Last updated: August 2026
Is Benidorm expensive? Less than most of the Spanish coast, though the cheap-pint reputation is well out of date. Rooms on the Levante front now sit close to Majorca’s in August. What holds a week here down is the tax line: the Valencian region scrapped its tourist levy in November 2023, a month before it was due to start, so nothing is added to your room bill per night.
Benidorm at a glance
- Flight timeUnder 3 hours from London, longer from Scotland
- AirportAlicante-Elche (ALC), down the coast, about an hour by road
- CurrencyEuro (EUR), check the live rate before you budget
- Tourist taxNone. The Valencian levy was repealed before it started
- LanguageSpanish and Valencian; English is spoken everywhere on Levante
- VisaVisa-free for UK passports, up to 90 days in any 180
Coach, tram and theme-park prices below are the operators’ published August 2026 figures. Hotel and restaurant costs move too fast to print, so those appear as ranges.
How to keep Benidorm costs down
Benidorm punishes one habit above all others: staying on the Levante seafront and eating on it too. Walk five minutes inland and the same meal costs noticeably less.
| Do this | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Take the ALSA coach, not a taxi | The airport coach is €7.99 and takes 45 to 55 minutes. A taxi runs on a metered fare no operator publishes in advance. |
| Buy a Bono 10 for the tram | Ten three-zone journeys cost €12.00 under the reduction running to 31 December 2026, against €3.90 for a single. |
| Book Terra Mítica online | The park charges €41 at the gate in low season and €37 online. In high season it is €49 against €45. |
| Eat in the Old Town, not on Levante | The lanes behind Plaza de la Constitución run on Spanish trade. The seafront strip runs on holidaymakers who won’t walk. |
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"Valencia wrote a tourist stay tax into law, then repealed it a month before the first bill was due, and not one hotel here has ever collected a night of it. It’s the rare travel saving you get without doing anything clever: you book, you turn up, and the number at checkout is the number you were quoted."
Kate Acaster, Chief Editor, Flight Tribe
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Getting to Benidorm from the UK
Benidorm has no airport. Every UK flight lands at Alicante-Elche, down the coast, about an hour away by road, and Alicante is one of the best-served Spanish airports from Britain, which keeps flight-only fares honest even in August.
| Airline | UK airports with direct flights | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jet2.com | Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, East Midlands, London Stansted, London Luton and London Gatwick all have their own Alicante route pages. | Sells flight-only and package holidays. The package side is where most Benidorm hotel stock is sold. |
| easyJet | Flies Alicante from a wide UK network. Check its route map for your own airport. | Year-round on the bigger bases, not just summer. |
| Ryanair | Flies Alicante from a wide UK network. Check its route map for your own airport. | Usually the cheapest headline fare and the strictest bag rules. |
| TUI Airways | Flies to Alicante from a broad regional list as part of its package programme. | Sold mainly as a holiday rather than seat-only. |
| British Airways | Flies Alicante from London. | Higher fares. Check whether your fare type includes a checked bag, because the cheapest ones don’t. |
The practical difference from a Greek or Croatian trip is winter. Alicante keeps a real year-round schedule, so a February week in Benidorm is a normal booking rather than a charter gamble.
Visa and entry requirements for UK travellers
Spain is in the Schengen area. A UK passport gets you in without a visa for up to 90 days in any rolling 180, and your passport must be less than ten years old on the day you enter and valid for at least three months after you intend to leave.
What happens at Alicante on arrival
Alicante handles a lot of British arrivals, and passport control backs up in July and August. Leave yourself an hour before any onward coach or tram rather than booking the tightest connection.
Concessions don’t follow a British passport
Spanish attractions often price a reduced ticket for residents, students or over-65s. Where a concession is tied to EU residency rather than age, a British passport no longer qualifies. Check the wording before assuming a pensioner rate applies to you.
