The decision to build the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was, by any measure, audacious. Spend hundreds of millions on a contemporary art museum in a declining industrial city that most Europeans couldn’t locate on a map? The opposition was fierce and entirely reasonable. Why not spend that money on schools, …
Bilbao has pulled off one of Europe’s most impressive reinventions, and I’ve watched it happen over three decades of visits to the Basque Country. Back in the early ’90s, this was a gritty industrial city that most visitors bypassed entirely on their way to San Sebastián’s beaches or the wine …
So you’ve just landed at what your boarding pass called “Barcelona” airport, you’re feeling pleased with yourself for finding that cheap Ryanair fare, and then you glance at the signs. Girona-Costa Brava Airport. Girona? Hang on, where’s Barcelona? Welcome to one of budget aviation’s most persistent sources of confusion. You’re …
Girona is the sort of city that catches people off guard. Most visitors arrive on a day trip from Barcelona, planning to tick off the cathedral and those photogenic colourful houses along the river before heading back. Then they find themselves lingering far longer than intended, pulled in by medieval …
Alicante is one of those Mediterranean cities that punches well above its weight. For years it played second fiddle to the package holiday resorts dotting the Costa Blanca, dismissed as just another beach town with an airport. But anyone who’s actually spent time here knows better. Perched beneath the towering …
Toledo is one of those places that sounds almost too good to be true. Medieval walls encircling a hilltop city? Tick. Gothic cathedrals sitting alongside ancient mosques and synagogues? Tick. All of it perched dramatically above the Tagus River, just half an hour from Madrid by train? Absolutely. They call …
Forget everything you thought you knew about Málaga. This isn’t just a jumping-off point for Costa del Sol beach resorts anymore – it’s transformed into one of Spain’s most exciting cities and honestly, it deserves way more attention than it gets. Once just the gateway to Andalucía’s beaches, Málaga now …
Toledo was the former capital of medieval Spain until 1560 and to this day remains one of the country’s greatest cities where the Jewish, Moorish and Christian cultures once lived together in relative harmony. The city lies just 70km south-west of the capital and a Madrid to Toledo day trip …
Standing atop a rocky crag just 92 kilometres north-west of Madrid lies Segovia, a treasure trove of Spanish history which remains remarkably preserved despite the passage of centuries. This UNESCO World Heritage gem may be home to only 50,000 people, but it punches well above its weight in cultural significance …