Alicante, on Spain’s Costa Blanca, offers sandy beaches, varied watersports and a buzzing nightlife. Image: Iakov Filimonov/Shuterstock.com via AFP Relaxnews

GoEuro, a Europe-wide travel reservation platform, has weighed up criteria including accessibility, comfort and water temperature to rank Europe’s best beach destinations.

With a score of 98.14 out of 100, Alicante tops the list of GoEuro’s top 100 city beach destinations in Europe. Situated on the Costa Blanca, the Spanish city treats vacationers to easily accessible sandy beaches with a wide variety of watersports and nightlife options.

Unsurprisingly, Spain rides high in the list with other summer vacation hotspots like Palma, on the Balearic Island of Majorca, in third place and Barcelona in fourth. Italy breaks up the Spanish run of success with the Sicilian cities of Catania in second place and Palermo in sixth.

Top French city beach destinations include Marseille (ninth) and Cannes (tenth).

The ranking is based on several criteria, including the number and type of beaches, ease of access from the airport and the city center, water temperature, watersports and nightlife, including the average price of a pint of beer and a bottle of water.

In terms of travel convenience, a German beach close to Denmark comes out on top. Westerland is just four minutes away from the nearest airport, and visitors can walk from the city to the beach in just 10 minutes.

Puerto del Carmen in Spain comes second (15 minutes’ journey from airport to city and six minutes from city to beach) and Nice on the French Riviera comes in third (11 minutes’ journey from airport to city and 12 minutes from city to beach). JB