First, Santa Pola is a busy town nearby Alicante.
Equal, Alicante is a nice city at the Costa Blanca.
Now, the Costa Blanca is very popular for sunny holidays.
So the Mediterranean Sea Climate is favorite for the many hours of sun.
In fact, Santa Pola is a beautiful town nearby the popular airport of Alicante.
While landing on the airport most of the flights fly over Santa Pola.
In other words, Santa Pola is situated in the province of Alicante, 20 km from the Alicante city.
It is located in the center of the beautiful Costa Blanca.
First, Santa Pola is best known for it fishing industry and salt lakes.
Important , this salt lakes are the providers of the salt for North and Western Europe. Mostly we use this salt for the routes in our winters.
Besides, Santa Pola has 13 kilometers of coastline.
Additionally, the “marina” is worth a visit.
As it is popular by tourist from Spanish people and others, it has a tourist office.
A nice visit is the fortress/ castle , for the children an aquarium.
Equally good to known : the town has also an interesting choice of cultural and historic monuments and museums.
As Santa Pola is a real, typical Spanish town, it is well-known by the Spanish people for the all sort of watersports.
For instance : fishing, windsurfing, scuba diving, kiting, sailing, …
Climate.
Again, the climate is very mild and privileged.
In particular, Santa Pola is laying in a bay with beautiful beaches, it has a fishing port and a small Marina base.
First, the beaches are wide and well-groomed. Then, there are also little coves by the Playa Levante.
Next, in the harbor you can take a boat to the nearby island of Tabarca.
If you want to visit the Island of Tabarca we recommend the large boat when the sea is rough , otherwise you need to have strong sea legs, the boat trip cost about 10 €.
The fishing port.
In other words, the fishing port of Santa Pola is one of the biggest ports on the Costa Blanca. As a result, fresh fish are coming in every day and it is really a joy to see the boats who has just arrived with fresh fish, and the fisherman who are selling their product directly from the boat.
Presently ,the fishing industry is not what it used to be, despite the decline it is worth a visit.
The fleet is still very impressing and a very important source of income and employment for the Alicante region.
There is a daily fish market during the week.
Fish industry.
Now, the town is also the town with one of the biggest fishing ports on the Mediterranean coast.
According the regional government a total of 3500 people are now employed in the fish industry. There are over 90 large fishing boats so Santa Pola fishing fleet is bigger than anywhere else in the province. The boats are fishing nearby the coast of Santa Pola but are also heading to the Atlantic. These boats have enormous drag nets and are very impressing to see.
The last years the number of smaller boats has increased, they have a smaller tonnage and more technology . This results in more safety for the crews.
The smaller boats still make use of the traditional fishing art. So the fishermen wait till large schools of fish turn up to the Costa Blanca section of the Mediterranean sea. This leads to a variety of fish each season.
There are more than 30 different species which are typical for the region of Santa Pola. One of the famous is the red prawn. The others fish which can be found in the auction house are: little tunny, crabs,sea bass, dorada, red mullets , sardines of course , swordfish, monk fish, mackerel, -etc.
Restaurants
As the town is one of the largest ports of the Costa Blanca even the Mediterranean coast you can find excellent fish restaurants serving superb fish meals or little bars with the ” catch of the day”.
We did like very much the swordfish and the dorade.
There are several gastronomic specialties for the Costa Blanca
Free tours in English.
Now, this guided visits looks at the Sana Pola relationship with the Mediterranean sea. In particular his fishing history. And also its role of one of the most important Iberian fishing ports on this sea.
In fact, the tour will visit the port, the docks and auction house and the aquarium.
This tour is not free. It cost 3€ ( in november 2016).
The meeting point is the Aquarium of Santa Pola.
The English-speaking guide is trained and very enthusiastic. As you can hear , he is passionate about his town and the environment.
So, he tries to give the visitors a better understanding of the fishing history.
Reservation can been done at the tourist information office.
Adress of the office : Plaza de la Constitution .
Places are limited.
Auction house.
In particular, the auction house of Santa Pola is one of the largest on the Mediterranean coast.
Indeed, the auction method used is from high to low.
In the last few years the local products are promoted in the restaurants and the supermarkets over the South Costa Blanca.
For instance, even in the Carrefour in Torrevieja and the Alcampo in Zenia Boulevard.
Consequently, in the restaurants, they use traditional recipes, like sea bass with salt, fish on the grill ( tuna , sardines, swordfish), little hotpots with fish, shellfish etc.
Near the old fortress is a Plaza which is the meeting point for the locals to eat and drink at the evening.
There are plenty of fish restaurants to choose from, the shops nearby are diverse, so there is something for everyone.