Getting from Alicante airport to Benidorm
ALSA runs a direct airport service into Benidorm, so there’s no need to change in Alicante city unless you want to. Everything else on this list is a reason to pay more.
| Option | Cost and timing |
|---|---|
| ALSA coach, airport direct to Benidorm | €7.99 one way. Journey 45 to 55 minutes. Departures run roughly hourly from around 06:00 until late evening. |
| Airport bus to Alicante, then TRAM Line 1 | Cheaper in theory, slower in practice. You pay twice and add a change, for a journey the direct coach already does in under an hour. |
| Taxi or private transfer | Door to door, no timetable, and the fare is set by the operator rather than published in advance. Worth it late at night, with small children, or split four ways. |
| Hotel or package transfer | Included in many Jet2 and TUI packages. Check whether yours is a direct coach or a circuit that drops at six hotels before yours. |
Benidorm’s best view costs nothing. The Balcon del Mediterraneo is a white balustrade on the headland where the old fishing village stood, and it looks straight down both bays at once.
The Old Town sits directly behind it. Plaza de la Constitucion, the church of Sant Jaume, and the lanes of tapas bars running off them are all within a few minutes’ walk, and all on the same free footing.
Getting around Benidorm
Benidorm is small enough to walk end to end, and the seafront promenade runs the length of both beaches. The tram matters for getting out of town, not around it.
| Ticket | What it covers | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Single | One three-zone journey, which is what the full Alicante to Benidorm run costs | €3.90 |
| Return | The same journey both ways | €6.65 |
| Bono 10 | Ten three-zone journeys on one card | €12.00, reduced from €20.00 |
| 24-hour ticket | Unlimited travel for a day, sold only as a three-zone ticket | €8.00 |
Two people doing the Alicante run once each way pay €13.30 in returns. A single Bono 10 covers those same four journeys for €12.00 and leaves six more on the card, so it only wins if you’ll use them. Check at the machine whether one card can be validated twice for two travellers before you rely on it.
Where to base yourself in Benidorm
Benidorm sells itself as one resort. You’re really choosing between five very different places, and picking the wrong one is how a week here goes wrong.
| Area | Suits | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Levante beach | Nightlife, the British bar strip, late food, easy company | The loudest and the priciest per night. Rooms above a bar are cheap for a reason. |
| Old Town and the headland | Spanish tapas bars, the Balcon viewpoint, walking distance to both beaches | Older buildings and fewer big resort hotels. Steps and hills. |
| Poniente beach | Families, quieter evenings, a longer and less crowded stretch of sand | A longer walk to the nightlife, which is the point for most people who choose it. |
| Rincón de Loix | Package hotels, adults-only stock, short walk to the Levante end | Set back from the front, so a sea view costs extra. |
| La Cala and Finestrat | Newer apartment blocks, more space for the money | You’re outside Benidorm proper and will use the bus or the tram more. |
What Benidorm’s main attractions cost
| Attraction | Adult admission |
|---|---|
| Terra Mítica theme park | €41 at the gate in low season, €37 online. High season is €49 at the gate and €45 online. |
| Balcón del Mediterráneo viewpoint | Free. No gate, no ticket, open at any hour. |
| Levante and Poniente beaches | No charge for the sand itself. Sunloungers and parasols are hired separately from concessions, and they only cover part of the beach. |
| The Old Town and Plaza de la Constitución | Free. The tapas lanes behind it are where the Spanish evening happens. |
| Sierra Helada headland walks | Free. The natural park rises straight off the end of Levante beach. |
| Boat to Benidorm Island | Ticketed by private operators from the harbour, who set their own fares and publish no central tariff. |
One ticket, then. Everything else on that list is open ground you can walk onto at any hour, which is unusual for a resort this size.
Benidorm was a fishing village of a few thousand people until the 1960s. The old core is still there on the headland, and it’s the part of town most visitors never walk into.
The towers went up under a post-war tourism plan that set them in clusters rather than as a wall along the sand. It’s why the streets behind the front feel less canyoned than the skyline suggests.
