Hotels in Dénia

Dénia

Dénia is a historic coastal city of about 47,000 inhabitants and the capital of the Marina Alta, on the northern Costa Blanca halfway between Alicante and Valencia. Its population more than doubles in summer with tourism. Iberian, Greek, Roman, Islamic and Christian civilisations have all left their mark, and the Romans knew the town as Dianium, after the goddess Diana. A large Moorish castle stands on a rocky crag above the centre and holds the Palau del Governador and its museum. Behind the city rises the Montgó massif, which frames every view from the sea. Dénia has been a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy since 2015, and the chef Quique Dacosta runs his three-Michelin-star restaurant in the Las Marinas area. The D*na food festival fills the Marineta Cassiana boardwalk on the last weekend of September, and the Fallas burn in the streets from 14 to 19 March. Baleària runs daily ferries from the port to Ibiza and the other Balearic Islands, which makes the city a natural base for combining the two. It suits food lovers, families and travellers who want a real town with beaches rather than a purpose-built resort. Both Alicante-Elche and Valencia airports are within reach, and diesel trains on the coastal line connect Dénia with Benidorm and the tram to Alicante.