Best Historic Palace Stays in Alicante
A historic palace stay in Alicante means one address above all others: Hospes Amerigo occupies a 19th-century Dominican convent in the old town, fifty metres from Alicante Cathedral and within sight of Santa Barbara Castle on its hill. This is not a hotel built to look historic, it is a former religious building repurposed with high ceilings, large windows and, in some rooms, abstract silk paintings that nod to the space's past without pretending it is still a convent. A rooftop pool and spa now sit where the Dominican community once lived, three hundred metres from Postiguet Beach.
Alicante's old town carries its religious and Moorish-influenced past close to the surface, from the co-cathedral of San Nicolas to Santa Barbara Castle above the harbour, and a handful of buildings, this convent among them, survive as more than facades. The city treats that history lightly rather than as a museum piece: a former convent now runs a rooftop bar over an open-air pool, and Alicante Town Hall sits within fifty metres, close enough that the historic core still functions as the working centre of the city rather than a preserved district.
Where to stay
Hotels in Alicante
What separates a genuine historic palace stay from a hotel that merely borrows the word? Age and provenance that can be named. Hospes Amerigo is not styled to evoke a convent, it is one: a 19th-century Dominican building in Alicante's old town, its high ceilings and thick walls original rather than reproduced. That distinction matters to a reader comparing two heritage-branded hotels across Spain, since only one of them can point to an actual monastic structure behind the facade.
The building itself is the story. Hospes Amerigo's 19th-century Dominican convent structure gives every stylish room its high ceilings and large windows, and the rooftop lounge bar and open-air pool occupy what would once have been convent grounds, with views toward Alicante Cathedral and Santa Barbara Castle rather than a generic skyline. Being within fifty metres of both the cathedral and the town hall means the location argument and the architectural argument point the same way, unlike heritage hotels stranded outside a city's historic core.
Reviewers rate the location a 9.7 for a two-person trip, among the highest scores in this list, and that number tracks directly to the convent setting: guests are not just close to the sights, they are staying inside a building that predates most of what surrounds it. A summer evening on the rooftop, with the open-air pool below and the cathedral lit up nearby, is the version of Alicante this axis is built to deliver, and there is currently no second address on this list that can match it.
A traveler's perspectiveWe climbed to the rooftop before unpacking and found the pool empty in the early evening light, the cathedral's tower catching the last sun above the old convent walls. Dinner conversation kept returning to the building itself, the height of the ceilings, the thickness of the walls, more than to anything on the menu, and the walk down to Postiguet Beach the next morning took less than five minutes.
Local tips
- 1Book a room with a rooftop or cathedral-facing view well in advance for a summer stay, since Hospes Amerigo's convent-set rooms are the most requested on the property and sell out first.
- 2Visit the rooftop pool and lounge bar at golden hour rather than midday, when the light on Alicante Cathedral and Santa Barbara Castle is at its best from above the old convent walls.
- 3Walk to the cathedral and Alicante Town Hall on foot rather than booking a taxi, since both sit within fifty metres of the convent and the old town streets are the point of staying here.
- 4Treat the stay itself as the sightseeing on your first evening, since the convent's original high ceilings and large windows are as much a reason to book as anything outside it.