Key facts
Spain at a glance
Highlights
The essentials of Spain
40.42° N · 3.70° W
Madrid
Car-freeBy plane
41.39° N · 2.17° E
Barcelona
Car-freeBy plane
42.88° N · 8.54° W
Santiago de Compostela
By carCar-free
39.86° N · 4.02° W
Toledo
By carCar-free
40.96° N · 5.66° W
Salamanca
By carCar-freeLuxury
40.95° N · 4.12° W
Segovia
By carCar-freeBy campervan
36.74° N · 5.17° W
Ronda
By car
28.27° N · 16.64° W
Teide National Park
By carCar-freeOn footBy plane
Areas and places
Spain area by area
Each area has its own page, with its own character, plans and map.
43.36° N · 5.86° W
Asturias
By campervanBackpackingBy plane
43.20° N · 4.03° W
Cantabria
By carCar-freeOn foot
41.60° N · 0.88° W
Aragon
By carBy campervanCar-freeOn footBy 4x4
41.80° N · 1.80° E
Catalonia
By carBy planeBy campervanCampingCar-freeLuxuryBy motorbike
42.75° N · 7.87° W
Galicia
By carCar-free
40.42° N · 3.70° W
Community of Madrid
By carBy planeCar-freeOn foot
41.65° N · 4.72° W
Castile and León
By carBy campervanCampingCar-freeLuxuryOn foot
39.60° N · 3.00° W
Castilla-La Mancha
By carCar-free
28.20° N · 16.00° W
Canary Islands
By carBy planeCar-freeLuxuryOn foot
37.40° N · 4.60° W
Andalusia
By carBy planeCar-freeLuxuryOn footBy bike
39.62° N · 2.85° E
Balearic Islands
By carBy planeCar-freeLuxuryBy bike
43.05° N · 2.62° W
Basque Country
By carCar-freeLuxury
39.20° N · 6.15° W
Extremadura
By carCar-freeLuxuryOn footBy bike
42.35° N · 2.55° W
La Rioja
By carCar-free
42.70° N · 1.65° W
Navarre
By carCar-freeBy bike
37.98° N · 1.13° W
Región de Murcia
By carCar-free
39.40° N · 0.60° W
Valencian Community
By carCar-freeOn foot
Destinations
All the destinations in Spain
Filter by how you travel, who you're with, what you're after and which month.
43.37° N · 8.40° W
A Coruña
By carCar-free
28.10° N · 15.70° W
Agaete and the North-West of Gran Canaria
By carCar-free
42.79° N · 4.26° W
Aguilar de Campoo and the Romanesque of Palencia
By car
40.41° N · 1.44° W
Albarracín
By car
40.48° N · 3.36° W
Alcalá de Henares: university, Cervantes and Complutum
By carCar-free
39.19° N · 1.43° W
Alcalá del Júcar
By car
38.89° N · 3.71° W
Almagro
By car
42.17° N · 0.02° E
Alquézar and the River Vero
By car
38.60° N · 0.05° W
Altea
43.05° N · 4.37° W
Alto Campoo
By car
28.55° N · 16.20° W
Anaga Massif
By carCar-free
37.02° N · 4.56° W
Antequera
By carCar-free
40.03° N · 3.60° W
Aranjuez
By carCar-free
42.35° N · 3.52° W
Atapuerca
By car
42.42° N · 0.14° E
Aínsa and the Sobrarbe
By car
41.39° N · 2.17° E
Barcelona
Car-freeBy plane
42.20° N · 1.50° W
Bardenas Reales
By car
42.61° N · 0.52° E
Benasque Valley
By car
42.10° N · 1.85° E
Berga
By carBy motorbike
42.20° N · 2.70° E
Besalú
By car
38.77° N · 0.61° W
Bocairent
By car
42.34° N · 3.70° W
Burgos
By car
36.76° N · 2.11° W
Cabo de Gata
By carLuxury
43.30° N · 4.82° W
Cabrales
By car
43.36° N · 3.84° W
Cabárceno Nature Park
By car
41.63° N · 2.16° E
Caldes de Montbui
By carCar-free
42.51° N · 8.81° W
Cambados
By car
36.93° N · 4.78° W
Caminito del Rey and El Chorro
