Gran Alacant is not a village with a main street. It is a cluster of more than twenty-six urbanisations on the cape, about four kilometres up the N-332 from Santa Pola town, with some 12,300 registered residents and many more in summer. Monte y Mar, Puerto Marino, Altomar, Bahía Playa, Balcones del Mar, Brisas del Faro: each has its own gate, its own blocks or phases, and often its own way of numbering doors.
For anyone coming to help, whether a locksmith, a doctor or a delivery driver, the street name alone is rarely enough. Here is the order that works.
1. The urbanisation first
Start with the name of the urbanisation, not the street. It narrows the search to a few hundred metres straight away, and it is the name on the sign at the gate. If you are renting and do not know it, it is usually on the booking, on the key tag or on the community noticeboard by the entrance.
2. Then the phase, block or building
Many urbanisations are built in phases (fase) or blocks (bloque), sometimes with a letter. On bungalows and terraced houses there may be a number on a small tile by the door that has nothing to do with the street number. Give both if you can see both.
3. Then the door
Floor and letter for an apartment (2º B), or the house number. If the front door is inside a courtyard, say so.
4. Say how to get through the gate
This is the step that wastes the most time at night. Is the community gate open? Does it need a code or a fob? Is there a pedestrian gate beside the car gate? If the gate itself is the problem, read what to do when it is the gate that keeps you out.
5. Or skip all of it and send a pin
A location pin on WhatsApp beats every description. Drop it where you are standing, outside the door, not at the entrance to the urbanisation, and add the block and door in the message. If you are on the phone at the same time, say “I have sent you a pin”.
Down in the town it is different
In Santa Pola town the street and number usually do the job, with one exception: on summer evenings the streets round the Glorieta close to cars, so it helps to name the nearest corner too. There is a short guide to the evening closure.
Write it down before you need it
If you own or let a property up here, put the full address, in this order, on a card by the door and in the welcome message for guests. A guest who has to describe your bungalow at midnight from the wrong side of the door will thank you. Owners can find more on locks for holiday lets and second homes, and every place we cover is listed on the coverage page.