Where to stay in Benidorm on a budget
Three properties, one for each way of doing Benidorm. Rates move constantly here, more than in most resorts, so the live booking page is the only honest price.
| Tier | Hotel | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | A big three-star at the Levante end, with pools and a swim-up bar. Loud, busy, and entirely upfront about it. | |
| Mid | Adults only, set back from Levante beach, with a spa and pools. The obvious pick if the sitcom version of Benidorm is what you’re trying to avoid. | |
| Worth the spend | A small boutique hotel on the headland itself, between the two bays and above the Old Town. Far smaller than anything on the seafront, and positioned for the view rather than the strip. |
On the tax, there is nothing to add to your booking total. The Valencian region legislated for a tourist levy in December 2022, then repealed the law in November 2023, a month before it was due to take effect. The repeal also removed the optional surcharge individual councils could have added on top.
Spanish beaches are public. On Levante the hired loungers occupy the middle and the free sand sits at either end, so you’re never obliged to pay to sit down.
Poniente is the longer of the two beaches. Even in August the far ends thin out, and the walk that gets you there is the same promenade everyone else is strolling anyway.
Where to eat and drink in Benidorm on a budget
Benidorm feeds two separate populations, in different streets and at different hours. Eat when the Spanish eat and the bill drops sharply.
| Tier | Where | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | The menú del día in the Old Town lanes | Two courses, bread and a drink for a fixed price. The best value meal in the resort, and a Spanish institution rather than a tourist offer. |
| Budget | Tapas around Plaza de la Constitución | Small plates ordered a few at a time. Spanish diners arrive from about 21:00, so go earlier if you want a table without waiting. |
| Mid | The Levante British bar strip | Full English breakfasts, roast dinners, karaoke and imported lager. Priced for holidaymakers, and entirely honest about being exactly that. |
| Worth the spend | El Xato, la Nucía | One Michelin star in the 2026 guide, under chef Cristina Figueira. It’s in la Nucía rather than Benidorm, about ten minutes inland, and the business traces back to a wine cellar opened in 1915. |
The menú del día runs at lunchtime, Monday to Friday. Turn up at 21:00 expecting it and you’ve missed the cheapest good meal in Spain by eight hours.
Levante or Poniente
The two bays meet at the headland and couldn’t be less alike. Choosing between them decides the character of the whole week far more than the hotel does.
Levante faces the sunrise and holds the nightlife, the British bars and most of the noise. Poniente faces the sunset, runs longer, and fills with Spanish families in August.
The mountains behind do more than frame the view. The Sierra Helada shelters the eastern end of Levante from the wind, which is why that end of the beach stays usable on days the front is breezy.
How much does Benidorm cost per day?
Two people sharing a room, one set lunch and one sit-down dinner a day, shoulder season.
| Item | Cost per person | Published or assumed |
|---|---|---|
| Room, split two ways | Assume €35 to €60 a head in shoulder season, higher in August | Assumed. Benidorm rates move weekly, so use the live booking page |
| Breakfast and coffee | Assume €5 to €8 | Assumed |
| Menú del día lunch | Assume €12 to €18 | Assumed. The format is fixed, the price is set by each kitchen |
| TRAM Bono 10 journey | €1.20 | Published by TRAM d’Alacant |
| Dinner with a drink | Assume €18 to €30, more on the Levante strip | Assumed |
| Tourist tax | €0.00 | Published. The Valencian levy was repealed in 2023 |
| Realistic daily total | Roughly €71 to €117 a head, excluding flights and any theme-park day | Mixed |
Use the bands as a rough shape and replace each one with a real quote as you book. Two people sharing a room in October land near the bottom of the range. A family on the Levante front in August clears the top of it.
Best time to visit Benidorm on a budget
| Period | What to expect |
|---|---|
| May and June | Warm without the August crush, sea warming up, room rates well below peak. |
| July and August | The peak in every sense. Highest rates, fullest beaches, and the resort at full volume. |
| September and October | The best combination on the calendar. The sea is at its warmest, the crowds thin after the first week of September, and rates fall. |
| November to April | Benidorm’s quiet advantage. Alicante keeps a year-round flight schedule and the resort stays open, so winter breaks here are genuinely cheap. |
So, is Benidorm expensive?
