Drive south from Alicante Airport instead of north, and after about thirty-five minutes the coastline does something unexpected: the water turns a deep, unmistakable pink, and the cliffs and headlands that define Calpe and Benidorm disappear entirely into a flat, open shoreline. This is Torrevieja, roughly 45 km south of the airport and in the opposite direction from our usual routes, and it is worth a trip on its own.
The pink lagoon: what causes the color, and when to go
What everyone calls the pink lake is officially Las Salinas de Torrevieja, a salt lagoon that forms a natural park together with its neighbor, Laguna de la Mata — an ordinary blue-green lake right next door, with a contrast between the two that is visible even from a plane. The pink comes from nothing artificial: a micro-algae called Dunaliella salina and salt-tolerant bacteria live in the extremely salty water and produce a pigment that shields them from intense sunlight. The saltier the water gets, and it gets very salty here in summer as evaporation speeds up, the more intense the color becomes.
Late afternoon and sunset are the best time to see it. Low sunlight makes the pink read much deeper than it does at midday, when heat haze tends to wash the color out. Expect a paler, almost lilac tone in the morning and a much richer magenta an hour or two before dark; dry months from July through September usually give the strongest color of the year.
This is not a lake kept pink for photographs. Salt has been harvested here since Roman times, and the works are still commercially active today — along one edge of the lagoon you will see salt piled in mounds and the machinery that moves it, which does not get in the way of the marked viewing points around the perimeter. Keep an eye out for flamingos too: the brine shrimp living in the water attract them in numbers, and the same pigment that colors the lagoon tints their feathers pink as well.
The Vista Alegre promenade and a different Costa Blanca
The town center is a ten-minute drive from the lagoon. Its seafront, Paseo Vista Alegre, runs in a long straight line along the water, palm-lined and almost entirely flat — which sums up the town well. Where Calpe has the Peñón de Ifach rock and Benidorm has cliffside lookouts, Torrevieja sits on open, level coastline: no headlands to climb, just a wide beach and a promenade built for long, easy walks, with cafés and a weekend market strung along it.
The character of the place is different too. Torrevieja has one of the largest communities of British, Scandinavian and German long-stay residents on this coast — people who came for a season and stayed for good, or bought property and split their year between here and home. English-language signage, pubs showing football and supermarkets stocking imported groceries are all part of daily life here in a way they are not in Calpe. It reads less like a classic Spanish beach town and more like an international retirement coast — some visitors find that less charming, others find it easier and more relaxed. Either way, it is worth knowing before you go.
Getting there from the airport
Torrevieja is not on our standard route list — most of what we drive runs north from Alicante Airport, toward Calpe or Benidorm. We cover the southern direction too, just on request: the drive from the airport takes about 35 minutes, noticeably shorter than the run up to Calpe. If you are planning a trip to the pink lake on its own, or want to combine it with another stop along the Costa Blanca, message us on WhatsApp or Telegram and we will quote a fixed price and pickup time around your flight, with a driver waiting at arrivals just like on our regular routes.
If Calpe or Benidorm is still your main destination but you would like to swing by the pink lake for an hour along the way, that is easy to arrange too — browse more of the coast on our blog or go straight to booking a transfer.
