-de-sacs which branch off randomly from time to time. Driving isn’t a great idea because there’s nowhere to park at the top once you get there.

It’s free to get in. Opening hours are June – September 0900-2100, rest of the year 0900-1700.

La Torre d’Aguiló

From the top of El Tossal, look across the little bay of Cala de Finestrat to the cliffs on the other side. You’ll see another fortification right on the top. The Torre d’Aguiló – the Eagle Tower.

It’s one of a chain of watchtowers built in the 16^th and 17^th centuries to deter attacks by corsairs from North Africa.

The corsairs were a huge threat to coastal communities, launching surprise attacks to pillage towns and villages and kidnap the people to be sold as slaves in the markets of Algiers and Tunis.

Towers like these acted as an early warning system. If any one of them spotted corsair ships at sea, they lit a fire on the roof. The smoke signals would be seen by neighbouring towers and the whole coastline would soon be on the alert.

So not surprisingly, you can see for miles from up here. And as a bonus, you also get wonderful views to the south towards our town of Villajoyosa. Check out my post here for more. It’s about a 15 minute walk to the top from the path on Carrer Tramuntana in Cala de Finestrat.

El Islote de Benidorm

You can’t miss the little island of Benidorm out in the bay. You can catch a boat out to it from Benidorm’s little port and explore (which doesn’t take long – it’s a very small island!)

But for me, the best thing about the trip is the view of the Benidorm skyline from the sea.

You get to see the entire line of high-rises along the shoreline from one end of the double beach to the other, set against a spectacular backdrop of mountains. It’s a completely different perspective.

It costs €19 pp. Boats sometimes don’t run if the sea is rough. Or if they do run, they won’t be able to dock at the little quay on the island and you’ll be offered a cruise around the island instead, which isn’t worth €19. 

So check the weather forecast before you book. There’s very little shade on the island, so I’d avoid in the heat of high summer. Link to booking here

Benidorm Cross (La Creu/Cruz de Benidorm)

OK, so we’ve now moved to the far end of Benidorm’s famous double beach, to beginning of the Playa Levante, where you get to see the whole shoreline from a different perspective.

High above the sea (200m +) and on the edge of the Sierra Helada cliffs, is the Benidorm Cross. Once again, the views are spectacular. And it’s free.

How an enormous metal cross got all the way up there is a strange tale involving bikinis, the Catholic Church and General Franco. For the full story, see my post here. 

You can drive, walk or cycle (or e-cycle) up from the end of Playa Poniente – head for Carrer Taywan. There’s a barrier a couple of hundred metres from the top, so park up and walk the rest.

If you’re walking all the way up from sea level, it’s steep and takes about 45 minutes. Make sure you have plenty of water in the heat of summer – there’s no bar at the top!

Sierra Helada

The last viewpoint is the most energetic. As you walk up the final few metres to the Benidorm Cross, you’ll notice a path branching off to your left. That takes you along the clifftops of the Sierra Helada (Serra Gelada in the local language valenciano) all the way to L’Albir on the other side.

If you go all the way, it’s 4-5 hour trek and it’s hard work. But you don’t have to do the whole thing. Head up the path signposted Alt del Governador, and the extra height will give you even more spectacular views over Benidorm. Just go as far as you fancy and then retrace your steps when you’re done.

If you do feel like doing the whole trek, check out my post here. The clifftop views are pretty amazing all the way along.

Why does Benidorm have so many high rises?

Good question. After all, there are plenty of other tourist spots along the whole of Spain’s Mediterranean coast, and none of them look quite like Benidorm.

The key is the beach. Or rather, the spectacular double beach of Playa Levante (translation – Sunrise Beach) and Playa Poniente (Sunset Beach). They’re Benidorm’s number one asset.  Both face south, so they get the sun all day.

No-one wants to walk a long way to the beach in the heat of the day. So to shoehorn in as many hotel rooms as close to the sea as possible, the solution was to build high.

The alcalde (mayor) of Benidorm in the 60s and 70s, Pedro Zaragoza Orts, envisaged high-rise hotels surrounded by pools, gardens or car parks, with wide boulevards sweeping through the new city. Some of that came to pass, some of it not so much.

Mayor Zaragoza was a one-man publicity machine for his town and promoted it all over Europe. But you could argue that his secret weapon was, of all things, the bikini.

In a daring decision, he allowed them to be worn on Benidorm’s beaches. This was General Franco’s Spain in the 1960s and bikinis were considered scandalous back then. But it was great for tourism.

All those sunseeking northern Europeans flooded in and Benidorm never looked back. Some say the bikini built Benidorm.

What was there before the skyscrapers?

Before the tourist boom, Benidorm was a village that made its living from fishing and the sea.

Men from Benidorm were famous for their skills in building almadravas, a hugely complex system of nets, ropes and anchors designed to catch tuna as they migrated up the coast to spawn.

The land on the coast was poor – all the fertile soil and precious water for irrigation lay inland. So tourism seemed a good way of making money and a lot easier than fishing.

A few small hotels opened in the 1920s and 30s. But then the Civil War happened, followed by World War Two. A few more hotels arrived in the 1950s. But that was about it. It took bikinis and Alcalde Zaragoza’s energy to turbo-charge Benidorm tourism.

Plus, of course, the invention of the package holiday (the 1950s), a new international airport for Alicante (the 1960s) and a motorway along the coast to Benidorm (the 1970s). Now it gets 2.7 million plus visitors a year and that amazing Manhattan-style skyline.

More things to do around Benidorm

• Benidorm’s green walk – Torre de les Caletes
• The myths and legends of Puig Campana
• The spectacular lighthouse of L’Albir
• The hilltop village of Guadalest

© Guy Pelham