No. A realistic day here runs about €71 to €117 a head before flights. The cheap-pint story is decades old, and the seafront has caught up with the rest of the Mediterranean on room rates.
What keeps it cheap now is structural. There’s no overnight tax, the airport transfer is €7.99, and almost nothing worth seeing charges admission. The flight market into Alicante stays competitive through the winter too, which holds fares down when the island routes are at their peak.
Benidorm gets mocked for its skyline, and the skyline is why it stays cheap. Building upwards put a very large number of beds within walking distance of two beaches, and that supply holds prices down.
Resorts that spread low-rise along a coast need a hire car. Here you can land, take one coach, and walk to almost everything for the rest of the week.
Benidorm against its neighbours
Against Majorca, Ibiza or Marbella, Benidorm’s clearest edge is the €7.99 transfer and the absence of an overnight levy. Ibiza and Marbella both price their seafront well above anything on Levante. What Benidorm doesn’t offer is quiet. Nobody books it expecting that, so it’s a choice rather than a catch.
Frequently asked questions
Is Benidorm expensive?
No. It’s one of the cheaper mainland Spanish resorts for a UK visitor, and its two structural advantages are real: the Valencian region charges no tourist tax at all, and the airport coach from Alicante is €7.99. Room rates on the Levante seafront in August are another matter and now sit close to Balearic prices.
Does Benidorm charge a tourist tax?
No. The Valencian government passed a law creating a tourist stay tax in December 2022, then repealed it outright in November 2023, a month before it was due to take effect. That repeal also killed the optional surcharge individual councils could have added, so there’s no overnight levy here at all.
How do I get from Alicante airport to Benidorm?
Take the ALSA coach. It runs direct from the airport to Benidorm, costs €7.99 one way and takes 45 to 55 minutes, with departures roughly hourly from around 06:00 until late evening. There is no need to change in Alicante city.
How much is the tram from Alicante to Benidorm?
A single on the full three-zone journey is €3.90 and a return is €6.65. A Bono 10 covers ten of those journeys for €12.00 under a reduction running to 31 December 2026, or €1.20 a trip, and a 24-hour ticket is €8.00.
How much does Terra Mítica cost?
Adult admission is €41 at the gate in low season and €37 booked online. High season is €49 at the gate against €45 online, so booking ahead saves €4 an adult either way.
Benidorm packs more tall buildings into a small coastal town than anywhere else in Spain. The Intempo tower, with its M-shaped crown, is the one everybody photographs.
None of the towers charge for the view. The one that does the job for nothing is the Balcón del Mediterráneo, at ground level on the headland, looking straight down both bays.
Which UK airports fly to Alicante?
A lot of them. Jet2 alone publishes Alicante route pages for Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, East Midlands, London Stansted, London Luton and London Gatwick, and easyJet, Ryanair, TUI and British Airways all fly the route too. Unlike most Greek islands, Alicante keeps a year-round schedule rather than a summer-only one.
Levante or Poniente, which is better?
Levante for nightlife, British bars and company. Poniente for families, sunsets and a longer, quieter stretch of sand. They meet at the headland, so you can stay on one and walk to the other along the promenade.
Is there anything free to do in Benidorm?
Most of it. The part worth knowing is that the hired loungers on Levante only ever cover the middle of the beach, so the sand at either end stays open however busy the resort gets. The Balcón del Mediterráneo, the Old Town lanes and the Sierra Helada cliff paths are all open ground.
When is the cheapest time to visit Benidorm?
November to April is cheapest outright, and Benidorm stays open through it, which most Mediterranean resorts don’t. For warm weather at a lower price, September and October are the best value on the calendar: the sea is at its warmest and rates drop after the first week of September.
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Kate Acaster is Chief Editor at Flight Tribe. She writes about practical travel planning, budget airlines, baggage rules, city breaks, beach holidays and good hotels that do not cost daft money.
Kate has travelled through Europe, South America and beyond, usually with a notebook, a half-formed plan and a strong opinion on airport snacks. At Flight Tribe, her work focuses on helping UK travellers understand what is included, what costs extra, and whether a trip is worth booking at the price shown.
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