By carCar-free
42.75° N · 0.52° W
Canfranc, Candanchú and Astún
By car
43.35° N · 5.13° W
Cangas de Onís and Covadonga
By car
38.10° N · 1.86° W
Caravaca de la Cruz
By car
41.91° N · 1.68° E
Cardona
37.47° N · 5.64° W
Carmona
By carCar-free
37.61° N · 0.99° W
Cartagena and Calblanque
By carCar-free
42.43° N · 1.93° E
Cerdanya
By carCar-free
40.14° N · 3.42° W
Chinchón
By carCar-free
39.66° N · 0.89° W
Chulilla
By carOn foot
40.60° N · 6.54° W
Ciudad Rodrigo
42.43° N · 8.71° W
Combarro and Pontevedra
By carCar-free
43.39° N · 4.29° W
Comillas
By car
39.46° N · 3.61° W
Consuegra
By car
43.46° N · 3.93° W
Costa Quebrada and Liencres
By car
42.91° N · 9.26° W
Costa da Morte
By car
42.06° N · 3.52° W
Covarrubias and Santo Domingo de Silos
By car
43.56° N · 6.15° W
Cudillero
By carBy plane
40.08° N · 2.13° W
Cuenca
By carCar-free
39.47° N · 6.37° W
Cáceres
By carCar-freeLuxury
42.22° N · 8.90° W
Cíes Islands
By car
37.13° N · 6.48° W
Doñana and El Rocío
By car
41.32° N · 3.83° W
Duratón River Gorges and Sepúlveda
By car
38.27° N · 0.70° W
Elche
By car
41.25° N · 1.90° E
Garraf Coves
43.29° N · 2.19° W
Getaria and Zarautz
By carCar-free
38.68° N · 0.20° W
Guadalest and the Guadalest Valley
By car
39.45° N · 5.33° W
Guadalupe
By carOn foot
37.30° N · 3.14° W
Guadix
42.58° N · 2.85° W
Haro
By carCar-free
40.27° N · 5.86° W
Hervás and the Ambroz Valley
By carBy bike
43.37° N · 1.79° W
Hondarribia
By carCar-free
43.00° N · 1.14° W
Irati Forest
By carBy bike
38.32° N · 6.77° W
Jerez de los Caballeros
By car
40.20° N · 5.81° W
Jerte Valley
By carCar-freeLuxuryOn foot
39.40° N · 0.33° W
L'Albufera de València and El Palmar
By car
40.49° N · 6.11° W
La Alberca and the Sierra de Francia
By carCar-free
36.95° N · 3.36° W
La Alpujarra
By carOn footCar-free
28.68° N · 17.85° W
La Palma
42.25° N · 0.97° E
La Pobla de Segur
42.55° N · 2.59° W
Laguardia and the Rioja Alavesa
By carCar-freeLuxury
42.00° N · 2.85° W
Laguna Negra and Picos de Urbión
By car
38.96° N · 2.87° W
Lagunas de Ruidera
By car
42.12° N · 6.72° W
Lake Sanabria and Puebla de Sanabria
By car
42.46° N · 6.77° W
Las Médulas
By car
43.00° N · 6.42° W
Leitariegos and the Laciana Valley
By car
42.60° N · 5.57° W
León
By car
43.15° N · 4.62° W
Liébana and Potes
By carOn foot
43.42° N · 4.75° W
Llanes
By carBy plane
40.90° N · 3.88° W
Lozoya Valley: Rascafría, El Paular and Peñalara
By carCar-freeOn foot
40.42° N · 3.70° W
Madrid
Car-freeBy plane
41.00° N · 3.64° W
Madrid's Sierra Norte: Patones, Buitrago and the Montejo Beech Forest
By car
40.74° N · 3.88° W
Manzanares el Real and La Pedriza
27.74° N · 15.58° W
Maspalomas Dunes and the South of Gran Canaria
By carCar-freeLuxury
41.19° N · 1.78° W
Monasterio de Piedra
By car
39.85° N · 6.03° W
Monfragüe National Park
By carOn foot
40.07° N · 0.52° W
Montanejos
By car
42.00° N · 0.76° E
Montsec and Àger
41.76° N · 2.40° E
Montseny
By car
41.59° N · 1.84° E
Montserrat
By carCar-free
40.62° N · 0.10° W
Morella
By carCar-free
38.92° N · 6.34° W
Mérida
By carCar-free
