Day Trip: Alicante to Murcia, Spain

When I lived in Madrid, one of my favorite things to do when I had a free weekend was take a day trip from Madrid to another city. Now that we’re based in Alicante, we want to do the same thing! A few weeks ago we spent an afternoon in Elche, and last week we finally visited the city of Murcia.

Here’s what you need to know about taking a day trip from Alicante to Murcia.

Murcia, Spain

Distance from Alicante: 80 km/50 miles

The city of Murcia is the capital of the autonomous community of Murcia, and it’s also the capital of the province of Murcia.

In Spain, autonomous communities are kind of like U.S. states, and provinces are kind of similar to counties. The community of Murcia is so small that it’s only made up of one province. And while there are lots of other cities in Murcia community/province, its major city is also Murcia. Are you confused yet? 😂

I didn’t know much about Murcia (any of them) before visiting, other than the fact that it was one of the autonomous communities I had never visited before. But a few months ago, in my Spanish class, we were talking about stereotypes of different communities in Spain. My teacher told us that the big joke among Spanish people is that “Murcia doesn’t exist,” probably because it’s so small and relatively isolated from the rest of the country. For that reason, it seems a little bit like a forgotten place.

But I can now say that I’ve seen with my own two eyes — yes, Murcia does exist. 😉

We arrived in Murcia at 9:30 a.m. via train, and we left at 3:30 p.m. to get back to Alicante. I think six hours was plenty of time. Though I’m sure we could have found more things to do if we’d stayed longer, it was July and the afternoon temperatures were about 95°F (~35C), so we decided not to push it. With that being said, we still were able to get a good feel for Murcia. And we know we’re able to come back whenever we want!

So, what is there to see and do in Murcia?

We started by walking from the train station to the Rio Segura, the major river that flows through Murcia. In order to get to most of Murcia’s most interesting things, you have to cross one of the bridges spanning the river. The water was kind of murky green, but I was happy because there were all kinds of birds, ducks, and geese that I’d never seen before! (In case you didn’t know, I’m a bird girl now.)

The prettiest bridge is the Pasarela de Vistabella, and I didn’t get a photo of it, so you’ll just have to check it out yourself. 😉

Not far from the river, you’ll find Murcia’s Casco Antiguo, or old quarter. In the traditional Spanish style, it’s made up of old narrow streets with lots of stores — from brand names to independent shops — on the lower level. While Alicante also has a casco antiguo, it’s a completely different feel, as it’s more open and less winding, so it was nice to check out Murcia’s version. It certainly feels more like some of the cascos antiguos I’ve experienced in Spain, such as in Bilbao and Sevilla.

If you wander through the Casco Antiguo long enough, like we did, you might just happen across one of Murcia’s most spectacular sites. (And no, I’m not talking about the cathedral. We’ll get to that later.)

In this case, I’m talking about the Real (Royal) Casino de Murcia. It isn’t the gambling type of casino, which is what I thought of when I first saw it; rather, it’s a private social club dating back to 1847. Over nearly two centuries, the building has hosted art exhibitions, conferences, ceremonies, and other cultural events.

While it’s gorgeous just from the outside, I recommend heading inside for a closer look. You’re welcome to take in the mudejar-style architecture from the lobby, but if you want to continue for a full visit, it costs €5 per person (less for reduced groups). We spent about 45 minutes wandering through all the grand rooms, which included a library and a ballroom with huge chandeliers, which reminded me of the ones at Versailles. There’s even a restaurant at the very back, which looked really good, but a little too fancy for us. 😅

And only a few minutes’ walk from the casino is the Catedral de Murcia. The cathedral’s exterior is quite ornate, due to the baroque-style architecture, although the interior follows Gothic style. Unfortunately, one of the façades has been under construction for the past year, so we weren’t able to see what it looked like. But on the bright side, it was covered in a tarp that was covered in illustrations related to the cathedral and Murcia as a whole! (So much better than when, last time I went to Barcelona, the Catedral de Barcelona construction was covered in ads for Samsung.)

