Valencia, Alicante or Malaga: living without a car

Three cities, one question

People pick Valencia, Alicante and Malaga for the same reasons: sea, sun and a city you can walk. Where they differ is in how far from the centre that walkable city stops. We scored four addresses in each: the centre, a residential district, a beach district and one further out.

The first thing the chart shows: none of our Valencia addresses is weak. The lowest, 83.9, is above the second-best in both Malaga and Alicante.

Valencia: a flat city where the bike works too

Benimaclet, a former village with its own square, a metro and a tram, scores above the historic centre. Education is 100, pets 99, parks and sport 94, and there is no noise penalty. The centre loses to it on schools: at Plaza del Ayuntamiento education scores 64. The noise figure is for the spot the building stands on: inside a flat it depends on which way the windows face and on the glazing, and a flat on the courtyard side can be much quieter.

Ruzafa trails by 2.6 points; health there is 79 against 98 in Benimaclet. El Cabanyal, by the sea, is the only one of the four that pays for noise, 3.05 points, and it is weaker on education at 65. In return the beach is 405 metres away in a straight line, and "Bikes and shared cars" scores 79, matched only by central Alicante among the twelve.

Valencia is flat. From Benimaclet to Plaza del Ayuntamiento it is 2.8 kilometres with 3 metres of climb, and 86% of the ride is on cycle paths. From El Cabanyal it is 5.6 kilometres, again almost wholly on paths. The sea is far from the centre on foot and close by bike, and of the three cities this is where you miss a car least.

Malaga: a strong centre and a fast fall

In Malaga the score drops twenty points within a few kilometres.

• Plaza de la Merced 15, Centro: 90. Health 100, cafes and culture 100, remote work 100.
• Calle Ayala 20, Carretera de Cádiz: 82.4. Transport 98, daily needs 95, and 4.48 points lost to noise.
• Avenida de Plutarco 20, Teatinos: 71.7. A new district by the university with a metro to the centre; transport 65, remote work 25, bikes and shared cars 18.
• Paseo Marítimo El Pedregal 50, Pedregalejo: 70.4. The beach is 8 metres away. Daily needs 62, health 42.

Pedregalejo, a former fishing quarter in the east, shows what life at the water costs. There is no metro, the bus to the centre follows the shore, and the streets behind the seafront climb. Transport still scores 75, but the shops and the doctors stayed in town.

Teatinos is built differently. The streets are wide and the scale is set for cars. The street network itself scores 93, yet what you walk to is further off: education 66, cafes and culture 73.

Alicante: two towns joined by a tram

Alicante is small. There is a compact centre between the port and the castle hills, and there is the beach district of San Juan seven kilometres to the north-east.

• Explanada de España 1, Centro: 89.1. Transport 97, remote work 100, Postiguet beach 146 metres away.
• Calle Virgen del Socorro 50, Raval Roig: 75. The beach is 177 metres off, but daily needs score 71 and education 47.
• Avenida de Niza 20, Playa de San Juan: 69.6. The beach is 28 metres away. Education 34, bikes and shared cars 4.
• Avenida de Novelda 60, Los Ángeles: 68.1. The sea is 2.4 kilometres away, and noise takes 4.68 points.

Between the centre and the other three lie 14 points or more. San Juan has its tram, and transport scores 76. What it lacks is the rest: from many buildings the school and the shop are a drive away, and in winter part of the district stands empty.

Adding it up

By their best address the three cities are close: 94.1, 90 and 89.1. By the worst of our four they are far apart: 83.9, 70.4 and 68.1. Valencia forgives a wrong choice of district. Malaga and Alicante do not.

The cycling category agrees. In Valencia it runs from 60 to 79 across all four addresses. In Malaga from 18 to 39. In Alicante it is 79 in the centre and between 0 and 48 elsewhere.

Air costs all three cities next to nothing: from 0.39 to 0.84 of a point. Madrid loses 1.36, Barcelona up to 2.4.

Alicante or Valencia

If you are choosing between these two, the question is size. Valencia is larger and has several complete districts that score above 90. Alicante has one, the centre. For someone who wants to live centrally and walk to the beach, Alicante delivers it at the first address: 146 metres to Postiguet with a score of 89.1. Valencia offers no such pairing; there it is the centre or the sea.

For someone who needs a school nearby and a quiet street, Valencia is easier. Education scores 100 in Benimaclet against 70 in central Alicante and 47 in Raval Roig.

Malaga sits between them. Its centre is as complete as Alicante's, with the beach further off: La Malagueta is 972 metres from Plaza de la Merced in a straight line. Its second-best address, Calle Ayala 20, scores 82.4, well above Alicante's second, so there is more than one workable district. Past those two the score falls to the low seventies.

What it costs

We publish no rents. One official figure exists for the country: Eurostat's price level index for Spain is 90.9 with the EU average at 100, data for 2024. There is no such index by city, so the difference between Valencia and Malaga has to be read from listings.

What you can do in advance is work out what you will have to buy besides the rent. An address with transport at 65 and the cycling category at 18, like Teatinos, almost certainly means a car. An address that scores 94 means you need not own one.

All eighteen Spanish addresses with their scores are in the rating. More on the districts: Valencia, Malaga, Alicante. What goes into each category is set out on the page How it is calculated.