Rock Climbing in Costa Blanca

With its perfect bolted limestone crags and excellent climate from October through to April, it's no surprise the Costa Blanca has become a popular rock climbing destination. Coupled with the vast array of cheap flights from all over Europe and good quality accommodation Costa Blanca is an ideal place for a good budget rock climbing holiday.

The map below shows the main rock climbing areas within the Costa Blanca region.

(1) - Gandia Area. All the crags are single pitch sport routes with the exception of Aventador crag, which offers multi-pitch sports climbing. There are over 700 routes in this area at 7 different crags. The largest crag is Marxuquera with almost 200 routes from F4’s to F7b+.

(2) – Xalo Valley. All the crags are single pitch sport routes that generally provide good face climbing. There are over 600 routes in this area at 11 different crags, with Murla, Lliber and Alcalali being the most popular.

(3) - Calpe Area. The 300m tower rising from the sea called the Penon offers superb multi-pitch climbing with both sport and traditional routes. The area offers good sport routes including the sea cliffs of Mascarat and Toix. At the 8 different crags in the Calpe area there are over 400 routes to choose from.

(4) - Benidorm Area. The main crag is Sella, which has nearly 500 routes and offers everything from short easy routes to long multi-pitch traditional climbing. Puig Campana also offers superb long multi-pitch traditional climbing though the hour walk in does put some people off. In total there are 9 different crags in the Benidorm area with over 1,000 routes to choose from. These include Vall de Guadar (Echo Valley) and the Guadalest crags that both offer in excess of 100 routes.

(5) – Alcoy Area. A good collection of 6 crags in a compact area, offering routes from F4’s to F7c. In total there are nearly 400 routes here, with the largest crags being La Bassett, and Mas de la Penza.

(6) - Alicante Area.  With 27 different crags and over 3,000 routes to choose from, there are many excellent single and 2-pitch routes in this area offering fantastic sport climbing. Some of the larger crags include Cabreras (Sax), Penas de Marin, Forada, and Reconco (with many bolted multi-pitch routes). All of these quality bolted routes are well worth considering as a good alternative to the crags in the Benidorm/Calpe areas. There is a separate comprehensive guidebook covering this area called Alicante Sport Climbing Guidebook that is available to buy from our shop.

(7) - Murcia Area.  There are 11 crags here, with most of them location around the town of Orihuela. In total there are over 600 routes with El Rut and La Pancha being the largest crags near Orihuela, and a huge crag called Leyva, south of Mula, with some long multi-pitch sports routes.

Situation and Character of the climbing at Costa Blanca

The rock climbing at Costa Blanca is very extensive and varied but more important it is the quality of the routes that is fantastic. Good quality bolted limestone across a wide range of grades. The rock climbing varies from short single pitch roadside crags through to long multi-pitch routes in the mountains. It is possible to climb in the Costa Blanca throughout most of the year. For hot days there are crags that are in shade and at a higher altitude, whilst there are crags that catch the sun that are perfect for climbing in the colder months.

Rock climbing guidebooks for the Costa Blanca region

The Costa Blanca Climbs guidebook describes over 4,000 sport routes at 56 crags from Gandía in the north to Orihuela in the south.

The Alicante Sport Climbing Guidebook is a comprehensive guidebook describing over 3,000 routes at 27 different crags.

The Rockfax Costa Blanca climbing guidebook is a selective guidebook for the area describing over 3,000 routes at 40 separate crags.

The Roca Espana, Costa Blanca South, Sport Climbing Guidebook is a selective guidebook covering 64 crags in the southern part of Costa Blanca around Alicante.

Buy all of these guidebooks for the Costa Blanca area from our shop.

Care Hire - It is definitely desirable to hire a car due to the wide area these crags cover. Car hire can be pre-booked (usually cheaper and picked up at the airport or resort).

Accommodation - The choice is huge, from package deals in Benidorm to villas in Calpe, Benidorm and Alicante. All are excellent bases to visit any of the crags, though some will take over an hour to get there. 

Other Activities in Costa Blanca

The mountains rise up sharply from coast to an altitude of well over 1,000m providing many excellent mountain adventures such as trad climbing, ridge scrambles, via ferratas, canyoning, walking and hiking.  The Bernia Ridge is spectacular rocky crest that is a popular route for climbers and serious scramblers and is situated just south of Calpe.  A 2km section from the summit of the Bernia (1,126m) towards the coast is the most impressive part of the ridge that includes a number of summits and some easy climbing.  The Costa Blanca Tour and Trail Map includes this route along with a large number of other walking tracks and trails. The Costa Blanca Mountains Adventure Guidebook also describes the Bernia Ridge, along with other ridge scrambles, via ferratas, canyoning, sport climbing, trad climbing, hiking, trail running and road-cycling.