Spain Travel Guide
Tourist Attractions

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Walking Tours -Spain

Spain Tourist Attractions Guide:
***Madrid. Not a good place to drive to, too hot in the summer and too cold in winter, but otherwise a baroquely magnificent, hard-partying capital. Watch your pockets.

***Barcelona. Not as grand as Madrid but just as lively, with a better climate, a good beach, excellent cuisine and spectacular Gaudi architecture. Pick-pocket capital of Spain?

*** Seville, Granada, Cordoba and Malaga [Andalusia], truly the heart of Spain, with all the heat, Moorish structures, flamenco and festivals you ever dreamed of. Superb beaches in the south too when culture overload kicks in.

**Toledo. This stunning medieval city - home to El Greco and an easy ride from Madrid - is packed with castles, churches and tourists. Stay the night, mid-week if possible, and enjoy it early/late.

**San Sebastian and the [north] Basque country. Less 'Spain' and more rain than the south, so less moronic beer/beach louts, San Sebastian is a pretty, relaxed resort town with a superb beach and matching cuisine. And not far away recently transformed Bilbao is now a Guggenheim-led culture centre while Pamplona is definitely bullish.

***Cuenca, halfway from Madrid to the Mediterranean, is a medieval World Heritage Site in a stunning location on a precipitous ridge teetering between two gorges. The rustic region is heaving with castles, while the town offers gothic churches and hanging houses - hanging over the Huecar Gorge.

**Valencia. A large city surrounded by farmland, Valencia offers a warm coastal climate, an interesting old city centre, a superb baroque palace, some excellent museums and the amazing new City of Arts and Sciences. A few kms east are OK beaches and the dunes of La Albufera lagoon, while 30km away is the tomato madness of Buñol. Ferries go to the Balearic islands from here.

*Gibraltar, hmm. Well it's certainly an oddity, a little piece of England surrounded by foreigners. Everything focuses on the Rock - up, down, inside, outside. Not Bugbog's cup of tea, but boats go to Morocco if you fancy mint tea instead and there's superb wind surfing nearby at Tarifa.

***The Beaches. Often superb, but there are few accessible beaches between France and Gibraltar that are not riddled with high rises and low culture sand addicts from north Europe.
The Costa Brava up north has some pretty little towns and excellent beaches but cooler winter weather, while the Costa del Sol in the south gets the most sunshine and most foreigners - many of them residents with no interest in local culture.

**Balearic islands [Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Formentera]. Great beaches, constant sunshine and wild nights are not all the Balearics have to offer. With package tourists clustered in varied enclaves it is easy enough to escape to traditional little towns, isolated beaches and high peaks.
Mallorca offers most variety, ranging from the grand buildings of Palma, through the old town to superb beaches and the mountains of Tramuntana.
Menorca is relatively undeveloped, with plenty of lovely old buildings, quiet beaches and even prehistoric remains.
Ibiza is party central, but quiet little alleys, city walls and wooded hills still give refuge to those of a quieter disposition.
Formentera's undeveloped flat beauty and unspoiled beaches are accessible by ferry from Ibiza.

The Canary Islands, way south off the coast of Morocco are primarily a winter sun package destination.
Gran Canaria is the biggest island, with mini-mountains, forests, dunes, the pretty colonial town of Las Palmas, and two mega beach resorts in the south.
Lanzarote is flat and dry with a volcanically bizarre landscape and fine beaches, while Fuerteventura is relatively undeveloped, with over 150 uncrowded beaches and more goats than inhabitants.
Tenerife has the most variety and action, including a wild Carnival before Easter, a volcano, good water sports and lots of night life but unattractive black sand beaches.
For excellent walking with some wildlife viewing try the quieter islands of La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.

Safety:
Violent crime is rare, but pickpockets and bag snatchers may take advantage of carelessness.

Language:
Spanish is just about the easiest common language. Learn a few words...You already know 'Hasta la vista [baby]!'

Jellyfish:
In late summer 2006 much of the Mediterranean - from Spain's Costa del Sol thru France's south coast and down Italy as far as Sicily - suffered from jellyfish invasion, specifically the mauve stinger or Pelagia noctiluca [so called because they glow at night]. The stings are painful and unpleasant but not generally life-threatening, unless a swimmer has a weak heart, a sever allergic reaction or panics on encountering a shoal of blobbies and drowns...
The cause of the stinger explosion is the usual suspect - global warming boosting water temperatures by a couple of degrees as well as increased pollution-derived nutrients and reduced cool freshwater entering from rivers. However, overfishing of anchovies [which compete with jellies for plankton salad], turtles and tuna fish [which eat jellies for dessert] has also aided the mauve climate avenger's expansionist tendencies.
What's being done?
Spain is organising fleets of volunteer blob-spotters and scooper boats to take the flabby boogers far out to sea while France is setting up 2 metre deep stinger nets off major resorts.
Italian authorities are taking no action.

And if you're in the vicinity you may care to visit the neighbours:

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