Spain Travel Guide

Four regions done at a comfortable pace, not the whole country — Madrid, Andalusia, Barcelona and one more chapter (the Basque Country or the islands, depending on season). Spain rewards depth over sampling: the AVE rail network makes hopping between cities easy, but a trip that also tries to fit in the Camino de Santiago or both island groups spends its days travelling rather than arriving. Two weeks covers the classic core comfortably; treat anything beyond that as a genuinely separate trip.

Madrid and Andalusia together form the classic first Spain trip — Madrid for the museum density and royal heritage, Andalusia for the Alhambra, the Mezquita and Seville's flamenco, all reachable from each other by AVE. Barcelona is an equally strong alternative if Gaudí's architecture is the bigger draw. Spain's regions genuinely don't resemble each other — Catalonia, the Basque Country and Andalusia each carry a distinct culture and, in Catalonia and the Basque Country's case, their own co-official language — so picking one register rather than trying to sample all of them in one trip is the honest approach.

Castilian Spanish is the official language nationwide, with Catalan, Galician, Basque and Valencian co-official in their respective regions. English coverage varies considerably — reliable in Madrid, Barcelona and major tourist areas, patchier in smaller towns and rural Spain. Learning a handful of basic Spanish phrases goes a long way, particularly outside the big cities, but a trip built around the major sights and cities is manageable without it.

For a city-and-day-trip itinerary, the AVE and regional Cercanías trains cover Spain's highlights well without a car — driving in city centres is largely more hassle than it's worth given traffic, tolls and difficult parking. A rental car becomes genuinely useful for rural regions, wine country, or itineraries built around small towns the rail network doesn't reach; an International Driving Permit alongside your home licence is worth carrying if you do rent.

Spring and autumn for city-heavy itineraries — July and August bring genuinely punishing heat to the interior and south, with Seville and Córdoba regularly passing 40°C, while the coasts and islands stay comfortable precisely because the sea moderates the heat. The other planning factor is the festival calendar: Easter's Semana Santa processions, Seville's Feria de Abril and Pamplona's San Fermín draw enormous domestic crowds and inflate accommodation prices for days around them — worth planning around deliberately, whether to join in or to avoid.

Spain runs later than most of Europe, and fighting that rhythm is the single most common source of visitor frustration. Lunch typically falls between two and four in the afternoon, dinner rarely starts before nine, and many smaller shops close for a few hours in the early-to-mid-afternoon — treat that lull as a built-in break rather than an obstacle. Booking dinner reservations for nine-thirty or later, rather than hunting for somewhere serving at seven, is the single habit that makes the whole trip run smoother.