40.78° N · 4.00° W
Navacerrada Pass and Cercedilla
By carCar-free
42.50° N · 8.87° W
O Grove, A Toxa and A Lanzada
By car
42.48° N · 1.65° W
Olite
By carCar-free
42.65° N · 0.06° W
Ordesa Valley
By campervanOn footBy 4x4
42.34° N · 7.88° W
Ourense
By car
43.36° N · 5.85° W
Oviedo
Car-freeBy carBy plane
42.58° N · 1.09° E
Pallars Sobirà
By car
41.97° N · 3.15° E
Pals
By carCamping
41.13° N · 3.81° W
Pedraza
By car
41.43° N · 1.79° E
Penedès
By car
42.31° N · 3.01° E
Peralada
By carLuxury
41.98° N · 3.09° E
Peratallada
By car
41.60° N · 4.11° W
Peñafiel and the Ribera del Duero
By carLuxury
40.36° N · 0.41° E
Peñíscola
By car
39.88° N · 3.02° E
Pollença and Cap de Formentor
By carCar-freeBy bikeBy plane
41.31° N · 0.99° E
Prades
By carBy motorbike
37.44° N · 4.20° W
Priego de Córdoba and the Subbética
By carBy bike
41.22° N · 0.80° E
Priorat
43.55° N · 7.09° W
Ribadeo and As Catedrais Beach
By car
43.46° N · 5.06° W
Ribadesella
By carLuxury
42.42° N · 7.48° W
Ribeira Sacra and the Sil canyon
By car
38.15° N · 1.34° W
Ricote Valley and the Archena Spa
By carCar-free
42.20° N · 2.19° E
Ripoll
By carCar-free
38.50° N · 2.42° W
Riópar and the Source of the Río Mundo
By car
36.74° N · 5.17° W
Ronda
By car
42.02° N · 2.47° E
Rupit
By carBy motorbikeBy campervan
41.75° N · 3.07° W
Río Lobos Canyon
By car
40.96° N · 5.66° W
Salamanca
By carCar-freeLuxury
40.59° N · 4.15° W
San Lorenzo de El Escorial
By carCar-free
42.33° N · 2.87° W
San Millán de la Cogolla
By carCar-free
43.38° N · 4.40° W
San Vicente de la Barquera
By car
36.78° N · 6.35° W
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
By carCar-free
42.88° N · 8.54° W
Santiago de Compostela
By carCar-free
43.39° N · 4.11° W
Santillana del Mar and Altamira
By carCar-free
43.44° N · 3.46° W
Santoña and Laredo
By car
40.95° N · 4.12° W
Segovia
By carCar-freeBy campervan
36.86° N · 5.18° W
Setenil de las Bodegas
By carBy plane
37.09° N · 3.40° W
Sierra Nevada (Pradollano)
By carCar-free
37.89° N · 6.56° W
Sierra de Aracena
By car
37.91° N · 3.00° W
Sierra de Cazorla
By carOn footLuxury
36.76° N · 5.37° W
Sierra de Grazalema
By carOn foot
40.35° N · 5.17° W
Sierra de Gredos
By carOn footCampingBy campervan
40.00° N · 1.04° W
Sierra de Javalambre
41.07° N · 2.64° W
Sigüenza
By carCar-free
41.24° N · 1.81° E
Sitges
Car-free
41.26° N · 0.93° E
Siurana
By car
43.09° N · 6.26° W
Somiedo
By car
39.77° N · 2.71° E
Sóller and the Serra de Tramuntana
By carCar-free
38.17° N · 0.48° W
Tabarca Island
Car-freeBy car
41.91° N · 1.73° W
Tarazona and the Moncayo
By car
28.27° N · 16.64° W
Teide National Park
By carCar-freeOn footBy plane
28.00° N · 15.61° W
Tejeda and Roque Nublo
By carCar-freeBy plane
42.77° N · 0.36° W
Tena Valley
By car
28.31° N · 16.84° W
Teno and Masca
By carCar-freeBy plane
40.34° N · 1.11° W
Teruel, a Mudéjar City
By carCar-free
39.86° N · 4.02° W
Toledo
By carCar-free
39.46° N · 5.88° W
Trujillo
By carCar-freeLuxury
43.37° N · 2.68° W
Urdaibai
By carCar-free
42.70° N · 0.80° E
Val d'Aran
By car
40.88° N · 0.15° E
