Rock Climbing in Costa Blanca

With its perfect bolted limestone crags and excellent climate from October through to April, its 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 many 100's of routes in this area at 18 different crags.

(2) – Xalo Valley. All the crags are single pitch sport routes that generally provide good face climbing. There are over 200 routes in this area at 6 different crags, with Alcalali and Pena Roja 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 300 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 8 different crags with over 750 routes to choose from in this area, including Vall de Guadar (Echo Valley) and Guadalest crags that both offer in excess of 100 routes.

(5) - Alicante Area. With 9 different crags and over 500 routes to choose from, there are many quality single and 2-pitch routes in this area offering fantastic sport climbing. The crag at Reconco (north east of Sax) has many quality long multi-pitch routes that again are fully bolted and is well worth considering as a good alternative to the crags in the Benidorm/Calpe areas.

(6) - Murcia Area. There are only 4 crags in this area, though all are extensive with over 300 quality sport routes. The best is 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 road side crags through to long multi-pitch routes in the mountains. 

Rock climbing guidebooks for the Costa Blanca region

The above information has been extracted from the excellent Rockfax Costa Blanca climbing guidebook for the area, which describes over 3,000 routes at 40 separate crags. Buy the Costa Blanca rock climbing guidebook from our shop.

There are also a number of guidebooks that have been published by local climbers. These guidebooks are in English and Spanish text, with a percentage of the profits from these guidebooks going back into the local bolt fund for the maintenance of existing routes and creating new routes.  

The Costa Blanca Climbs guidebook describes over 3,400 sport routes at 58 crags from Gandía in the north to Orihuela in the south.

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.