The tourist center is located near the “Parque El Palmeral”.
Santa Pola Culture
A Marine Museum shows the history of the harbor .
In the old part of Santa Pola you can see a lot of the typical Spanish culture and historical buildings. The town was already known during Roman times. Santa Pola was the port of Elche in the Roman times “ Portus Illicitanus” so you can visited a Roman Villa with mosaic floors, nearby the Tourist Information and the remains of a Roman Fish factory of salted fish .
Santa Pola has a fortress and a castle that was built under order of Philips II against pirates and attackers, the entrance is free of charge.
Read more about the Santa Pola Fortress and Castle .
Nearby there is a Natural park with salt lakes and famous Flamingos, very nice to see for the nature lovers.
A local activity is sea harvesting. The famous shrimps and prawns of Santa Pola.
Round the town there are several natural viewing points where you can enjoy a panoramic view of Santa Pola.
Santa Pola Amusement Park
Recently a small amusement park has been built-in Santa Pola called Pola Park and it has about 30 attractions. The park is around 24000 square meters and offers also a lot small food snack restaurants like pizza and kebab. It focuses all family’s and children between the age of 4-12 The Park has its own mascot called Popi. The Attractions in the Amusement park range from a Roller Coaster to Carts and bumper cars, karting, mini golf, quads, carousels, rides and rodeos and many more.
You can compare it to a typical fare in European city . The park is easily reachable by exiting the n332 just before Santa Pola.
A Season ticket in the park will cost you 65 euros which offers you aces to all attractions during the whole season
The address of Pola park is
Avenida Zaragoza S/N
Santa Pola
+34 965 41 70 60
Opening Hours are from 6:00 pm till 12:00 am
Santa Pola Salt Lake
Santa Pola got a large Salt Lake, it is located south of the city. The Salt Lake is impossible to miss if you travel along the N332 coming from Alicante.
The Salt Lake are a lagoon and a wetland area. It used to be a much larger area on the left bank of the River Segura. Now, due to the action of man the Salt lakes are divided into two areas of wetland. This two areas are El Hondo de Elche and Santa Pola. The wetlands are fed by a mix of water. It receives fresh sub surface water from further inland and salt water that enters trough the channel that connect the salt lagoon with the Mediterranean Sea
The Salt Lake natural park is 2470 hectares in size. The flora and the fauna are varied.
The Salt lake is a protected natural park with wetlands and marshland. The typical vegetation is salt water, made up of species whose live depends on the presence of water and the salinity degree.
One of this plants is sea lavender.
Free guided visits.
First, Santa Pola organizes free guided visits into this Salt Lake park.
Important , the tour in the nature park is with an English guide. So visitors will hear about Santa Pola relationship with her salt industry. As well in the past as the influence on the surroundings.
While the meeting point is the Salt Museum.
Because, the Salt museum or Museo de la Sal works as an Information center for the Park providing guided tours and bird watching center.
While, in the salt museum, the tourist will hear about the city’s relationship with the history of the salt industry.
During the visit , the visitor will learn more about the wide variety of the rich fauna ( including the flamingos).
In addition also about the flora of the salt lake.
So, visiting the salt Lake is very popular among tourist as well for residents.
In brief, the English guide is passionate about the Salt Lake and its local environment. He hopes to give the visitors a better understanding of the importance and the history of the Natural Park.
Furthermore, you can find more information about this at the tourist information office in Plaza de la Constitution.
Important, the places for the guided tour are limited.
Again, the tours are free of charge.
Trip from Santa Pola.
An absolute must is the trip to the Isla of Tabarca.
The best, this islands was made a national Marine reserve in 1986.
So, for lovers of diving and snorkeling it is a little paradise.
During your stay at Santa Pola is also nice to visit the neighbor city of Alicante.
Below the coast, a little more to the south of Santa Pola is the busy Torrevieja.
In meantime , a visit to the Orihuela Costa is also a very nice day trip.
Street market
On Saturday and Monday there is a busy street market in Santa Pola.
Renaissance market
Yearly , there is a themed renaissance market around the castle. The market takes place over the Eastern weekend.
In the future , it will be in autumn.
The theme is ” The fortress against the pirates”. So it is a nice spectacle for young and old.
So their are food stalls, work shops, archery, children games and much more
In fact, the castle is in the middle of the town.
How to get to Santa Pola ?
To get here from the Orihuela Costa or Torrevieja you can take the N 332 direction Alicante .
The N 332 is the old road to the airport of Alicante, about 7 km from Santa Pola.
First, distance to Alicante 20 km
Then, distance to Benidorm 70 km
Next, distance to Torrevieja 30 km