Elche (Elx) the city of palm trees.
On Friday we went to Elche for a day. Elche is known as the city of palm trees. And this is really true, because we had never seen so many palm trees together and also different palm trees. We really had a very nice day there. We drove to Elche by car and parked there in the parking lot at cafeteria Avapor. This is paid parking. Not that parking here is very expensive now, but if you want to park for free, there are several free parking spaces and grounds in the area. Then you are only a little further away from the center of Elche. The great thing is from the parking lot where we have stood, that you can cross directly to the park (Parc Municipal) there. This park is a nice start to your tour of Elche. It is a park with many palm trees and in different places there are all kinds of waterfalls. There is also a children's playground.
If you have then walked through the park, you will arrive at the tourist office. From here we planned to walk a whole route through Elche, only there was a nice train on the square. Apparently you can also go through Elche center with this train and actually ends up at most sights. During this ride you will be explained the corresponding history. We thought this was a nice idea and took the train. It is 7 euros for two people and halfway through the route you can get off to go to the del Palmerar museum and to Huerto del Cura (Botanical Garden). The train stops there every hour and then you can get back on with the same tickets and then you finally arrive at the tourist office again. It's also easy to just do on foot if you like it more. We first did the round by train and then we walked on foot through the streets of Elche center to Huerto del Cura.
Huerto del Cura (Botanical Garden). You should definitely have seen this once it is a botanical garden where the cacti can be as big as a palm tree. It is a large garden with a nice place to sit everywhere and each piece has different palm trees, cacti and tropical plants. Several water features have been laid out, which gives this garden even more appearance. It is really a beautiful garden where you can relax. There is also a souvenir shop where you can get the standard souvenirs from Elche , but also various plant seeds. So if you have green fingers, you could try to grow a few beautiful plants yourself.
There are many other attractions in Elche such as museums, a small zoo (Rio Safari), colorful paintings in the dry Rio Vianlopo and the Basilica de Santa Maria. You can really plan a whole day or several days full of plans.