Alicante Airport to Calpe: further up the coast than the tram really helps with

Calpe is about 25km further up the Costa Blanca than Benidorm, which puts it roughly 70km from Alicante Airport — a drive of 50 minutes to an hour on the AP-7 and N-332, depending on how backed up the coastal towns are.

Technically, Calpe is on the same TRAM line that makes Benidorm such a nice option from this airport — it's one of the stops heading north toward Dénia. In practice, the share of the journey spent getting from the airport into Alicante city to catch that tram is much bigger relative to the whole trip than it is for Benidorm, so the time saving over a direct option shrinks the further up the coast you go.

There's also a direct bus service, which is the straightforward budget choice if you don't mind a longer ride and aren't in a hurry to get to the beach.

Taxis will do the full 70km in one run, but it's a long metered fare for a single trip, and most people only choose it when there's a group to spread the cost across.

Rule of thumb: happy to spend time over money and don't mind one change, the tram is still a scenic way in. Anyone else, especially a group or a late arrival, a pre-booked transfer is worth pricing against the bus before you assume it's the expensive option — over 70km it often isn't.