Club de Golf Alenda

Alenda opened in 1999 on the sun-baked plateau inland from Alicante, where the Costa Blanca's coastal bustle gives way to a quieter, more austere landscape of limestone hills, almond groves, and olive trees. The course was designed by Justo Quesada Coves, a Spanish architect who shaped the layout to work with the natural contours of this arid terrain rather than against them. The result is a course that feels genuinely rooted in its surroundings — earthy, open, and uncompromising on hot summer days when the inland heat is a factor no scorecard column can capture.

Monforte del Cid sits roughly 30 kilometres west of Alicante city in the Vinalopó valley, a wine and agricultural region with a very different character from the resort strips of Benidorm or Torrevieja. Alenda draws a healthy mix of resident expats, Spanish club members, and visiting golfers who want something more grounded than the big-ticket coastal layouts.

The design is straightforward rather than flashy — wide fairways, manageable but honest challenges, and long sightlines across the valley. It plays as a reliable, no-nonsense test of ball-striking rather than a course built on trickery, which suits its unpretentious membership culture well.