Valderrobres and the Matarraña
By car
43.06° N · 5.39° W
Valgrande-Pajares and Fuentes de Invierno
By car
42.52° N · 0.84° E
Vall de Boí
By car
39.73° N · 2.64° E
Valldemossa and Deià
By carCar-freeLuxury
36.25° N · 5.97° W
Vejer de la Frontera and the Costa de la Luz
By car
41.93° N · 2.25° E
Vic
By car
38.51° N · 0.23° W
Villajoyosa
By carCar-free
43.48° N · 5.44° W
Villaviciosa and Tazones
By car
38.79° N · 0.17° E
Xàbia (Jávea)
By car
38.99° N · 0.52° W
Xàtiva
By carCar-free
38.43° N · 6.42° W
Zafra
By car
41.50° N · 5.75° W
Zamora
By car
40.66° N · 4.70° W
Ávila
By carCar-free
38.01° N · 3.37° W
Úbeda and Baeza
By carLuxury
Itineraries
Itineraries that pass through
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
Spain, step by step
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
When to go to Spain
Spring and autumn are good almost everywhere. In July and August, the north has the best weather and the inland south is too hot. In winter, Andalusia, the cities and the Pyrenean snow all work well.
How you travel
Spain your way
The ways of travelling that suit Spain. We are writing a guide to each one: where to stay, how to get around and which services you will need.
By carBy planeBy campervanCampingBackpackingCar-freeLuxuryOn footBy bikeBy motorbikeBy 4x4
Tips
Worth knowing first
- 1Book the train as soon as you have a date
High-speed tickets rise in price as the train fills. Weeks ahead they cost a fraction of the last-day price.
- 2Eat at local times
Lunch is between 14:00 and 15:30 and dinner from 21:00. Outside the cities, many kitchens close in between.
- 3Avoid the long weekends if you can
On the long weekends of May, August, October and December the roads out of the cities jam up and small villages fill.
- 4One base per region
Distances are deceptive: between Asturias and Andalusia it is a day's drive. Pick one base per region and take day trips from it.
Trying to see five regions in a week. You will spend more time on the road than at the places. Choose one or two and stay at least three nights in each.
Which region should I pick?
Spain isn't something you see in one trip: you pick a region and come back for another. Each one is a different country in landscape, climate and food. Here is what you will find in the ones we have covered so far.
- Green mountains and a cold sea: Asturias. The Picos de Europa, sandy beaches between cliffs, fishing villages and cider houses. It is small and can be explored by car from a single base. For a first visit, stay in Llanes on the eastern coast, with beach and mountains half an hour apart. If you want a village for a sunset stroll, try Cudillero. If you have no car or the rain catches you out, go to Oviedo.
- From the Pyrenees to the Costa Brava: Catalonia. Mountains, coves and medieval villages one or two hours from Barcelona. For stone walls and moats, Peratallada and Pals, in the Empordà; for a Romanesque bridge and the volcanic Garrotxa, Besalú; for climbing and a reservoir, Siurana.
