The Fuentes del Algar spring system discharges fifteen litres of water per second through a kilometre-long sequence of limestone cascades, pools, and irrigation channels carved into the foothills of the Sierra de Bernia.
The flow originates in subterranean aquifers beneath Callosa d'en Sarrià, emerging at a constant sixteen degrees Celsius year-round — a phenomenon that sustained orchards and textile mills for centuries before the site opened to visitors in 1994. The waterfalls occupy a narrow ravine shaded by carob, olive, and wild fig, where the path alternates between wooden boardwalks and stone steps following the original canal infrastructure.
Today the site functions as both ecological reserve and heritage landscape. The park preserves eleven endemic plant species and serves as a migratory corridor for southern Spain's declining amphibian populations, including the Iberian ribbed newt and common midwife toad. Local herpetologists conduct night surveys along the upper pools each spring, marking individuals to track breeding success against baseline data from the 1980s. Interpretive panels installed in 2019 detail the hydraulic engineering that channeled water to the valleys below — stone-lined acequias dating to the Moorish agricultural reforms of the tenth century, later expanded under Christian rule to irrigate almond groves and rice paddies.
The cascade sequence divides into three zones. The lower section features a series of shallow swimming pools accessible from concrete platforms, where depth ranges from thirty to ninety centimetres and families gather during summer weekends. The middle stretch climbs through a gallery forest of ferns and mosses, the path threading behind the main twenty-metre cascade where spray keeps the air ten degrees cooler than the surrounding hillside. The upper zone follows a narrower channel past irrigation sluices and settling basins, ending at a spring chamber where water wells up through fractured limestone. The entire circuit spans 1.5 kilometres with a cumulative elevation gain of sixty-five metres, manageable in an hour but most visitors linger near the lower pools.
An algar waterfalls trip from Benidorm typically departs mid-morning and combines the falls with a stop at Guadalest, a fortified village perched on a limestone crag nine kilometres inland. Tour coaches cover the forty-kilometre route via the CV-70 mountain road, ascending through terraced citrus groves and pine forest to an altitude of 580 metres. The pairing reflects the complementary character of the two sites — one geological, one architectural — and allows half-day excursions to return by early afternoon while full-day itineraries add lunch stops in the Guadalest valley or a detour to Altea's whitewashed old quarter on the return leg.
11 hr
