Spain itinerary, day by day

Gaudí marked the Catalan capital more than any king did: the Sagrada Família, begun in 1882 and still unfinished, and Park Güell on the hill above. Below it, the Gothic quarter, the Ramblas and a city beach.

• Sagrada Família, skip the line1h30 · from €35

  Gaudí's basilica, under construction since 1882 and still short of its central tower. The queue at the door is long; the light through the coloured glass is why you go in.

  Book on GetYourGuide →
• Park Güell and Gaudí, guided3h · from €45

  The mosaic bench, the crooked colonnades, and a park that was meant to be a housing estate. A guide explains why nobody bought a plot.

  Book on GetYourGuide →

A capital that stays up late, with three great collections within ten minutes of each other: the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen. Tapas and night life fill in the rest.

• The Prado, guided2h · from €30

  Velázquez, Goya and Bosch in two hours, with someone to say which rooms to skip and which to stand still in.

  Book on GetYourGuide →
• Tapas tour in La Latina3h · from €55

  Four or five bars in an evening, one plate at each, in the oldest drinking quarter of Madrid.

  Book on GetYourGuide →

Gaudí marked the Catalan capital more than any king did: the Sagrada Família, begun in 1882 and still unfinished, and Park Güell on the hill above. Below it, the Gothic quarter, the Ramblas and a city beach.

• Sagrada Família, skip the line1h30 · from €35

  Gaudí's basilica, under construction since 1882 and still short of its central tower. The queue at the door is long; the light through the coloured glass is why you go in.

  Book on GetYourGuide →
• Park Güell and Gaudí, guided3h · from €45

  The mosaic bench, the crooked colonnades, and a park that was meant to be a housing estate. A guide explains why nobody bought a plot.

  Book on GetYourGuide →

Where paella was invented, and where a medieval old town sits beside the white curves of the City of Arts and Sciences. After the 1957 flood the river was diverted, and its old bed is now a park nine kilometres long.

• The City of Arts and SciencesHalf day · from €38

  Calatrava built it in the dry riverbed: a science museum, an aquarium and an opera house under one set of white shells.

  Book on GetYourGuide →
• Paella workshop3h · from €55

  Valencia invented the dish, and here you cook it over a wide flat pan, rabbit and beans included, then eat it at midday as everyone else does.

  Book on GetYourGuide →

A capital that stays up late, with three great collections within ten minutes of each other: the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen. Tapas and night life fill in the rest.

• The Prado, guided2h · from €30

  Velázquez, Goya and Bosch in two hours, with someone to say which rooms to skip and which to stand still in.

  Book on GetYourGuide →
• Tapas tour in La Latina3h · from €55

  Four or five bars in an evening, one plate at each, in the oldest drinking quarter of Madrid.

  Book on GetYourGuide →

The Andalusian capital, Moorish in its bones and the home ground of flamenco. The Giralda was a minaret before it became a bell tower, and the Alcázar is still a working royal palace.

• The Alcázar, skip the line2h · from €25

  A Mudéjar palace built for Christian kings by Moorish craftsmen, and still used by the royal family. Its gardens take a morning on their own.

  Book on GetYourGuide →
• A flamenco performance1h30 · from €30

  A small room, a guitar, a singer and a dancer, in the city where the form took shape.

  Book on GetYourGuide →

The last Moorish kingdom in Spain, held until 1492. The Nasrid Alhambra looks down on the city, and the Sierra Nevada looks down on both.

• Alhambra and Generalife, skip the line3h · from €40

  The Nasrid palaces, their carved stucco and their water gardens. Tickets sell out weeks ahead, which is what you are really buying.

  Book on GetYourGuide →
• Flamenco in the Sacromonte caves1h30 · from €30

  Danced in the whitewashed cave houses of the old Roma quarter, close enough to feel the floor move.

  Book on GetYourGuide →