← Maratón Elche-Alicante·Day trip

Elche: The Palm Groves at Walking Pace

A slow return to the UNESCO-listed Palmeral the marathon ran past, with flat paths through walled palm orchards and the castle where the race began.

DurationDay trip
TransitCercanías C-1 train, about 30 minutes from Alicante Terminal
DepartsAlicante Terminal

After the Maratón Elche-Alicante: Elche's Palmeral

The Route: Alicante Terminal → Elche → Alicante Terminal Logistics: Cercanías line C-1, about half an hour each way. Flat walking between the palm groves and the old town. Marathon Month: November Duration: Day trip

Alicante Terminal ──(about 30 mins Cercanías C-1)──> Elche (Elx Parc) ──(about 30 mins)──> Alicante Terminal

The Maratón Elche-Alicante spends its first 20 km in Elche, and most runners see the city in a blur of kilometre boards and pace calculations. The day after, it is worth going back. Elche grew up around a forest of date palms, laid out in walled orchards with irrigation channels in the Moorish period, and the Palmeral still fills a large part of the town centre. UNESCO lists it as a World Heritage Site.

Late November in Elche is mild, usually around 20°C in the afternoon, with the sun low enough that the palms throw long shade across the paths. It is quiet between the summer festivals and Christmas. The palms themselves look much the same all year, which is part of their appeal.

Cercanías line C-1 runs from Alicante Terminal to Elche in about half an hour, with trains roughly every hour at weekends and more often on weekdays. Tickets cost a few euros from the station machines. Get off at Elx Parc, the central underground station, which comes up beside the Parque Municipal and the palm groves.

The Palmeral

The signed palm-grove route, the Ruta del Palmeral, links several orchards on paved and compacted-earth paths. It is flat from end to end, with benches, and can be cut short at almost any point. At post-marathon pace, one to two hours covers the best of it.

The Parque Municipal, beside Elx Parc station, is a free public palm garden and a good place to start. The Huerto del Cura is the best-known orchard, a private garden with an entry charge, cacti, ponds and the Imperial Palm, a single palm with several trunks rising from one base. The Museo del Palmeral, in a traditional orchard house, explains how the groves are watered and how palm fronds are still tied and bleached for Palm Sunday. Check opening times before planning around the museums; many in Spain close on Mondays.

The castle at the start line

The race started beside the Palacio de Altamira, a fifteenth-century castle on the edge of the old town. Inside is the Museo Arqueológico y de Historia de Elche, which tells the story of the city from the Iberian settlement of La Alcudia, just south of town, where the stone bust known as the Dama de Elche was found in 1897. The original is in Madrid's National Archaeological Museum. The museum is on level ground and makes a good hour indoors if the weather turns.

A few minutes away, the Basílica de Santa María, a Baroque church, stands at the centre of the old town, whose streets are flat and lined with cafés. The medieval mystery play, the Misteri d'Elx, is staged inside it each August.

Lunch and the return

Elche's own dish is arroz con costra, rice baked in the oven with a crust of beaten egg over sausage and chicken, which is heavy enough to count as recovery. The old town and the streets around the Parque Municipal have the most choice. Trains back to Alicante run through the evening; check the times at the station before lunch.