Setting the scene
Whilst I was soaking up some winter sun in Alicante I decided to venture further out into the wider region. That way I wouldn’t spend the whole morning in bed dying from the 2 euro beers the night before. This brought me on a day trip to Villena, whereby I originally only wanted to see the Atalaya Castle, but fell in love with the whole city. Other than making a complete calamity of the planning & organising it was well worth the journey.
Modern Day Villena
Villena sits to the NorthWest corner of Alicante near the borders between Murcia & Castilla – La Mancha. It is the Capital of Alto Vinalopo.
Although the Atalaya castle is the centrepiece of the city, there has been some important archaeological finds of treasure & jewellery etc. There are a couple of small museums, awe- inspiring holy buildings, scenic landscapes, a cool theatre & beautiful skyline views.
Story time 📔
Google is a liar sometimes! According to Google maps in Villena there is a Castle – Castillo de Salvatierra, I am now fairly confident that this is a lie. If you go on maps you can see there are no streets around it, when I got there it was the side of a mountain with quite a rugged terrain & insane precipitous drops all over the area. Let me know in the comments if you have ever actually found this Castle! After around 90 minutes of going in circles & not finding the Castle (which may or may not exist) I was fully ready to send up an emergency flare in the hope that Bear Grylls would come save me.
Plan your trip! As this place isn’t a major tourist hotspot a lot of things weren’t open when I went & it was quiet as it was a Monday in February. This meant I didn’t get to go into any of the Museums or the Atalaya Castle 🫣. However, I still loved walking around looking at the buildings etc.
A few cheeky snaps! 📸
Money 💰
I did not see many cash machines around & a lot of places looked very local & cash only.
So I would suggest bringing some paper with you! As I didn’t get into any of the tourist sites I am not sure which accept card & which don’t.
Getting around 🚕
I didn’t see many taxi’s floating (pun intended!) about but the city isn’t massive. I would say your best bet is to walk if you don’t have a car.
Getting into Villena was easy enough, the train goes directly from Alicante & only costs a couple of euros.
Bonus tip ✅
There are a variety of places called “Mirador de *Name*” on Google maps. These don’t look like anything you would stop by. However, I highly recommend that you do. They are basically platforms whereby you get stunning views of the city & sites.
The 2 that you should definitely visit are Mirador Alt Vinalopó & Mirador del Castillo de Villena. They are close to each other so you can get between them easily enough.
What is coming next? 🤔
Next up I will be writing about my trip out to Elda-Petrer where I had a meltdown trying to get into a Castle, got chased down by a terminator dog & fell into a water fountain! So definitely hit subscribe to find out what happened 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 ❤️
Tyler's Travel Tales 