Mind your step: Alicante's crazy paving leaves holidaymakers all at sea

By Travelmail Reporter
Updated: 07:03 EDT, 23 March 2011

Coastal strolls are taken in one of two ways. Gently, ambling arm-in-arm with a loved in. Or, for many on holiday, a little worse for wear after a night on the town, stumbling bleary-eyed back to your hotel.

But for either approach, Alicante, Spain, is best avoided. Council planners in the Mediterranean resort have taken the unusual step of installing their promenade with wacky, 3D-effect paving stones.

Looking like a series of tilted Rubiks Cubes, they give walkers the impression they are faced with a mountain of steps to climb.

Crazy paving: Newly installed 3D paving stones in Alicante, Spain is making holidaymakers nauseous

The 'crazy paving' has been met with a decidedly mixed reception. Many locals, including numerous British ex-pats, have complained the slabs make them feel rather queasy, especially after a glass of wine or two.

And in some extreme cases they've even caused holidaymakers to fall over and experience severe nausea.

These pictures, taken by 46-year-old British ex-pat Rich Poolton, show just one stretch of the paving design that is now commonplace throughout the Spanish coastal resort. 

He said: 'It's not the only place in the area that it's like this. It's all over the place in Alicante.

'After you've had a few drinks it definitely affects you. It confuses the eyes enough when you're sober. It can have quite a substantial effect on you. When you've been out it has, shall we say, a strong effect on your stomach.' 

Walk this way: The flagstones have had a mixed reception amongst British ex-pats

The paving is set out in rows of diamonds at 90 degrees to each other. The pattern, which almost looks like an extract from an M.C. Esher painting, creates a 3D shape that looks a pyramid of stairs stretching out as far as the eye can see.  

Alicante has long been popular with British holidaymakers attracted to the all-year-round sunshine and sandy beaches.

Mr Poolton has lived in Spain for two years since his wife, who works for the British government, was posted to the Mediterranean. He says he is not the only Brit who has experienced the negative effects.

A place in the sun: Alicante is home to many British ex-pats

He added: 'Alicante is really close to Benidorm, so, of course, you get a lot of British tourists and ex-pats coming here,' he said.

'You get stag parties and groups of young Brits out in the town every night. Every time you can guarantee to see at least one of them struggling to remain standing.  

'Many can't manage to stay vertical at all. It's probably a good thing that there are barriers along the side of the path really.'