- Proper high mountains: Aragon. The wildest and least developed part of the Pyrenees. The Ordesa Valley is the way in: a glacial canyon with waterfalls that you reach by bus from Torla.
- Sun, whitewash and mountain ranges: Andalusia. White villages perched on gorges, monumental cities and two seas. For something you won't have seen anywhere else, Setenil de las Bodegas, with whole streets under the rock.
- Water everywhere: Galicia. Estuaries, rivers and hot springs. In Ourense you can bathe for free in thermal pools by the Miño, and you get there by train from Madrid.
- A mountain range above the sea: the Balearic Islands. In Mallorca, the Serra de Tramuntana starts half an hour from Palma. To go without a car, choose Sóller, with its wooden train from Palma, the tram to the port and the boat to Sa Calobra.
If you can't decide, choose by the calendar: the north (Asturias, Galicia, the Pyrenees) is for summer and autumn; the south is for spring, autumn and winter.
How do I get between regions?
By high-speed train, almost always via Madrid. The network fans out from the capital: to Barcelona via Zaragoza, to Seville and Málaga via Córdoba, to Galicia via Zamora and Ourense and to Asturias via León. Renfe gives its best time as 3 h 12 min from Madrid to Oviedo, since the Pajares bypass opened in 2023, and about 2 h 15 min from Madrid to Ourense. A few direct AVE trains avoid Madrid, such as Barcelona–Zaragoza–Málaga or Barcelona–Zaragoza–Granada. In 2026 there are temporary speed restrictions on several lines, and Renfe no longer compensates for the delays they cause: leave a margin if you are connecting to a flight.
By car you can reach everything, and it is almost essential for villages, valleys and the coast. The network of dual carriageways (autovías) is free; some stretches of toll motorway remain. In Catalonia, the AP-7 between La Jonquera and Tarragona and the AP-2 between Zaragoza and El Vendrell stopped charging tolls in September 2021, and since then the AP-7 has been very busy in summer.
By plane it pays off for crossing the peninsula from end to end, for example from Barcelona or the Mediterranean to Asturias, Galicia or Andalusia, where the train means changing in Madrid. Always compare with the train: the airport is usually far from the centre, while the train drops you right in it.
By bus you reach many villages the train doesn't serve, but with few departures a day: it works for a single destination, not for linking several in a weekend.
When should I go and what does it cost?
- April to June and September to October are the months that work in almost all of Spain: long days, mild temperatures and fewer people.
- July and August are for the north and the mountains. In inland Andalusia and the Ebro valley the midday heat makes anything impossible, and on the coast prices rise and you need to book well ahead.
- From November to March the north is rainy and short of daylight, but the cities, Andalusia and the Ourense hot springs keep going, and the Pyrenees have snow.
Spain sits at a mid-range budget for Europe. What weighs most is where you sleep: in August, at Easter and on long weekends, coastal prices shoot up and the best places sell out. Eating out remains reasonable if you order the set lunch (menú del día) on weekdays. The high-speed train is cheap if you buy ahead and expensive at the last minute.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Which region is best for a first trip?
It depends on the season. In summer, Asturias or the Aragonese and Catalan Pyrenees. In spring or autumn, Andalusia or Catalonia. Galicia works from May to October.
Do I need a car?
To go from one city to another, no: the train is faster. For villages, valleys, beaches and nature parks, yes, or you will have to fit around a few buses a day.
How many days do I need per region?
Three nights for a specific area, such as the eastern coast of Asturias or the Empordà. A week to explore a large region such as Andalusia or Galicia without rushing.
Where is the weather good in winter?
In Andalusia, especially on the coast. The north is rainy and cool from November to March, though it has clear days and very few people.
Can I combine the north and the south in one trip?
Yes, but with a flight or a train in between. By car it is many hours: better to make two separate trips.
Are the motorways toll roads?
Most fast roads are free dual carriageways (autovías). Some toll motorways remain on certain stretches; the Catalan AP-7 and AP-2 have been free since 2021.