Guided travel tours in Spain come with spellbinding memories, whether it’s a bustling city, serene forest, mountain peak or epic coastline. There’s something for us all, from fairytale castles to world-class shopping, splendid art to unique architecture, endless gorgeous beaches and a chequered and sometimes violent history.
This is our introduction to the magic of Spain, as far south as you can get in Europe without falling off the edge, sizzling hot in summertime and balmy the rest of the year. We’ll recommend three outstanding places to see in this stunning country, a place where myriad cultural influences have blended to create something unusually complex and fascinating.
The food and drink is legendary, too. This is where food means more than just food. It means love, friendship, community and a warm welcome. Foodies feel at home in the country’s brilliant tapas bars and restaurants. Then there’s the wine, fresh from Spain itself and Portugal next door. Let’s dive in.
Inspiring off the beaten track destinations in Spain
Spain is rich in stone castles, perfect sands, warm seas, unbelievable food and hot nightlife. With everything from flat, dusty hot plains to snow-capped mountains and big, sophisticated cities, it’s also a place of contrasts.
The heartland is called the Meseta, a wide central flat plateau that sits half a mile above sea level. This is where cattle rule the landscape and the nation’s grain is grown, where’s where Don Quixote tilted at the windmills that still wave their wooden arms above the land. This place is less-explored than Spain’s famously lovely coastal resorts and comes with an unusual beauty and exciting culture of its own.
Head for the mighty valley of the Ebro River in the north east and continue the drama onwards into the mountains of craggy Catalonia, then swoop across the lumpy Valencia plain. The vivid Cantabrian Mountains lie to the north west of Spain, damp and fertile, studded with deep, secret forests packed with wildlife.
Turn southwards for citrus orchards dotting the valley where the Guadalquivir River winds slowly towards to sea, a place so gorgeous it appears in poems by Lorca and Machado, showcased by the vast snowy Sierra Nevada towering above. The further south you go the more it feels like desert, but then again you’re not far from Africa at this stage. During the ‘60s-70s Spaghetti Westerns were filmed here, starring all the old Hollywood greats.
The south eastern Mediterranean coast and the Balearic Islands offer year-round warm weather complete with exotic palm trees and tropical vegetation. Ibiza is the world’s party island, where superstar DJs do their thing and shoppers and revellers pack the winding streets of ancient Ibiza town.
Internal Spain is a place of forbidding castles, aqueducts, and ancient ruins set against a contemporary vibe you’ll love. City-wise, Seville is a particularly popular destination for music lovers and Barcelona is perfect for architecture fans and shoppers. The capital, Madrid, is a feast of winding streets, museums, bookshops and boutiques, squares and palaces, populated by beautiful people and offering a 24/7 lifestyle.
3 unusual Spanish holiday destinations for guided travel
Here are three highly recommended Spanish holiday destinations to inspire you: The Alhambra Palace, Costa Verde, and the Pyrenees mountains.
Astonishing Alhambra palace
The Alhambra Palace of the Moorish monarchs of Granada, built between 1238 and 1358, towers over Granada on a high plateau. The remaining parts of the Alhambra reveal what it must have been like in its heyday, an astonishing piece of architecture dominating the landscape and visible from miles around.
You’ll experience a series of rooms and gardens clustered around three main courtyards, full of tinkling fountains and rushing water. They’re fabulous in themselves, but the decor is the star of the show here. Every single surface is ornate, every design is different, and magical stalactite work sits at the heart of it all. The vividly colourful ceramic tiles, carvings and calligraphy make this place extraordinary.
The Alhambra was built during the reign of Ibn al-Aḥmar, the founder of the Naṣrid dynasty, and carried on by his family. The interior decorations were created by Yūsuf I, who died in 1354. Once the invader Moors were thrown out of Spain in 1492, a lot of the original interiors were destroyed along with the magnificent furniture.
