Coming to visit Murcia

Obviously, it depends on what your criteria are for where you want to live. Inland cities in that area that I like are Orihuela, Elche, and Alcoy, all within 30-45 min drive to an airport. Based on my visits, I would say Orihuela is a more conservative, catholic, Castilian-speaking. It is a small city, but has quite a few interesting museums. Elche is a larger, growing, well managed city, more liberal and with many historical sites. Both Valencian and Castilian are spoken here. My wife and I just spent a few days visiting Alcoy. It was an industrial powerhouse and the third most important city in Spain at the beginning of the 1900s. It is a beautiful city with exceptional architecture, an interesting history, and well managed. Significant Spanish tourism. Lots of natural beauty, two rivers snd mountains. Tbe city of Concentaina on the opposite side of the bridge is also interesting. Spanish and Valencian speaking. I have lived in the city of Alicante for a number of years and have been to most of cities and towns in Alicante province as well as many in Murcia.