Altea Old Town or Altea la Vella: where to live in Altea

Where Altea Old Town and Altea la Vella are

Altea is a municipality of 34.43 km² with 24,592 registered residents on 1 January 2025. Within it there are two places whose names cause a lot of confusion.

Altea Old Town is the top of the town, around the church of Nuestra Señora del Consuelo, the one with the blue domes you see in every photo. Below it is the rest of the town, running down to the seafront promenade and the beach.

Altea la Vella is another village altogether, separate from the town, north of the Algar river at the foot of the Serra de Bèrnia. It belongs to the same municipality, as a kind of outlying district (pedanía), but it has its own small centre with a primary school and a GP surgery.

Why «Old Altea» isn’t the old town

«Vella» means «old» in Valencian, so Altea la Vella literally means «Old Altea». It’s easy to assume it’s the old town. It isn’t, and the name has a real reason behind it.

Until the 17th century, Altea’s main settlement was where Altea la Vella is today: inland, away from the coastline and from raids by Barbary pirates. Shortly after the expulsion of the Moriscos, on 11 January 1617, the local lord granted a settlement charter to 49 new families, who were given land and houses in a new town by the sea. That charter is the founding act of present-day Altea.

Altea la Vella’s history goes back much further: it’s the site of an Iberian necropolis where the well-known Altea la Vella funerary stele was found. The Old Town of present-day Altea, for its part, keeps its Renaissance bastion and walls, which were declared a protected historic site (Bien de Interés Cultural, Conjunto Histórico) in 2013.

Distances to the beach, the centre and services

I’ve measured these on the map, by road and on foot, from the centre of each. Driving times assume no traffic; allow more in summer.

The two are about 4.7 km apart by road, around 10 minutes’ drive. On foot it’s nearly an hour, so it isn’t a walk you’ll do every day.

What kind of home you’ll find

In the Old Town, village houses, many of them terraced, and flats in small buildings. They’re homes with history but little outdoor space: a patio or a roof terrace rather than a garden. Because the Old Town is a protected historic site, building work is more tightly controlled. If you’re thinking of buying to renovate, ask the town hall’s planning department what you can change before you commit.

In Altea la Vella, the village itself is small, and what surrounds it is mostly detached villas on their own plots, in a more open, greener setting with the mountains behind. It’s what people look for when they want space, a garden and a quieter life a little inland.

If you’d like to see real options in both areas, have a look at our homes for sale in Altea.

Hills, steps and parking

This is the difference you’ll feel most in daily life.

The Old Town sits on top of a hill. Many of its streets are pedestrian or stepped, so you can’t drive up to the door of a lot of the houses. Carrying the shopping, a suitcase or a pushchair up the steps is part of life there. At busy times such as Easter week, the town hall has also closed Old Town streets to traffic, with access only for authorised residents.

The upside is that once you’re home you hardly need the car: you can walk down to the promenade, the beach, the health centre or the TRAM station.

In Altea la Vella it’s the other way round. Parking is easier, especially if the house has space on its own plot, but you depend on the car for the beach, the health centre in town, secondary schools and the big supermarkets. If there are two drivers in the household, plan on two cars.

Before you decide, visit both on a weekday in January and on a Saturday in August. You’ll see how the atmosphere, the noise and the parking change with the season.

Schools and doctors

Schools. Altea la Vella has its own state infant and primary school, CEIP Altea la Vella. Altea’s state secondary schools, IES Altaia and IES Bellaguarda, are in the town. From the Old Town, IES Altaia and the CEIP les Rotes primary school are a few minutes’ walk away.

Doctors. Altea’s health centre is in the town, 1 km on foot from the Old Town. Altea la Vella has its own auxiliary surgery. Opening hours change, so check them with the health centre when you register. The public hospital for the area is the Marina Baixa district hospital in La Vila Joiosa.

Price per square metre

The most recent figures I have are for October 2026, by postcode:

• Postcode 03590, the town of Altea including the Old Town: €3,722/m² on average. Flats €3,894/m²; houses €3,566/m².
• Postcode 03599, which covers Altea la Vella along with other areas outside the town: €4,142/m² on average. Flats €3,684/m²; houses €4,272/m².
• The municipality as a whole: €4,002/m².

These are averages for wide areas and mix very different homes. In the Old Town, a house with sea views and one on an inner street with little light are worlds apart. In Altea la Vella, plot size, a pool and the views make a big difference.

Which one suits you

The Old Town suits you if you want to live on foot, with the sea and services close by, and the steps don’t bother you. Also if you want a home with character and can live with less outdoor space.

Altea la Vella suits you if you want a plot, a pool and peace and quiet, you have a car and don’t mind driving to the beach. With children at primary age, the school is right in the village.

If you’re still weighing Altea against its neighbours, we also work in Albir and Alfaz del Pi, a few kilometres to the south.

And if you already own in one of the two and are thinking of moving, I can tell you what yours is worth before you start looking.

Frequently asked questions