Rebuilt and renovated by Charles I of Spain in the 1500s, some of the newer parts are Renaissance style. He even demolished some of the old palace to build a trendy Italianate replacement. The French blew some of it to kingdom come during the 1812 Peninsular War of Independence and more damage was caused by an earthquake in 1821.
By 1828 it was being restored once more, and restoration work carried on under various people’s supervision until the 21st century. Now the Alhambra Palace sits peacefully in its naturally beautiful setting overlooking the Albayzin quarter of the old city. The Darro River flows past along its deep ravine to the north. And the park planted by the old Moors remains, a magical place with scented roses, oranges, myrtle trees and an entire wood of English elm trees, a strange sight planted here in 1812 by the Duke of Wellington.
Spain’s Green Coast – The Costa Verde
The Costa Verde or Green Coast is a stunning region on the Cantabria Sea. This is Spain’s northerly coast, hence the green. A lush coastal strip running north from Cantabria, alongside the Bay of Biscay and covering Asturias, Cantabria itself, and the Basque country from Galicia to the border with France. The highlight of an adventure into northern Spain, this is a rugged place perfect for nature lovers, ideal for hikers, and a break from the madding crowds.
Deserted sandy beaches, massive forested national parks, soaring mountains and biosphere reserves are the name of the game here, a place where monuments to the ancient Kingdom of Asturias dot the landscape. It even has a language of its own called Asturiano, but the locals also speak Spanish.
220 miles of coastline are yours to explore, with white sands and secret coves, dizzying rocky gorges and quaint fishing villages. Discover Playa Xago for a beach you’ll remember, or find your way to wild, remote Cobijeru Beach. In fact ‘remote’ is the name of the game here, a far cry from the fleshpots and party life on the popular package holiday costas.
Inland there’s the snow capped Picos de Europa to explore, set within landscapes to die for packed with drama and the ultimate in Instagrammable imagery. No wonder the world’s walkers flock here to see it up close and personal. Bears live here, as do wolves, and the area’s famed dinosaur footprints reveal its ancient Jurassic past as clear as a bell.
Gijon is a fishing village dating back 3000 years, the region’s maritime capital and as vibrant and funky as any thriving port. There’s money here, and it shows. Aviles on the Cantabria coast is a tourist haven and the centre of town is a UNESCO Historical-Artistic site. Then there’s Llanes to the east, another of more than 70 towns and villages to explore, every one different.
The hearty regional home cooking will delight you, lots of rich bean stews, sausages and pork dishes, and local blue cheese made using fresh milk from the Picos de Europa Mountains. Bearing in mind the geography, the weather on the Costa Verde is as varied as it is in the UK and often wet, but that’s part of the adventure. It gets warmer and drier the nearer you get to the sea.
The mighty Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a proper mountain range, no messing about, studded with passes that are often only navigable in the summer. In winter they’re snowed solid, impossible to get through.
Flat-topped mountains stretch from the Mediterranean in the east to the Bay of Biscay and Atlantic Ocean to the west. A total of 270 miles long the range is only six miles wide at the east, growing to 80 miles wide in the middle part. It peters out into the Cantabrian Mountains on the north east coast.
To either side of the range there are broad valleys, the Aquitaine and Languedoc to the north and the Ebro to the south. They’re fed by France’s Garonne river as well as the Ebro’s tributaries. This is where the Andorran, Catalan, Béarnais, and Basque people live, each with their own dialect. The Basques are probably the best known. Their unique language is actually non-Indo-European, hinting at a long and complex past not involving Europe and unlike any other language, anywhere in the world.
The mountains offer their own wines, vegetables and fruits thanks to abundant rainfall. Sheep and cows are raised here on low-lying pastures in winter, taken high up in the mountains for summer. And the livestock are still driven, as they always have been, from the Pyrenees across the Ebro plains to distant Languedoc and Aquitaine.
Guided Spanish travel adventures to get you going
Wherever you choose to go on your Spanish guided travel adventures, we have some great trips, days out and experiences for you to enjoy. See what’s available, and make sure to pre-book so you don’t miss out. !Esperamos que lo pases genial en España!
Follow Us