Barcelona · Madrid · Andalucía
Sagrada Família, the Alhambra, and everything in between.
Gaudí's Barcelona, Madrid's museums, the Moorish south and a coastline that runs out to the Canary Islands. The tours, tickets and day trips worth booking, in every corner of Spain.
Only in Spain
Gaudí, the Alhambra, flamenco. These don’t travel.
Beaches and old towns you will find all over the Mediterranean. A basilica still being raised to one man's drawings, a Moorish palace-city, and flamenco the way it was meant to be heard. Those only happen here. Build the trip around them.
In Barcelona
Gaudí's Barcelona
Antoni Gaudí spent his life turning one city into something no other has. The Sagrada Família still rising after 140 years, the bone-and-tile facade of Casa Batlló, the mosaic terraces of Park Güell. Modernisme was born on these streets and never left them.
- 1 Barcelona: Park Güell Admission Ticket
- 2 Barcelona: Casa Batlló Entry with Self-Audioguide Tour
- 3 Barcelona: Montjuïc Cable Car Roundtrip Ticket
In Granada
The Alhambra
The last and finest palace the Moors built in Europe, spread along a ridge above Granada. Carved stucco, still reflecting pools, the Nasrid halls and the water gardens of the Generalife. Eight centuries of al-Andalus, standing where they were raised.
- 1 Granada: Alhambra & Nasrid Palaces Tour with Tickets
- 2 Granada: Alhambra and Nasrid Palaces Entry Ticket
- 3 Granada: Alhambra & Generalife Fast-Track Guided Tour
After dark
Flamenco at the source
Half song, half dance, improvised on the night and impossible to fake. Flamenco grew out of the courtyards of Andalucía, and the tablaos of Seville, Granada and Madrid still keep the rooms small and the guitar close. The real thing only happens here.
- 1 Seville: Live Flamenco Dancing Show Ticket at the Theater
- 2 Seville: Casa de la Memoria Flamenco Show
- 3 Barcelona: Flamenco Show at the Theater
The Spanish coast
The other half of Spain is water.
Past the cathedrals and the tapas bars, the country runs out to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Sailing off the Costa Brava, dolphin boats on the Costa del Sol, catamarans around Mallorca, whales off Tenerife. Most of Spain has a coast, and most of the coast has a boat leaving this afternoon.
The boat trips and cruises →Where to start
The one ticket to book before you fly.
Spain's headline sights sell out days ahead in high season. This is the one most travellers reserve first.
The big ones
Spain's Most Popular Tours & Tickets
The Sagrada Família, the Prado, the Alhambra, the Alcázar. The sights most travellers come to Spain for.
By city
Start with a city.
Barcelona for Gaudí and the beach. Madrid for the museums. Seville for flamenco and the Alcázar. Granada for the Alhambra. Málaga for the coast.
By experience
Or pick how you want to spend it.
A boat if you want the coast. A tablao if you want flamenco. Wine country, skip-the-line museums, dolphin trips, tapas crawls and long lunches, and the rest.
Where to go
Which part of Spain?
Most first trips pick one and go deep. The Modernista northeast, the museums and plains of the centre, or the Moorish south. Here is what each one is for.
Andalucía
The Moorish south.
Eight centuries of al-Andalus left the south its own country within Spain. The Alhambra above Granada, the Alcázar and the Giralda in Seville, the red-and-white arches of Córdoba's Mezquita. Whitewashed hill towns, horses and flamenco fill the roads between them, and the heat sits late into the night.
- 1 Caminito del Rey Guided Tour & Welcome Pack from Málaga
- 2 Seville: Alcázar, Cathedral & Giralda Skip-the-Line Tour
- 3 Málaga: Museo Picasso Málaga Entry Ticket
At the table
The long Spanish lunch.
Tapas crawls through the old towns, the wine country of Rioja and Penedès, sherry in Jerez, paella on the Valencia sand. Three to book a hungry afternoon around.
Off the mainland
The islands.
Volcanic Tenerife and Lanzarote out near Africa, Mallorca and the Balearics off the east coast. Beaches, boat trips and whale-watching, warm almost all year. Three island days worth building a week around.
Skip the queue
Palaces, museums and cathedrals.
The Prado and the Reina Sofía, the Alcázar and the Mezquita, cathedrals you climb for the view. The lines are long and the tickets time-slotted, so these are three worth booking ahead.
First trip to Spain?
Three ways to spend a week.
However long you have, Spain rewards picking a lane. A city, the Moorish south, or the coast and the islands.
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