Ibi

A weekend from the 28 December flour battle to the Menejador

Plan a weekend. Day one is the toy museum, the biodiversity museum and Casa Gran in the old centre, unless it is 28 December and the flour battle has taken over; day two is a walk in the Font Roja park toward the Menejador and its old snow wells.

Day one, morning. On 28 December, be in the old centre at dawn, when the Enfarinats take the square. Otherwise, start at the Museo Valenciano del Juguete in the former Payá Hermanos factory, then cross to the Museo de la Biodiversidad next door for the wildlife of the sierra.

Afternoon. Walk to Casa Gran and its Museo de la Fiesta, with its Moros y Cristianos costumes. Finish at the Church of the Transfiguration and the monument to the Three Wise Men, then the Monumento dels Geladors.

Evening. Climb toward the hermitage of Santa Lucía for the sunset over the basin and come down for a plate of olleta.

Day two. Drive round to the Font Roja natural park and walk among the holm oaks toward the Menejador, at 1,356 m the highest point of the municipality. Look out for the old stone snow wells on the slopes, the reason Ibi became an ice-cream town. Return via Alicante if you are flying out.

Olleta, giraboix and Ibi's hot gazpacho

Ibi eats mountain food. Order olleta, a slow pot of pulses, vegetables and pork, or the local gazpacho, a hot stew of game over flatbread. Sweets include saginosa and almond coca, and an ice cream is close to obligatory in a town famous for it.

Olleta suits cold Alcoià evenings, and giraboix combines salt cod, potato and greens. The local gazpacho is nothing like the cold Andalusian soup: it is a hot stew of game or chicken served over thin flatbread. Rice with rabbit, pericana (dried peppers, salt cod and olive oil) and the chickpea-and-spinach dish nicknamed calaveretes en bufanda also turn up on home menus.

For something sweet look for saginosa, almond coca, coca de flare and sweet-potato pastries, with Easter monas in spring and buñuelos around the fiestas.

Eat in the bars and family restaurants of the old quarter, and expect long lunches at weekends. On fiesta days, the groups (filaes) eat together and restaurants fill early, so book or eat off-peak.

From the September Moros y Cristianos to the Enfarinats flour battle

Ibi has two festival peaks: the Moros y Cristianos in September, with seven comparsas on each side and roots in 1797, and Els Enfarinats on 28 December, when costumed rebels rule the town with flour and eggs. Walkers should come in spring or early autumn.

The bigger one is the Moros y Cristianos in September, starting on a Friday nine days after the first Wednesday of the month. Each side fields seven comparsas, with the Christian parade on Friday morning and the Moorish one in the afternoon, and the tradition dates back to 1797, when the town asked Carlos IV for permission to fire guns in celebration.

The second is Els Enfarinats on 28 December, a mock coup in which costumed rebels rule the town for a day with flour, eggs and firecrackers before the battle ends in an armistice.

In February the town celebrates its ice-cream makers with a smaller festival. Summer at this altitude is fresher than on the coast but still hot at midday, and winter nights can be cold. For a coastal contrast, Benidorm and Alicante are within an hour by car.