Holy Week and the Tamborada in Hellín, Moors and Christians in Almansa and the village festivals of Albacete: traffic closures, getting there from the capital and from further afield, and getting back in the small hours

What is the Hellín Tamborada and what happens in the town at Easter?

Holy Week in Hellín brings together two things that elsewhere are kept apart: the brotherhoods' processions, with floats going out from Holy Wednesday, and the tamborada, thousands of drummers in black tunics and red neckerchiefs rolling their drums through the old town day and night, with its high points on the night of Holy Wednesday, the Calvary procession at dawn on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It is a Festival of International Tourist Interest and, since 2018, part of the element "Tamboradas, drum-playing rituals" that UNESCO inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, shared with Tobarra, Agramón and a dozen towns in Aragon, Murcia, Andalusia and Valencia.

For anyone arriving from outside, what matters is how the town changes on those days. The council closes the old town and the procession streets to traffic, diverts the city buses and signposts car parks on the outskirts; Hellín's hotels, few in number, fill up months ahead, and a good share of visitors stay in Albacete, in Murcia or in the surrounding villages and go in and out each day. Tobarra, the neighbouring town along the A-30, has its own tamborada, which starts at midday on Holy Wednesday and does not stop until Sunday, with the same effect: closed streets, impossible parking and a return that is nearly always at night.

How do you get to Hellín at Easter from Albacete, Murcia or Madrid?

Hellín has a railway station on the conventional line from Albacete to Murcia and Cartagena, with Media Distancia trains coming from Albacete, which Renfe usually reinforces at Easter; they also stop at Tobarra and Agramón. It is the most comfortable way to arrive by day from Albacete-Los Llanos, where the AVE trains from Madrid and Valencia connect, and it avoids the parking problem. The intercity bus reaches Hellín from Albacete and from Murcia on weekday or holiday timetables depending on the day of the week, and the last afternoon services leave before the night tamborada has begun. By car, the A-30 from Albacete or from Murcia is motorway right to the Hellín exit; the problem is not getting there, it is where to leave the car and in what state to drive back.

For anyone coming by AVE, the connection that works is Los Llanos–Hellín by car with a driver, with pickup timed for the train and the return booked for the train home: it is 64 km and about 50 min, less than it takes to get out of a park-and-ride on the night of Holy Wednesday. From Murcia, many Hellín natives who live or study there come back for the tamborada: it is 84 km on the A-30, and a car shared among four or five makes sense for a night when nobody wants to drive. A large group, a peña or a brotherhood with guests can request several cars or a higher-capacity vehicle from the groups and events page.

What happens in Almansa in early May and how do you get there?

Almansa's Fiestas Mayores, in honour of the Virgen de Belén, take place in early May and revolve around the Moors and Christians parades: comparsas in costume with floats crossing the centre on several afternoons, the embassies at the foot of the castle, the flower offering to the patron saint on the 5th and the pilgrimage. These are a town's festivals, not a village's: Almansa has industry, hotels and a population that multiplies on those days with comparsa members, returning families and visitors from Valencia and Alicante, for whom Almansa, down the A-35 and the A-31, is almost the festival next door. Caudete, 33 km away, holds its own Moors and Christians in early September, with the Episodios Caudetanos, on the same pattern of afternoon parades and closed streets.

Almansa sits on the A-31 and the A-35 and has a station on the conventional Madrid–Valencia line, with Media Distancia trains from Albacete and from Valencia and Xàtiva, so by day it is easy to reach by train from both directions; the old town, with the castle on its rock, is walkable from the station. On parade days the council closes the route and the central streets through the afternoon and night, and parking moves to the industrial estates and the town's entrances. From Albacete it is 75 km and about 57 min, and from Los Llanos station the pickup for a visitor arriving by AVE works the same as for Hellín, with the train time as the reference.

And the other village festivals: Caudete, Villarrobledo, La Roda, Chinchilla?

The province's calendar is long and the same pattern repeats at different scales. Villarrobledo has one of the most traditional carnivals in Castilla-La Mancha, with comparsa and murga parades in February or March, and in spring and summer it hosts music festivals that draw thousands of young people from all over Spain, many without a car, who arrive by Media Distancia train or bus and need to move between the venue, the town and the station. La Roda holds its festivals in August around San Roque, Chinchilla de Monte-Aragón has an intimate Holy Week in a monumental old town whose streets take no cars, and Caudete's Moors and Christians in early September coincide with the capital's Fair, so that on those days the area's cars are shared between the two.

The practical rule is the same for all of them: before going, check the closure map and the designated car parks on the council website, because they change every year; by day, the train or bus if they reach the village at the hour you need; and for the return, count on neither. Between two villages in different districts there is almost never a direct line, so going from Villarrobledo to Hellín or from Tobarra to Almansa during the festivals means passing through the capital and losing half a day, or going by car direct, which is what solves the trip between districts. For the Albacete Fair in September there is a separate guide, with the pickup points around the fairground.

How do you book the small-hours return, and why in advance?

The night of the Tamborada ends when it ends, and the last train and the last bus left hours earlier. What works is booking the return before leaving home with an approximate time and a pickup point outside the closed perimeter — an entrance roundabout, a petrol station on the Albacete road, the door of a hotel on the outskirts — agreed with the driver, and adjusting the time by message when the group decides to leave. The price is per car and not per person, is fixed when booking and does not change with the hour of the night or with how long the group takes to make up its mind, as long as the pickup stays within the booked window.

Booking ahead is not a courtesy: at Easter the Tamborada, the drums of Tobarra, the holiday departures to Alicante, Valencia and Murcia airports and the capital's own processions all coincide, and the province's cars are shared among all of that. The nights of Holy Wednesday and Good Friday in Hellín, and the parade afternoons in Almansa, are requested days or weeks ahead, above all for groups needing more than one car. Booking late does not mean being left without a way back, but it does mean being left without a choice of time, and at a festival where everyone wants to leave at once, the time is what matters.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• UNESCO · Las tamboradas, repiques rituales de tambores (Lista Representativa del Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial, 2018) (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Ayuntamiento de Hellín · Semana Santa y Tamborada (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Ayuntamiento de Almansa · Fiestas Mayores y Moros y Cristianos (consulted on 27 October 2026)
• Renfe · Media Distancia Albacete–Hellín–Murcia y Albacete–Almansa–Valencia (consulted on 27 October 2026)