We actually didn’t have a ton of interest in going inside the Catedral de Murcia. I always say that once you’ve seen one cathedral in Spain, you’ve seen them all (Sagrada Familia in Barcelona excluded). But we decided to see if it was free to get in, or to see if we could at least climb its bell tower for a great view of the city. The cathedral’s bell tower is the second-tallest in Spain, after La Giralda at the Catedral de Sevilla.

Once we got inside, we found out that visiting the church was not free, and neither was climbing the tower. In fact, climbing the tower was only permitted with a guided tour, which happens three times a day at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., and 4 p.m. But we couldn’t have planned it better, because it was 11:57 a.m. and we were just in time for the noon tour.

We paid €7 per person, though it doesn’t include a visit to the rest of the cathedral or the cathedral museums, which was okay with us. One note — the tours were only offered in Spanish, though they do provide a brochure in English that has a lot of the basics of what the guide covers. See other ticket prices here.

While I love climbing bell towers in churches, I don’t love how hard it can be, especially when the tower is super tall. (I am a big baby.) But the nice thing about the climb being part of a guided tour is that we stopped frequently on the way up to for the tour guide to share information with the group, so it really didn’t make me as tired as I expected. I highly suggest you bring a handheld fan as it can be stuffy in the passageways on the way up.

Moving on from the cathedral, there are two markets that are worth checking out. First, there’s the Mercado de Verónicas, which is your typical Spanish market. The market is made up of stalls full of local meat, fish, produce, spices, and more. But what we thought was even cooler — and much more unique — was the Mercado de Correos.

Literally, this means “postal service market,” and it’s so-named because the building used to be the post office until 1980. Now, it’s been turned into a food hall with 15 different restaurants/bars and a large events room in the back. I wish we hadn’t come across it on our way back to the train station, otherwise we would have ordered something and hung out for a while!

On our way back to the train station, we also came across a few more points of interest. The Ayuntamiento de Murcia (town hall) was a coral pink building, where I was able to finally get a good look at the regional flag of Murcia. Plaza de Santo Domingo was home to a giant, 100-year-old Ficus, a statue in honor of human rights, and a collection of red flowerpots. And Plaza de Camachos has a fountain, the Fuente de los Jarrones, which pays tribute to Murcia’s history of pottery and ceramics.

And while on the train, there was one thing we saw in the distance that may *technically* be in a suburb of Murcia, but it caught our eye and we want to come back and see it up-close some day. Monteagudo is a mountain, with a castle on top of it, which is crowned by a giant sculpture of Jesus with his arms outstretched, similar to the world-famous one in Rio de Janeiro. A museum at the bottom of the castle recounts the history of the many different cultures who have called this area home over thousands of years.

How To Get From Alicante to Murcia

Train: From Alicante’s main train station, Alicante/Alacant-Terminal, you have a couple of options. You can take a high-speed train with Renfe, Spain’s national rail operator, which will get you there in about 55 minutes. Even though we only booked a few days in advance, our tickets only cost €8 per person, each way, so we thought it was a pretty good deal. Note: train operators Ouigo and Iryo do not offer trips from Alicante to Murcia.

Your other option, which would be a bit cheaper but also take longer, is to take Cercanias, which is a lower-speed train meant to connect commuters between major cities and surrounding towns. A Cercanias ticket costs €11.50 round-trip between Alicante and Murcia, so you might save about €5, but the overall trip will take about 1.5 hours instead of 55 minutes. Totally up to how you want to travel.

Bus: You could also take the bus from Alicante to Murcia. The bus with the shortest duration takes only an hour, and the costs I’m seeing right now seem to be the same as what I paid for the train. So if you prefer buses to trains, then this would be your best best. In Alicante, the bus station you’ll need is Estación de Autobuses de Alicante, and in Murcia it’s Estación de Autobuses de Murcia. (Easy right?) I think you can buy tickets in person, but I always prefer to buy online.

 

What else do you want to know about taking a day trip from Alicante to Murcia? Let me know in the comments!

-Cathy

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