Walk through the Alhambra€26
A Moorish palace-fortress above Granada with carved stucco, still courtyards and water used as architecture. Ticket numbers are capped daily and sell out weeks ahead.
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Home › Destinations › Southern Europe › Spain
Southern Europe
Things to do in Spain
Sun-baked plazas, Moorish palaces, and a food culture built around eating late and eating well.
Explore Spain on the map →Budget$$
Best for10-14 days
CapitalMadrid
VisaVisa-free 90 days (Schengen) for US/UK/EU
CurrencyEuro (€)
LanguagesSpanish
InternetExcellent
Typical lodging$35–$95/night
Driving sideRight
Power & voltage230V / 50Hz (Type C/F plug)
Time zoneUTC+1
Emergency number112
Dialing code+34
★★★★★ Culture★★★★★ Food★★★★★ Nightlife
Visa rules and emergency numbers can change without notice. Confirm the specifics for your nationality and dates before you travel.
Travel smart
Tap water is safe to drink. 5–10% is appreciated, not required.
Eight centuries of Moorish rule left architecture, irrigation and words you'll still hear daily, and several regions speak their own language entirely. Add a national schedule where dinner starts at 10pm and nothing about Spain fits a generic European template.
When to go
SpringApril–May
Green countryside, wildflowers, comfortable cities. Seville's Feria and Easter processions fall here and fill the south.
SummerJune–August
Inland Andalusia regularly passes 40°C; the north coast stays mild and green. August sees much of the country on holiday at once.
Early autumnSeptember–October
Sea still warm, cities workable again, prices well below the August peak. Grape harvest across Rioja and Ribera.
WinterNovember–March
Mild in the south, cold and clear in Madrid, snow in the Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada. The Canaries stay swimmable throughout.
21 things to do
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Culture & history
5Stand inside the Mezquita of Córdoba
A forest of red-and-white arches from a 10th-century mosque, with a cathedral dropped into the middle of it in the 16th.
See the Prado's Velázquez and Goya rooms
Las Meninas and the Black Paintings in one building. Free entry in the last two hours of the day, if you don't mind company.
Sit close at a small flamenco show
A tablao with a few dozen seats, where you hear the breathing and the floor. Andalusia, Seville, Jerez, Granada, is where it lives.
See a city taken over by a festival
Las Fallas burns giant sculptures in Valencia each March; Pamplona runs bulls in July; Buñol throws tomatoes in August.
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Food & markets
4Eat pintxos bar to bar in San Sebastián
Basque bar snacks pinned to bread, taken standing, one or two per bar before moving on. The old town is built for exactly this.
Have paella where it comes from
Valencia's version uses rabbit, chicken and beans, not seafood, and is cooked over wood for lunch, never dinner.
Drink sherry in Jerez
Cellars of stacked barrels where the wine is blended across decades. Bone dry, served cold, and nothing like the sweet stuff exported for years.
Follow the harvest through Rioja
Villages between Logroño and Haro fill with pickers in autumn, and cellars range from centuries-old to Frank Gehry.
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Adventure & outdoors
3Walk a stretch of the Camino de Santiago
Pilgrim routes crossing northern Spain, walked for over a thousand years. Many people do the last 100km from Sarria, which qualifies for the certificate.
Hike the Picos de Europa
Limestone peaks an hour from the north coast, with cable cars, gorge walks and cheese caves. Greener and wetter than most people expect of Spain.
Walk the Caminito del Rey
A walkway bolted to a gorge wall a hundred metres above the river, rebuilt after decades as one of the world's most dangerous paths.
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Coast & water
4Surf or storm-watch the Atlantic north
Cantabria and the Basque coast get proper swell, green hills behind and seafood towns along the shore.
Island-hop the Balearics
Mallorca's mountains and coves, Menorca's quiet beaches, Ibiza's other side once you leave the clubs. Ferries link all three.
Swim in the Canaries in winter
Volcanic islands off Africa where the sea stays swimmable in January. Lanzarote's lava fields look like nowhere else in Europe.
Watch the sun set over Cádiz
The oldest continuously inhabited city in western Europe, on a spit of land with the Atlantic on three sides.
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Cities & design
2Watch Gaudí's Sagrada Família catch the light€26
Still unfinished after 140 years. Morning light comes through blue and green glass, afternoon through orange and red.
See Bilbao's Guggenheim and what it did to the city
Gehry's titanium curves turned a declining industrial port into an art destination, the most cited example of a building changing a city's fortunes.
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Slow days
3Sleep in a parador
State-run hotels inside castles, monasteries and convents. Often the most interesting building in town, at a normal hotel price.
Take a siesta seriously in summer
Shops shut, streets empty, and the country reappears at seven. Fighting it in 40°C heat is a losing battle.
Wander the white villages of Andalusia
Ronda's gorge bridge, Setenil built under a rock overhang, and dozens of others strung across the hills between Málaga and Cádiz.
Common questions
▾Is Spain safe to visit?
Yes. Spain is a safe, well-established destination with low rates of violent crime against tourists. Pickpocketing in busy areas of Barcelona and Madrid, particularly on the metro and around major sights, is the more common issue to guard against.
▾How much does it cost to visit Sagrada Familia and the Alhambra?
A standard Sagrada Familia ticket runs about €26, or €36 with tower access. The Alhambra in Granada caps daily visitor numbers and sells timed tickets around €19, which regularly sell out days or weeks ahead in peak season. Book well before you travel rather than assuming you can buy on arrival.
▾How many days do you need in Spain?
10-14 days lets you combine Madrid or Barcelona with a second region, like Andalusia's Alhambra and Seville, or the Basque Country. A one-week trip usually means focusing on a single city and a short side trip.
▾Do I need a visa for Spain?
US, UK, Canadian and most other Western passport holders can visit visa-free for up to 90 days within the Schengen Area. Longer stays or nationalities outside the visa-waiver list need a Schengen visa arranged in advance.
▾What's the best time to visit Spain?
April through June and September through October offer the most comfortable weather nationwide. Southern Spain, including Andalusia, gets genuinely hot in July and August, while the north and coastal areas stay more bearable through summer.
▾Is Spain expensive?
Spain is one of the better-value destinations in Western Europe: food, wine and accommodation cost noticeably less than in France or Italy for a similar standard, even in popular cities like Barcelona and Madrid.
