Getting around Alicante without a car: university, hospital and beach
Tram, bus, buying a second-hand bike or renting one by the month: which works out best depending on where you live and how long you stay.
If you have just arrived in Alicante to study or for a hospital placement, your first week comes with an awkward question: how are you going to get around for the next few months? The answer is not obvious, because the three places where you will actually spend your life — campus, hospital and beach — are not in the same direction.
Here are the real options, what each one costs, and when it makes sense. Not all of them go through us: if a transport pass works for you, it works, and it is cheaper.
The shape of the problem
The University of Alicante is in San Vicente del Raspeig, not in Alicante city. Sant Joan University Hospital is in Sant Joan d’Alacant. Playa de San Juan is on the coast to the east. And the city centre is to the south.
Four points forming a quadrilateral — and that is the issue: public transport in Alicante is built radially, towards the centre. The journeys it handles worst are exactly the ones between outlying points: campus to beach, hospital to San Vicente.
Option 1: public transport
The TRAM (line L2) links Alicante with the San Vicente campus. Bus line 38 runs Playa San Juan – Sant Joan Hospital – University, which is precisely the axis you care about if those are your three points.
There is the Ruta 4/30 Joven pass, with unlimited travel for 30 days across all metropolitan transport — city buses, intercity buses and the tram. Read the conditions twice before counting on it, though: it is for people aged 5 to 30 who have been registered as residents of the city of Alicante for at least one uninterrupted year. If you have just arrived, or if you live in San Vicente or Sant Joan — which are separate municipalities — it does not apply to you. You will be on single tickets or ordinary TAM passes.
When it is the best option: if you live near a stop, your timetable is regular, and you do not mind depending on frequencies. It is by far the cheapest.
Where it struggles: nights and weekends, and cross-town journeys. Getting back from the beach to San Vicente on a Sunday evening is not the same as doing it on a Tuesday at six.
Option 2: buying a second-hand bike
The classic temptation if you are here for six months or a year.
In its favour: if you sell it well, the net cost can be low.
Against it, and this is not trivial: to buy one and register it in your name you need an NIE, and insurers will price you as a new and foreign rider. Add the roadworthiness test if it is due, breakdowns — on a used bike whose history you do not know — and the fact that when you leave you have to sell it on a deadline you do not choose, which is exactly when it sells worst.
When it makes sense: if you are staying more than a year and you are comfortable with Spanish bureaucracy.
Option 3: renting by the month
This is what we do, so read it with that in mind.
A 125 cc scooter by the month, from €275/month, insurance and servicing included, minimum three months. Nothing to buy, no NIE needed to register anything in your name, no roadworthiness test, nothing to sell when you leave, and a breakdown is not your problem.
When it works out: when a transport pass does not really cover you — on-call hours, shifts, or living away from a stop — and you do not want the hassle of buying. If you are here for three or four months, it is almost certainly the cleanest option.
When we would NOT recommend it: if you live next to campus and do not plan to move much, a transport pass is cheaper, full stop.
What you need to know about licences
To ride a 125 in Spain you need an A1 licence, or a category B car licence held for more than three years. And there is an important catch if your licence is not Spanish: the equivalence between a car licence and 125 cc bikes is a Spanish rule, and in several countries — the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden among them — a car licence does not entitle you to ride a 125.
If you are coming from abroad and are not sure, message us on WhatsApp before you count on the bike and we will check it against your actual licence.
And if you bring your own bike
Another situation we see: people arriving with their own motorcycle and nowhere to keep it, or leaving for a few months and not wanting to leave it on the street. We have indoor parking by the month. If that is you, message us and we will tell you whether there is space.