Setting the scene
The conclusion of my Alicante region tour brought me to Elche for a day trip. I wanted to find somewhere awesome to spend my last day & Elche definitely delivered the goods! The town has a cool history, there are ruins of an ancient Synagogue & over the centuries it has had Roman, Greek, Byzantine & Goth (Germanic people) rulers.
Modern Day Elche
Elche is the third most populated city within the region & quite big compared to some of the other towns I visited.
You can visit the world heritage site – Palm Grove, the stunning Basilica de Santa Maria, Museo Paleontológico (cool dinosaur museum), Palau dels Altamira, Elche museum, beautiful parks & Huerto del Cura (one of the most impressive botanical gardens I have ever seen).
Story time 📔
Never trust Google when it comes to small local bus routes! I had planned the day trip meticulously, if you have read previous posts from me you will know I haven’t done this well in the past. For this trip, I knew where I was going, how long I was spending there & my travel plans between sites.
My whole day was going exactly to plan, I found all of the sites without issue & even found an amazing little spot for tapas. With a full belly & slightly merry from the lunch time beers, I made my way to the bus stop to head back to the airport, which according to Google was a 30/40 minute journey.
A few buses had passed but none of them were the airport bus, I started to worry ever so slightly. So I jumped onto the next couple of buses that came & tried to ask the driver where the ‘aeropuerto autobus’ was. I can speak basic Duolingo Spanish, I cannot speak rapido Elche Bus Driver Catalan language, but I quickly came to realise there was no airport bus coming to save me. I still had a couple of hours until wheels up, no need to panic.
I looked to get an Uber, turns out there were no Ubers or street taxis, the heart rate starts to increase apace! I had however remembered that on the way to Elche I passed the airport on the train, I could just get the train back & get off at the stop closest to the airport. I had to run my fat ass back to the train station to catch a train to Torrellano (which was the closest to the airport).
Once I got to Torrellano, thinking surely I could find a taxi to the train station, alas I was wrong. I also couldn’t pin point myself on Google maps, or see any airport or planes in air, so I had to make a best guess judgement & decided on a road. My thinking was it looked like the sort of road that would take me to the airport. After around 40 minutes walking (with my luggage I might add), I saw a sign on the roadside saying aeropuerto & I have never wanted to kiss a road sign so much in my life! I made the flight home, all is well that ends well.
Photos from the trip 📸
Where to eat?
I highly recommend “Restaurante + Que Tapas”. They haven’t paid me for this post, but if the manager sees this & wants to offer me some free tapas, sign me up 😍
They do great Tapas, beers & the place has a chilled out vibe! Be careful what you order if your Spanish isn’t great, I ended up with Jam on toast with cold fish 😂. Either it’s a delicacy or I made a tit of the order (more than likely the latter!)
What is coming next? 🤔
Next up I will be posting about my trip out to Bruges & Brussels. From there I will be posting travel guides for some domestic places ahead of Summer! The UK is awesome when the sun comes out, for that whole week once a year. There will be a mini series on spots in the Peak District, then more historical places like Chester, Edinburgh & York. Would love to take any recommendations, if I can get there by train or flight, I will go 🤠
Hit subscribe to get notified when the post goes live, thanks for reading through as always, if you have any questions drop me a comment & I will get back to you as soon as possible ❤️
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Tyler's Travel Tales 
I enjoyed the place in your photos, Tyler, especially the huerto del cura. Stay safe always, tyler
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Thanks Hazel!
It was really beautiful, they even had colourful peacocks roaming free, but anytime I tried to take photo they moved on!
You too 😊
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Untamed peacocks🤭 Poor Tyler chasing them🤩🤭
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Yikes, you had to walk to the airport! Stressful indeed 😊 Maggie
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Thanks for stopping by 😊
Thankfully I had left myself a couple of hours spare, but did rack up around 40k steps that day, my feet were not in fantastic shape by the time I got there!
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What an adventure! It’s a recurring theme of my nightmares – not being able to reach the airport in time! Yes, google has not been trustworthy for me too on occasions. Then I ask my question on tripadvisor forum for that region and usually someone answers it with good information!
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Have you ever missed a flight? I am very paranoid about doing so, so always get there with plenty of time to spare, out of all my travels, this is the first time I have been really glad of the paranoia 😂
I haven’t used tripadvisor forums before but will definitely check them out ahead of my next trip.
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Oh, I almost missed it one time. But luckily the airport had new scanners which didn’t require people to take out electronics and liquids from the bag, which saved so many precious minutes!
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That is lucky indeed, glad you didn’t miss it!
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